How to win without cards

In my last post I talked about how interesting the Wednesday night game has become. Once again I decided to try and see if I could push some people around. Especially since the most aggressive player, Craig, was not there. I quickly went from 4000 chips at the start to 2000 in the first level.

So I changed gears and tried to play patient poker. That wasn't working very well either as every other hand I was dealt had a 2 in it. K-2, 7-2, J-2 it was exasperating.

After the blinds went up to 100-200, everyone tightened up way too much. Since I had under 2000 in chips, my only move as all in. Every time I moved all in, they folded. Even when I crept over 2000 and would just raise to 500-600 preflop they folded. Mind you I did not have very good hands. Most of the time they were 8-9 suited, Ace-Jack, or King-Queen type hands.

Finally on the big blind I checked my option. The flop gave me an open end straight draw. Devin underbet the pot and I just called. The turn gave me the straight. Devin bet a little bigger and I smooth called because there was another player in the pot and I wanted his money too. There were not any flush draws out there so I felt pretty confident in slow playing. The river was a brick and Devin checked. I value bet hoping to get both callers, but only Devin called. Devin had two pair, so I may have been able to extract a little more out of him, but I basically doubled up on that pot and climbed above 4000 again.

Now that I had chips, I could bully. I raised preflop occasionally to pick up the blinds. If a pot was abandoned, I bet at it. I was virtually never called.

Eventually the blinds were so big that Greg had to go all in and I busted him when I flopped top pair. It was down to me and Devin and I had a huge chip lead. I basically gave him 2nd place money and I took first place money. Devin also agreed to buy the beer so I definitely got the better of that deal.

It was really one of the rare occasions where I won the tournament without having an abundance of good hands. I won 90% of my pots by the other players folding.