Watch Your Chips When You're
Winning
written by BeatTheFish.com
 ...Fishy
says, "Don't get flipper happy... I mean chipper happy... Damn! I
mean... just read the article."
I'd certainly rather have to worry about
this than worrying about going on tilt after losing a huge hand, but
it happens and you need to be prepared for it. Especially in
tournaments, the players with the most chips are sometimes the first
players out. It happened to me recently, and you've probably seen it
happen or experienced it yourself. It's great to win lots of chips
early on, but try not to let it change your expectations and
gameplay too much.
Recently, I was playing an online tournament and I was getting hit
over the head with the deck over and over early in the tournament.
Aces, Kings, A-K, hand after hand and they were all holding up. I
found myself in 1st place after 4 rounds of the tourney.
Then I started to fall apart. I figured that I could boss around the
rest of the players at my table because I had all the chips. One
hand I picked up was K-J suited from middle position. Normally, I
wouldn't be excited about this hand, but I figured that I could
raise and scare off the competition and steal the blinds. I make a
large raise and the next player to my left calls. Not good, but not
hopeless. Then the next player goes all-in for a little bit more.
I'm committed to this pot by now, so I call, and the sandwiched
third player goes all-in, too. Disaster! But I'm getting good pot
odds on the call. The shortstack has 7-7 and the middle player has
A-K and me completely dominated. An Ace came and I found myself
completely crippled after this one hand.
The point is to keep your head in it even if you're really
dominating the table. You're not going to scare everyone off with
your chips, and you're going to run into some real hands if you try
to run over them too often. Playing aggressive when you have a lot
of chips is a good play, but don't let it jeopardize your stack if
you don't have a real monster hand. Don't make too big a raise, and
do it from late position with a decent hand if you want to steal.
You want to maintain your top position and keep gaining chips, but
pick the right situations. It's a lot of pressure to be the top
player in the tourney, so keep your cool.
Another key thing to look for in tournaments is who has the
shortstack and what position they have relative to you. You don't
want to try to steal when you have the shortstack sitting on your
left. He's just waiting for the best hand he can get to go all-in,
so unless you're prepared to do that, don't make that play.
The equivalent in a cash game is getting "chip happy". I've been in
many a table where there will be one really active player who just
keeps getting lucky. He plays a ton of mediocre hands, but they keep
hitting. Within a half hour, he's got double the money of everyone
else at the table. If you happen to be this player (or if you've
just hit a great streak of cards that have held up), it might be a
good time to tighten up your play.
The other players are going to be
looking to crack you, and you don't want to get too loose with your
chips. You might think that you can afford to gamble more with a big
stack, and you can. You might even increase your stack further. But
don't do it too often, because you're not always going to hit your
draws. Because you have more chips than your opponent, he may always
think about going all-in because he can double up off of you and
you've been playing a loose game.
Protect your stack when your winning, and try to play great poker
whether you're winning or losing. You've done something right to
earn all those chips, so stay focused.
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General Poker
Strategy
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