The ABC of Poker - part1

I fear that poker by acronyms is unlikely to be winning poker, but I have to start somewhere.In a little over 24hours I will be sitting down at the WSOPE £1,500 event trying once again to make Day2 of a major event.

This time I'm going to try to get there by playing ABC poker.

I am beginning to think that one of these days I may have to fold my way past the 2-day event-horizon just to say I've done it. I believe this is literally possible at some of the really slow-clock events - I'm almost certain it was possible at the WSOP Main Event, for example.

Poker by pithy quote is also likely to be a losing formula but "In order to live, you must be willing to die" (attributed to Amir Vahedi) is one of my favourites.

I must say I think I have usually been prepared to put my chips in jeopardy with the best of them. Not for nothing have I earned the "H-bomb" moniker.

However, I have noticed of late that I am suffering from a fear of failure - basically, I don't want to donk out of a big tournament.

"Big" obviously is a completely arbitrary label. It applied in my case to the £5 rebuy at Gutshot the other day because the tournament was so important to me in historical terms.

It applied in the WSOP Main Event this year because - although I had got there for $5 including travel & hotel - it was my first ever and I felt a sense of obligation to do well.

It has also applied in the GUKPT earlier this year, say. £1,000 in that case, or £1,500 in the case of WSOPE is far from small change.

So - ABC poker. For today's purposes, ABC is going to mean "Always Be Counting". It's a technique I have been trying to use to help me with my tournament game in a few ways.The idea is that by continually and consciously staying on top of all the important numbers - the opponents' stacks, the pot so far, the pot odds, the number of big blinds in my stack and so on - I can keep focussed on the game state and avoid big mistakes, and also avoid losing concentration.

If one thing is certain in poker it is that it's complicated - there are so many factors (including the cards!) but I do believe that the dominant "theory of poker" is actually the theory of stack sizes.

It's all about the chips, in other words. There's another "C" I can use in a later post .... In fact there are enough for a whole "The 7 C's of Poker" or somesuch ... C if for concentration, cards, chips and complexity and so on.

So what's it going to be tomorrow? Always Be Confident or Avoid Being Cocky ?

I'll have to let you know later - here's hoping for A Big Cash.