Successful MTT pro shares his strategies on espn

[Patcho]

MTT advice from a “pro”


After reading Bernard Lee’s espn articles about his WSOP I felt the need to document the infinite wisdom that he leaves us with on how to get deep in a MTT. Please note that this guy consistantly gets deep in MTT's at Foxwoods and I am just a small timer who cannot for the life of me accumulate chips ever. After reading this I can see what I've been doing wrong.

Part 1. – Getting through day 1.

Bernard starts off by telling us. “Thankfully, I got off to a nice start. In the first 30 minutes, I won six of my first eight hands”

Giving only this example. “Sitting in middle position, I limped with 6s-6h. Unfortunately, the player to my immediate left raised to $400. After the big blind called, I decided to complete the bet and see a three-handed flop.

And what an interesting flop it was: 7c-6c-2c.

After the big blind checked, I contemplated what to do with my set of sixes versus the potential flush draw. As I stacked my chips, I noticed that the raiser took another quick peek at his cards. Hmmm … with this subtle glance, I put him on a big overpair: aces or kings with the corresponding club for a flush draw. Thus, deciding to be in the hand unless another club hit the board, I led out with $1,400. Not surprisingly, he raised to $3,400. This raise only strengthened my read and I quickly made the call. The dealer flipped over the Qh on the turn. After I checked, the raiser continued his betting by throwing out $2,000 more chips. Once again, I called his bet. However, the river card worried me: Ah. Now, if my read was right, he could have caught a set of aces. After I checked, he thankfully followed suit, showing Ks-Kc. My set of sixes held up, and I took down a nice-sized pot for Level 1.

So to recap. It is very important to flop a set when you limp/call a raise with pp out of position. When you do flop your set and the board is all of one suit AND you think your opponent has AA or KK with the NFD you should smooth call a 2k bet on the turn when the pot has 8k in it. That way, if the flush hits you can fold but you’ll still just check the Ace river and hope he doesn’t have one of the two hands you put him on.

For the rest of Level 1 he just says “During the remainder of the level, my run of cards continued as I caught a set of sevens, made a diamond flush on the turn and won two hands with A-K. Eventually, I ended Level 1 with $37,550 in chips.”

So in a MTT deep stack tourney it’s important to make 2 sets, one nut flush and also get AK twice all in the first level. At this point if you are betting correctly you should have almost twice your starting stack.

Now, in level two we see how to play the not-nuts. “I got off to a so-so start, flip-flopping on my first four hands: a loss (had to fold 10h-10c after a bet and a call with the board reading Ad-Kh-5c), a win (Ad-Qd raise preflop), a loss (folded Ah-Jh when an opponent bet too much for me to chase my draw on a 6h-3h-3d flop), and a win (reraised with Js-Jc from the button after a late-position player raised)”

Still in Level II (I’m assuming 6hr levels?) we see how our expert “traps” his opponent and confidently gets his chips in with TPTK on a paired board.

“Sitting in middle position, I was dealt Ac-Kc and raised to $750. After everyone folded, the big blind decided to call. The flop was perfect: Kd-8h-2c. Not only had I hit top pair/top kicker, but the flop was an unconnected rainbow. Therefore, I decided to trap my opponent.”

We can assume that his opponent does not have a set ever.

“The turn brought the 8s, which was slightly scary if he had an 8. However, after he checked, I made a pot-sized bet of $1,000. Subsequently, he raised to $2,500. Could he really have an 8?”

Obviously not. You are Bernard F’ing Lee. Do not let this meatball push you off the nuts.

“Having almost double his chip stack, I decided to put him to the test and pushed all-in. Unfortunately, he insta-called me and now I really thought he had an 8. But when he flipped over Kh-5h, the entire table (especially me) shook their heads.”

We’re all shaking our heads buddy. You are the man.