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This is a tournament with a good deal of play. Hour long blind levels, low starting blinds compared to starting stacks (25/50 with a 
starting stack of 3,000). The early going will be all about patience and waiting for big hands. You want to play A-B-C poker here, 
the pots are to small to pull out crazy bluffs or to get all in pre flop unless you have a really good reason (Examples below). 
Your main goal at this point is establishing a table image of a tight, conservative player. Anyone who plays few hands over the course 
of 4-5 hours will be pegged as being tight by the rest of the table, and that's what we want, we want people to have respect for when 
you decide to make a play, we want people concerned that you have the goods. While it's nice to get paid off, unless your opponent 
is drawing stone dead there is always a chance they could draw out on you and end your tournament, if they fold, you win and that's that, 
so don't mind the folds so much.

While you're building a table image, you need to have a table image for everyone else at the table. How would you play a hand against 
the guy in seat 1 is different then how you would play it then you would against the guy in seat 5.

Here's a simple puzzle to work out, let's say somebody raises, and then somebody else re-raises. Make a decision in your mind about 
how big a hand would you fold to that re-raise. This would give you an idea of how you feel about your opponent. Let's say you haven't
seen the guy in the 6 seat do anything for a long time. Someone who you view as being average in the 'loose-tight' spectrum raises to 300, 
and suddenly this guy re-raises to 1200. This is so out of character for this player that you think to yourself that you wouldn't play AK 
against him, you would definately fold tens, you would likely fold jacks, even Queens wouldn't make you happy in this spot. You would be 
stuck if you had Kings, cause it's so hard to fold Kings and be right. This is about as tight as you can rate a player.

Now let's say the same thing happens, but it's a crazy loose player who makes the re-raise. You might push all-in over the top of him 
because he's so full of crap and he's put so much money out there you just feel the need to go after him. You would assuredly push all in 
with AK, likely AQ and have to think about AJ. You could call or push with Tens, and would push with Jacks or better. This is a very 
loose player, You need to put everyone at the table on such a range. They'll be doing it to you.

Odds are over the first 6 hours you'll get yourself into a big pot or two, hopefully you'll come out on the good end of it and now we finally 
get to the antes. Once the antes hit the pots get bigger, and the cost of poker nearly doubles, at a 10 handed table you'll go from paying 300 
every ten hands to 550 every ten hands. Pre flop raises should be bigger, because there's a good deal more money out there to win and you 
have to go get it. This is when you should start loosening up a little bit and trying to steal pots, if you're in late position (close to the dealer 
on his right, or the dealer yourself) and everyone folds to you, you should open with a raise about half the time, no matter what your cards are,
if the table is playing tight and folding to this, do it more often, every successful steal is another 550 in free chips added to your stack, and even 
better, you could pull this stunt with rags, get called, and flop a well hidden monster. You raise with 8-6 offsuit and get called and the flop 
comes down 7-5-4 and the poor guy with pocket tens is over a barrel.

Lastly, you have to go out on a limb sometimes to catch that big hand, because the reward for breaking somebody is worth the risk or 
chasing an unlikely draw. Here's a real hand I played in the 9000 person weekly 22 dollar event on full tilt poker last Sunday.

I have QTs and I'm 2 away from the dealer, blinds are 30/60 and I have 2800 in front of me. 2 players call ahead of me, I call, everyone up 
to the big blind folds and the BB checks, flop comes out J84 2 hearts. Now I don't have the flush draw which is bad, but a 9 does give me the 
nut straight, chasing gutshots is normally horrible, so odds are I'd fold this hand if any big bet came out.The BB checks, the first player leads out 
for 30 into a pot of 270, and the second player just calls. Now I have some interest, the pot is now 330 and it's only costing me 30 to see the turn,
plus both my opponents have over 3,000 chips, if a 9 should so happen to be nice enough to jump out of the deck for me, this could be very 
profitable. I call and the BB folds.

A black 9 jumps out of the deck on command, I now have the mortal nuts. The first player bets 195, again, this is a small bet compared to the size 
of the pot, the second player calls. Now this very interesting, I have to assume one of them has a flush draw at this point, and I have to make it costly 
for them to stay in to hit that heart on me. I make it 975 to go. The first player just calls, and then the second player moves all in for 1500 more.

Now this is crazy, I have the nuts, what can I be up against here? Sets? Flush draws with pairs? Somebody else who played QT? (The Ultimate 
nightmare would be to find out I'm up against QT of hearts and I can't win the hand and can only lose it) but I have the nuts, I have to get my money in.
In the face of all these fireworks, the first player, calls both our all ins.

Player 1 had AJ for top pair and nothing else, and Player 2 had pocket Aces that he didn't raise with before the flop or on the flop, he was trying 
to trap with his aces and then when his hand became a loser, he got all his money in drawing stone dead. The hand was over on the turn and I had all their money.

The funny thing is, the river both paired the board and was a heart, the hands they *should* have had all would have beaten me with that card, 
but thankfully they had the hands they did. Let this be lesson #1,000,000 about why you can't slow play aces, they are to hard to fold and get you 
busted out of tournaments when you end up calling huge raises when the Aces can not be good unless your opponent is on a pure bluff.

A quick review of the from the point of view of the guy with Aces. He plays them soft on the flop and tthe turn, but then suddenly I raise huge, 
this has to be a warning sign, what hands just call pre flop, just call on the flop, then big raise the turn? I could very easy have a set of 8's or 4's here 
and was just waiting to see if a heart came on the turn before I decided to make my move. I could have the QT I did have and am now betting my 
made straight. What other hands logically fit my play here. Try to come up with a hand that fits my play and loses to pocket aces, I can't come up 
with anything other then a pure bluff.

Next week: Part 3, Chaos Theory and Big Pots. 
 
 

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