Deep Stack - Inside Track

Don’t you just love the feeling of getting value for your money?

Well for the poker player, there are few nicer feelings than sitting down at a Deep Stack tournament table. You’ve spent your hard earned money on another buy-in but this time you begin with what looks like a gigantic stack. This should be fun, right?

So what’s your plan? Have you thought about any strategy? Well, with such a huge stack to begin with you would think that if you play your normal tight, aggressive game you should do ok, shouldn’t you? Why not just play premier holdings to start off with and let those loose, laggy player’s donk out in the early stages?

Well, let me answer those questions with this single word and that word is NO!

I’ll make a bold recommendation here that if you are ever going to play a laggy style of poker then the Deep Stack table is the place to do it. And if you don’t do it your opponents will, to your detriment. Here’s why.

There are two types of Loose Aggressive Players or LAG’s as they are often referred to. The good lag has a solid grasp of stack to pot ratios and implied odds and knows how to play a hand well post-flop. He understands the opportunity that a Deep Stack tournament presents where he can add hands such as gapped and suited connectors to his opening range.

Then there’s the bad lag that doesn’t. The bad lag will play bad hands, even in a regular multi-table tournament where the ‘tight is right’ mantra is best, and before he knows it he busts out after getting pot-committed with a hand he shouldn’t have played to begin with.

I want to keep this blog post simple without too much jargon so keeping in mind what I have said above I’m going to leave you with 6 tips for deep stack play that you can work on in your own time.


1. Learn everything you can about Stack to Pot Ratios

2. Learn everything you can about understanding Implied Odds

3. Freeroll practice playing gapped and suited connectors and small pairs in position till' your confident at it.

4. Always evaluate your hand post flop. ‘Is this hand worth continuing with?’

5. When you get to the live table study your opponents well. If they are playing ‘Nit’ tight then punish them with what you have learned. If they are playing a good loose game then be wary, those guys most likely have Deep stack experience.

6. Always be aware of potential Good LAG's both to the right and left of you as you may be there target as well.

As always feel free to comment, especially if you play a lot of Deepstack. I'd love to hear of your experiences.

Raiser

Pokerstars Cowboys Challenge Jan 2012

Every month my poker coach (19honu62) sets me a challenge of playing out 100 sit n' go's on Pokerstars.

The idea is to start of with a balance of 25 buy-ins at a chosen level and the target is to double that starting balance by the end of the challenge.

This month I'm going to play out 2 of these challenges. One at the $0.25c level and the other at the $1 level.

Starting Balances and targets are as follows;

$0.25c Level
Starting Balance - $6.25
Target - $12.50

$1 Level
Starting Balance - $25
Target - $50

Raiser


I'm going to play out the $0.25c games first........ Here's my progress so far!

Challenge Completed!

Level - $0.25c 45 man Sit n Go's
100 games played.
27 cashes

Starting Balance - $6.25

Closing Balance - $15.78

Profit - $9.53

Average finish - 14th

Raiser

Click to Enlarge

Greens are Cashes

#1	3/1/12	494275246	12/45	0.25	0	6
#2	3/1/12	494272955	11/45	0.25	0	5.75
#3	3/1/12	494271948	16/45	0.25	0	5.5
#4	3/1/12	494273925	28/45	0.25	0	5.25
#5	3/1/12	494344960	14/45	0.25	0	5
#6	3/1/12	494347724	35/45	0.25	0	4.75
#7	3/1/12	494276418	4/45	0.25	1.29	5.79
#8	3/1/12	494277370	9/45	0.25	0	5.54
#9	3/1/12	494345949	9/45	0.25	0	5.29
#10	3/1/12	494346833	8/45	0.25	0	5.04
#11	3/1/12	494348811	12/45	0.25	0	4.79
#12	3/1/12	494344122	13/45	0.25	0	4.54
#13	3/1/12	494380842	6/45	0.25	0.62	4.91
#14	3/1/12	494376502	11/45	0.25	0	4.66
#15	3/1/12	494378180	18/45	0.25	0	4.41
#16	3/1/12	494355805	8/45	0.25	0	4.16
#17	6/1/12	495462535	7/45	0.25	0.36	4.27
#18	6/1/12	495463450	5/45	0.25	0.93	4.95
#19	6/1/12	495466152	16/45	0.25	0	4.70
#20	6/1/12	495464342	22/45	0.25	0	4.45
#21	6/1/12	495534406	2/45	0.25	2.22	6.42
#22	6/1/12	495535582	28/45	0.25	0	6.17
#23	7/1/12	496113454	1/45	0.25	3.23	9.15
#24	7/1/12	496114254	3/45	0.25	1.70	10.60
#25	7/1/12	496114820	8/45	0.25	0	10.35
#26	7/1/12	496115593	11/45	0.25	0	10.10
#27	8/1/12	496663546	4/45	0.25	1.29	11.14
#28	8/1/12	496664710	4/45	0.25	1.29	12.18
#29	8/1/12	496662806	5/45	0.25	0.93	12.86
#30	8/1/12	496664065	12/45	0.25	0	12.61
#31	9/1/12	497599351	6/45	0.25	0.62	12.98
#32	9/1/12	497595391	7/45	0.25	0.36	13.09
#33	9/1/12	497594572	11/45	0.25	0	12.84
#34	9/1/12	497596819	10/45	0.25	0	12.59
#35	11/1/12	498233768	21/45	0.25	0	12.34
#36	11/1/12	498231954	18/45	0.25	0	12.09
#37	11/1/12	498234373	19/45	0.25	0	11.84
#38	11/1/12	498229847	12/45	0.25	0	11.59
#39	11/1/12	498527406	3/45	0.25	1.70	13.04
#40	11/1/12	498548221	41/45	0.25	0	12.79
#41	11/1/12	498525710	26/45	0.25	0	12.54
#42	11/1/12	498526581	22/45	0.25	0	12.29
#43	11/1/12	498567041	7/45	0.25	0.36	12.40
#44	11/1/12	498590092	15/45	0.25	0	12.15
#45	11/1/12	498553376	13/45	0.25	0	11.90
#46	11/1/12	498551369	22/45	0.25	0	11.65
#47	11/1/12	498635942	18/45	0.25	0	11.40
#48	11/1/12	498619216	10/45	0.25	0	11.15
#49	11/1/12	498586232	8/45	0.25	0	10.90
#50	11/1/12	498580327	4/45	0.25	1.29	11.94
#51	13/1/12	499321066	3/45	0.25	1.70	13.39
#52	13/1/45	499339032	29/45	0.25	0	13.14
#53	13/1/12	499323107	12/45	0.25	0	12.89
#54	13/1/12	499322093	20/45	0.25	0	12.64
#55	13/1/12	499344167	1/45	0.25	3.23	15.62
#56	13/1/12	499335960	5/45	0.25	0.93	16.30
#57	14/1/12	500320382	8/45	0.25	0	16.05
#58	14/1/12	500319676	11/45	0.25	0	15.80
#59	14/1/12	500318082	3/45	0.25	1.70	17.25
#60	14/1/12	500319042	11/45	0.25	0	17.00
#61	15/1/12	500717952	13/45	0.25	0	16.75
#62	15/1/12	500713683	13/45	0.25	0	16.5
#63	15/1/12	500715006	19/45	0.25	0	16.25
#64	15/1/12	500715582	21/45	0.25	0	16.00
#65	15/1/12	500898121	6/45	0.25	0.62	16.37
#66	15/1/12	500915696	15/45	0.25	0	16.12
#67	15/1/12	500896522	12/45	0.25	0	15.87
#68	15/1/12	500898958	28/45	0.25	0	15.62
#69	15/1/12	500927785	8/45	0.25	0	15.37
#70	15/1/12	500897213	4/45	0.25	1.29	16.41
#71	16/1/12	501403564	6/45	0.25	0.62	16.78
#72	16/1/12	501404539	12/45	0.25	0	16.53
#73	16/1/12	501402120	12/45	0.25	0	16.28
#74	16/1/12	501402769	31/45	0.25	0	16.03
#75	16/1/12	501483576	11/45	0.25	0	15.78
#76	16/1/12	501484274	18/45	0.25	0	15.53
#77	16/1/12	501482478	14/45	0.25	0	15.28
#78	16/1/12	501479588	45/45	0.25	0	15.03
#79	16/1/12	501481510	4/45	0.25	1.29	16.07
#80	16/1/12	501480560	12/45	0.25	0	15.72
#81	17/1/12	501813106	28/45	0.25	0	15.47
#82	17/1/12	501815369	15/45	0.25	0	15.22
#83	17/1/12	501816317	14/45	0.25	0	14.97
#84	17/1/12	501829903	6/45	0.25	0.62	15.34
#85	19/1/12	502584152	30/45	0.25	0	15.09
#86	19/1/12	502583635	23/45	0.25	0	14.84
#87	19/1/12	502582832	16/45	0.25	0	14.59
#88	19/1/12	502599373	11/45	0.25	0	14.34
#89	19/1/12	502582169	2/45	0.25	2.22	16.31
#90	19/1/12	502596522	4/45	0.25	1.29	17.35
#91	20/1/12	503336934	5/45	0.25	0.93	18.03
#92	20/1/12	503334243	10/45	0.25	0	17.78
#93	20/1/12	503336181	19/45	0.25	0	17.53
#94	20/1/12	503335216	29/45	0.25	0	17.28
#95	20/1/12	503605507	8/45	0.25	0	17.03
#96	20/1/12	503602886	16/45	0.25	0	16.78
#97	20/1/12	503601768	19/45	0.25	0	16.53
#98	21/1/12	504076972	12/45	0.25	0	16.28
#99	21/1/12	504076270	19/45	0.25	0	16.03
#100	21/1/12	504075617	39/45	0.25	0	15.78

Last 90 Days Graph