An Intertops Poker player that won an online tournament at the popular poker room will be returning to Austria’s most luxurious casino resort this weekend for the €1,000,000 CAPT Velden poker tournament. Intertops’ poker manager will accompany “Christoph” to the €500 event he’s playing on Saturday.Talking about his approach to tournament play, the Intertops champion said his strategy depends on the buy-in.
“In the early levels I try to get a feeling for the table dynamics and players playing tendencies. I try to keep my chips together for the later stages, where the pots are bigger and making moves is more profitable than in the early stages.”
“If the buy-in is higher, that is exactly the strategy I would follow. But if it’s lower, I would deviate from it and play more hands even in the early levels – against better knowledge.”
Last year Christoph almost won the €500 buy-in event in Velden. Even so, he wasn’t entirely happy with his game play.
“There wasn’t anything that I did particularly good that I liked. Maybe coming to the final table I realized somebody else tried to be the table bully so I decided to not mess with him - despite my chip lead - and I sat back and merely watched players eliminating each other until we were down to two.”
“But I shouldn’t have called a 3-bet shove from a tight player close to the final table with AQ, even though that was a pretty standard play for both him (shoving 12 BBs with AK) and me. Of course you’re always smarter in hindsight and in a 3-day tournament you will have to survive situations where you are behind.”
“Honestly, my tournament hands weren’t spectacular, they were all pretty straight-forward. But if I had one to brag about it’s this one: Down to 2 tables, out of a stack of 40 BBs, I opened from the middle position with KsQh, only to be called by the chip leader at that point, who I observed for some time now. The board comes Ah,9h,7c. Obviously, against a loose-defending Big Blind, I conti-bet this board and get called. At this stage I am not too worried because I saw the guy check-raising with top-pair or better in these situations. The turn is quite fortunate, a Kh gives me 2nd pair and the nut-flush draw. My opponent thinks for a long time and checks, I do so too. The river blanks with something like 2d. My opponents bets a bit over pot size, which at this point is quite meaningful, like half of 2/3 stack. I only have second pair and a flush is possible. Given the action that lead up to the river, I am rather certain that in this spot he is more likely to have a busted draw than a hand that beats me, or at least it is equally likely. For the call to be correct according to the pot-odds, I’d only need to be ahead 1/3 of the time. So I called after a minute or two and he mucks his cards and I was the new chip leader.”
“It wasn’t until the third player was eliminated that I realized I might win. I usually try to stay pessimistic because in tournaments it’s all over so quickly and you might be disappointed if you toss with the idea of winning too soon. I’ve played so many tournaments – if I’d won half as many as the number of tournaments where I had a chip lead at some point, I’d be rich!”
“I like Velden because the competition is superb. The whole event has so much flair. All kinds of people come to play: pros as well as people on holiday that just happen to realize there’s a poker tournament. So there is a good mixture of people and playing skills and the challenge is to realize who’s who and how to play against each one."
“One thing I tell people that are new to tournaments: never play at buy-ins where you feel uncomfortable. I think one thing you can say with certainty is you’re not playing your best if you can’t afford the buy-in.”
“Playing online has definitely has helped me a lot. Even though there are big differences between online and offline poker, there is no substitute for the experience of many thousands of online hands, where you play at least 10-20x as many hands in the same time.“
“I just enjoy playing Poker for fun. At the same time, I am quite ambitious and always try to improve my game, through discussions with friends, statistical analysis or reading. I would not take playing poker to the next level even if I had the chance to do so, simply because I feel I would lose the joy of playing. Also I feel that I am playing at my best when I don’t play too much and I don’t disregard my other hobbies.”
View this online poker news story on YouTube
By Larry Colcy, The Gamblogger
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