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A SLOW PLAY TALE
One of the worst multi-table tournaments I have participated in had one player who constantly ran up to the last few seconds of their available time on every turn. Initially it appeared like they were inattentive, or playing another game online simultaneously. Literally every time it came to their turn, they would stall until the count down. Before long, other players started out chitchatting about the slow play. Name calling began. One player proposed taking aggressive action versus this player en bloc, merely because of the shared aggravation. Which is exactly what happened. At one point, one player bet aggressively against Mr. Slow Play and went all in and lost.
Who won the tournament? Mr. Slow Play. What a simple yet effective strategy.
He rattled nearly all of the other players with his slow determined tempo. He went right down to the last few seconds on the clock dozens of times. The more the other players complained, the more he paused. Because he was slow on every play, it was very hard to interpret his real playing style. He was consistent. And what counted more was that he also got a lot of attention. When he brought home the bacon, no one overlooked it. He managed to master the table in some respects. Table control is clearly a goal of the consistent winner.
The Shark Player will have 80 hands in their play list (check the upcoming chart) knowing that they are good hands if the flop is good flop, that your opponents will generally discount the likelihood you'll be holding them, and that they will have the will to fold on as many rounds as it takes when the flop doesn’t go in their favor.
As a solid cardshark, with these cards, the real trick is getting the right flop cards. Based on using the Shark play list you would on the average, take part in about 1/3rd of all pots at your table. The real amount will fall in the range of 25% to 33% dependant on the overall table aggression and overall VP$IP (Voluntarily put dollars in the pot) number.
Once again, your only goal is to win, so please stand back from very tight tables because no matter how well you play, only the house gains when everybody is equally skillful.
Authors Sklansky and Malmuth (S&M) have authored one of the most best-selling poker books up to now called Hold'em for Advanced Players. Our pre-flop recommendations differ in numerous ways. S&M has always advised raising with your strongest hands and limping (calling) with your weakest. But this a stellar error in tighter games, because your strongest hands are valuable very much more than the blinds, whilst your weakest hands are worth much less than the blinds. Folding is the most advisable option.Period.
Likewise, S&M proposes not raising with hands like KT after many loose limpers. The latest research nonetheless shows you should usually raise since your hand is probable to be best and will win more than your average portion of pots (although usually not so much money). S&M's argumentation is that fish will call correctly with gutshots (drawing one card to a straight) and pairs on the flop if you raise preflop, and you will suck more players into the pot. Raising will not greatly reduce your chance of your winning the pot, so if you will win more than your fair share of pots, you should loosely raise.
Statistics from a number of online casinos have uncovered some other S&M myth - that you should raise with baby pairs like 33 even if you know the blinds will call. The likeliness are that you will flop a set more then 1 in 8 times but you will win the pot fewer than 1 in 8 times. Because you will take home the pot less than your fair share, hence you should not raise.
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