The Gap Strategy

The Oasis no-limit hold'em tournament featured strong players today. I decided to try to take advantage of them in the later stages of the game and steal the blinds as often as possible. I rationalized that the desire to survive the tournament would be stronger than the desire to call my bet, thereby increasing my chip count. I based my actions on my understanding of Skalansky's "gap" concept in later tournament rounds. From the cutoff and button positions, when the bet was checked around to me, I often went all-in, if I had any holding or decent draw. My chips doubled, tripled and then quadrupled. This aggressive play payed off until finally the big blind called my AsJs button raise all in. At that point our chip counts were about equal. We turned up our hands and the big blind showed pocket aces. The Flop came AdJh3c. The Turn and River displayed rags and I was gone.

Thoughtfully applied, the blind-stealing, all-in strategy is effective. It is one way to increase the chip amount and avoid being "blinded out" of a tournament or struggling with survival in the later stages. It is one technique that most of the top professional poker players use in tournament play. Along with other weapons and concepts, I fully intend to refine this technique for future use, Who knows, maybe you'll see me on the Travel channel and the World Poker Tour soon! Check your local listings!

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