My approach to playing poker tournaments has always been conservative. I play in my favorite real money games. If I win, I invest in up to three one-table satellites for the main tournament. If I win a one-table satellite, then I play in the main event. This approach has kept my net overall cost for playing tournaments to a minimum.
Using this approach, I won a seat to the $500 buy-in seven-card stud event in Amarillo Slim's Tournament at Caesar's Palace. I decided to take a very conservative approach and only enter pots if I felt that I had the best hand at the table. I would do very little bluffing. As the tournament began, I doggedly stuck to my plan, even though I had few good hands. My chip count remained low and I was always close to going broke. I went all-in for the first time about three hours into the tournament. I won the pot and remained alive. Over the next ten hours, I went all-in nine more times. Amazingly, I won the pot each time. Finally, we were down to the final eight players. Sticking to the approach that had gotten me to this point, I continued playing only the best hands. Twice more I won all-in pots as four more players were eliminated.
The good news was the prize money breakdown was $60,000 for first place, $30,000 for second place, $15,000 for third, and $7,000 for fourth. The bad news was I had enough chips for antes in only three more hands. Then a strange but profitable thing happened. On the next hand, the player with over 60 percent of the chips raised on the first round of betting. One other player and I folded. The remaining player pondered whether to call or not.
She was also low on chips, having only three or four times what I had. The normal approach would have been for her to avoid playing a hand till I went broke, thus securing third place. However, not wanting to fold, she asked me," Do you want to save $4,000 if one of us finishes fourth?" I quickly said yes. This meant that if she or I finished in fourth place, the other person would give them an additional $4,000.
She then played out the hand, going all in and losing. Two hands later I went all in for the thirteenth time and finally lost. I collected my $15,000, gave the fourth place lady $4,000 and secured an extra $4,000 for myself. The next year, using the same conservative approach, I finished fourth in the same tournament to go back-to-back at Amarillo Slim's.
Always Ask First-You never know what another person wants unless you ask them. I had learned this many times in business.
This approach can also pay dividends at the poker table. In a one-table satellite one evening I found myself heads-up against a player who had been playing and running very well. I asked him if he was interested in making a deal. He had a little over 60 percent of the chips. He said that he had been in town for a convention and was leaving the next morning. Since he could not play in a tournament even if he won the satellite and was impressed with my play, he suggested I "play the tournament and we split any winnings 50-50." I agreed and took his name and phone number in case I won. I lost the next day, but enjoyed the shot at winning that I probably would not have had without the satellite deal.
Congratulations-To Jerry Yang on winning the WSOP Main Event and to Phil Hellmuth on winning his record-setting eleventh WSOP title.
