NOVICE VIEW - My finest hour

It may not sound like much to you experienced poker players out there, but last night I had my best game in my short poker career. I ended up coming second in a $10 NL Hold`em multi table tournament. What an awesome feeling. Now before you say yeah, but you didn`t win, consider that this is only the second time I have played a multi table tournament for real money. I understand from Marc this is quite some achievement, but I give him all the credit. I am very, very lucky to have him as my coach.

Playing for that long (it lasted for just under four hours), and ending up at a final table, was a completely new experience. What struck me most is how easy it could be to blow it at this point. The blinds are huge at this stage, and all-ins come faster than the latest "Bushisms".

The strategy Marc suggested can be summarized as follows:

• Start off playing dead tight. This means no bluffing and no gambling, even off the big blind. Play only good starting hands, and don`t call with a hand that you feel you won;t be able to raise with later on.
• Try and make the first break (after about an hour) with around 3 times the starting chip stack.
• Always keep in the back of your mind that you are trying to get to the end (this sounds trivial, but I found that it is of huge importance)
• Loosen up after the first break, which means bigger bets, and playing hands I would not normally play like suited connectors, A 9, A 8 etc.
• Once you make it through the final break, tighten up again until you make it to the final three or four

I won`t bore you with the detail, but I followed the strategy almost to the word and it works. However, I can already start to see that this strategy will be flawed in bigger stakes games.

I finally called an all in during heads up with Q T suited (it was going on for too long and I just went for it). My opponent turned over A 2 unsuited. The flop came 10 3 2 and I started celebrating (prematurely) until a dreaded Ace came on the Turn. I have never been in this situation, and I suspect there is a ton to learn about heads up play, but my brain won`t be able to handle that yet!