So I was reading Ttwist's article entitled "ABC Will Leave you S.O.L" and I haven't made up my mind if this is merely a response (i.e. further elaboration on my thoughts on the subject) or a rebuttle to what he put forward idea wise in the article. If you haven't read it, I suggest going through, it isn't long and won't take too long. If you don't there may be some lost context here and it could get confusing. Okay, formalities aside lets jump into my thoughts on this and see where it leads, I'll let you decide at the end how it compares/relates to the original article, I'll just share.
So the core of the article (as I understood it) said that micro/low stakes players fall into a trap of playing too ABC and rely too much on the cards they are dealt when they play. This phenomena results in the "card dead" complaint and a negative tournament result (in general, as the implication is we are totally card dependent) and rather than creating opportunities we wait for them. Okay, so couple of things here, first I think this statement covers half a problem, second I am not nessecarily sure that I agree with this as written, but I do agree with it as intended if that makes sense. We'll start with the second point and work back to the first because this morning I feel like being different.
So my disagreement here is not in the result which occurs, but in the implication of how it happens. From my style and talking with and examining other low/micro players I think that the problem comes not in waiting for cards or playing only premiums but rather in not adjusting the ABC style once the hand has commenced. This sounds a little odd, I know but give me a chance to explain myself. First, if you sit in micro/low tourneys for any length of time you will see cards and hands played that in no way resemble premium holdings. Players are constantly playing Suited K's, Q's, J's, A's, suited connectors, unsuited connectors, etc. The average player understands a good amount of opening from LP, 3betting what should be weak openings, etc. What I believe happens is that the vast majority of players don't understand how to make adjustments to the game flow as tournaments progress. What happens the deeper you get in a tourney, well first people get concerned about the pay jumps. They want to win if they don't think that is possible they want to make the most money possible, which in a lot of players minds equates to taking the minimum amount of risk possible (i.e. tightening way up). What a lot of micro/low players who are working on learning and developing their game fail to realize (or so I believe) is that the gameflow and dynamics shift in these later stages, thus the more you play wider and attempt to capitalize on the "standard" thoughts of play the more we get trapped in someone elses value range because they changed how they played. The problem is they aren't changing as a result of us or our actions, so we don't notice it. What do you do then, well I think the answer is easy, the execution however is tougher. In principle what I have found is to woah up and tighten as well, adjust your value range to compensate for what the table dynamics have shifted too. You are going to have to wait some for cards in this phase, but if you recognize it and make this adjustment guess what happens, someone starts to loosen up, because there is always 1 gambler at the table and no one wants to fold around all the time. This is the critical behavior we are looking for and the guy we are trying to avoid being. Once he happens the game starts to ebb back to where we want to be and allows us to play our ABC style (i.e. open hands in situations we know are good and apply maximum pressure and aggression).
The second point is much shorter, but no less important. I think a lot of micro/low stakes players chalk a lot of tourney exits up to coolers or bad beats. I am here to tell you that the overwhelming majority of the time, they aren't. Did your 99 run into KK and get you booted, sure it happens. What you need to do and be honest with yourself is to go back and look at the action. I can tell you from my experience, there were indicators in the hands or things that you could have thought about that can tip you off a lot of the time to something bad happening. Look for them, take note of them, remember them. In every exit is an opportunity to learn, don't dismiss it. Check it, understand it and do whatever you can to not repeat it.
Well that is it for today. Hopefully there is something interesting in there. I still haven't made up my mind on what I would call this, but at the end that isn't something I am too worried about. I just want to give everyone something to think about some more. Gl! This is the Gman signing out!