Who the Heck is Al Alvarez?

I won't answer the question in my subject, but I wanted to share something I heard quoted by Mr. Alvarez:

All poker is a form of social Darwinism: the fit survive, the weak go broke.

This quote caught my ear as I have been watching/listening to some downloaded videos of the World Series of Poker Europe. I am not sure this was televized here "across the pond" from its original location, but I have enjoyed watching some of the action. I have watched as some of the current "greats" like Jamie Gold and Kenny Tran have played a lot of different starting hands and have either hit or have gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar. It has flashed me back to an article in the most recent Bluff magazine with Annette Obrestad where she explains how she played an entire tournament, except for heads up, without looking at her cards. She used a post it note to cover her hole cards and ended up winning the tournament. What the combination of the two has really shown me is why playing lower limits can be one of the hardest challenges in poker right now.

As newer players watch TV, which has to be the number one reason people are coming to the tables now, they are seeing raises and calls with hands like Q-4 suited (Jamie Gold) and making their flush. What they do not see is that the majority of the time, that hand is completely dominated (as it was here pre-flop) and a good majority of the truly great players fold this. But this brings about a new way of thinking in many ways. Well...not new, but it is something that Hellmuth has been preaching for years now. This method is "Small Pot Poker". There are two approaches that I have seen...I want to look at those now.

1. Loose Aggressive Small Pot Poker - LASPP is the majority of what you are seeing from the internet players and the newer players that show up on TV. They are willing to raise or call a raise with most hands in order to bluff later. It is calculated small pot poker in that they are using a "Kill Phil" philosophy and are not scared to lose all of their chips on any hand. The philosophy is toned down, thus the small pot distinction, but the problem with this approach is that small pot can turn into huge pot very quickly if the player is not controlling the action or is not a strong enough player to walk away and surrender a pot...and that is the key to small pot poker. You must walk away and surrender money often. If you are more interested in winning every pot, SPP is not the best method for you. But I digress...When you see a player like Jamie Gold, who plays agressively and wins, its hard not to be tempted to emulate that style of play. I can be honest and say I have no idea how Gold won the ME, but he did. It could be that Johnny Chan was coaching him. It could also be that it was his time to do so. The great thing about this method is that you can drag several pots and accumulate chips a bit faster than the 2nd method.



2. Tight Aggressive Small Pot Poker - TASPP is what is preached by Phil Hellmuth and he puts on a show on day 1 of the WSOPE playing nearly every hand they showed on the edit. I realize of course this doesn't mean he is playing every hand. Preflop raises are common, but the action is controlled and methodical. The idea is not to ever risk your entire chipstack and retreat as is necessary. Several bluffs and reraises are not usually in order, except when changing gears. What TASPP has in common with LASPP is that most starting hands are good to go with. The difference comes in post flop play and only players who are confident in their post flop play can execute this style. Newer players rarely tend to move into this style until they are more experienced because it requires something that newer and most of the "donkeys" you will play against at lower limits. This is why I believe this to be the better style to play at smaller levels. The problem is that you must be good with your post flop play and willing to fire bullets at an empty flop in order to just get a feel of where you are in the hand.

So what's best for a Tuesday night at a local bar? I can't tell you that. I can say that if/when I adopt one of these styles, I can almost guarantee that I will take flack from someone for playing too loosely. If you are a tight player, this is a great way to change speeds. The problem comes in that this doesn't exactly adapt to sit-n-go type tables or cash games. You can adapt certain portions of this to the sit-n-go, but it will take some adjustment to your normal style. In any case, good luck with whichever method you choose to use and I hope you decide to try it against me when I am reading well.