Concepts in NLHE Poker

I found the comments by CzechRazor on the hand High on Himself and I played to be very interesting.

I honestly really just want to help the guy.. When the Poker books say "Be Aggressive" they do not mean to be aggressive for aggressions sakes. The idea is not to try and bully yourself into a hole that you can not get out of without sucking off Jesus. Seriously.

I find it totally incredibly ludicrous that anyone has a problem with me getting someone to commit 3/4 there chips and have a GREAT chance to double up on a 4:1 favorite hand with one card to come. You really never get odds that great in poker.

The concept I liked about Czech's comment was that thin line.. In a tourney you have a set amount of time to accumulate a large enough amount of chips to survive to the goal. So you have a couple of things you need to do. One you need to accumulate as many chips as you can. Secondly when you get a certain amount of chips you should protect them by ending the hand as quickly as possible based on the strength of your hand.

So where do you find the balance line? How do you extract maximum value from your hands while giving yourself maximum safety. Does this change based on the point in a tourney. For instance I have heard many people state they would not mind a coin-flip situation early in an MTT.. So would you be more inclined to extract more value even if you give yourself a percentage of risk? Interesting stuff and I am not sure there is one answer.

I will say I would play the hand the same way next time against the same player. My read that I was WAYYY ahead on the turn was strong. Jordon telegraphed his weakness as he often does and being someone I have played against many times I picked up on it. I think for me this early into an MTT I would rather get maximum value out of my hands so that I have a chance at a monster stack later in the game. Instead of pissing away my lead like Jordon decided to do I would have made use of those extra chips and I think it would have given me a good shot at a deep run.

I do think Jordon has some good poker skills.. but the "Bet and they fold" type mentality will work much better on weaker players and as you play stronger competition you will be destroyed. Hell even the weakies will take you out with bluffs like that when they hit monster hands. Your just asking to get stacked playing that way. Oh well. To each their own. I hope Jordon shows up tonight.. he may have to watch some ghey soap opera tonight but we will see.