$1000! Does that count as a milestone?

A couple of months ago, I deposited $100 into a Pacific Poker account, primarily because I was interested in playing in the Monty. Plus I was getting bored with the Party/Empire wild games and the UB tightwads. I fiddled around in their various formats and prices and payout structures before settling into 20-seat $16 SnGs as my game of choice.

That $100 is now over $1000! Of course, I’ve pulled $800 back into Neteller where the money will sit idle, waiting patiently for bonus whoring opportunities. As I’ve said before, I have no illusions about my poker playing ability, and I think my short term success is more due to finding a specialty that fit my chosen style of play rather than some epiphany that made me a Poker Player.

This begs the question, WHY is this style better for me than any other style? Honestly, I think it’s just as much a case of other players NOT adjusting their styles to the Pacific SnG format. I came in the top 20 in the Monty against far superior players with far more experience in tournament play. Why?

Because all poker sites or SnG tournaments are not created equally. UB gives 1000 chips, Party /Pacific give 800. Party escalates blinds every ten hands, UB/Pacific use time. Party has SnGs for every type of poker but only one table size, UB is primarily Hold’Em with two table sizes but has very few buy-in choices, Pacific is all Hold’Em but has many more game options for buy-in, table size, and muti-table opportunities. For whatever reason, my style of play is tailor-made for the rapidly escalating blinds of Pacific, the low chips stacks, and the two-table structure.

Ethical question here: If the clock for the escalating blinds is part of the game structure, is it OK to adjust your timing and response to manipulate the blinds? I say that if you expect to win money in Pacific Poker tournaments, you better start watching that clock in the upper left corner and learn how to use it to your advantage.

Case in point, last night, five players left in a 20-seater so we’ve all cashed. I’m SB in 4th place with about 1200 chips with blinds at 200/400. The player UTG had 740 chips and had shown a desire to fold every hand, trying to outlast the field to move up the food chain. The clock showed 22 seconds till blinds kicked up to 250/500 when it gets folded around to me. I have a pair of deuces. What should I do? I sat… and sat… and sat… until the clock got down to two seconds, then I folded. By the time the next deal started, the blinds had moved to the 250/500 level with the short stack suddenly having to pay 500 of his 740 chips in BB. Of course, one of the big stacks cooperated by raising this promptly. BB folded and was blinded out the very next hand with 240 chips to pay the 250 SB, which he promptly lost. I knew that once the blinds went up, he’d be blinded down in the next two hands, so I stalled my bet the previous round. And I ended up winning $112 in this tournament. IT’S PART OF THE GAME, FOLKS. Learn the game, use the rules to your advantage. Don’t hate the playa, hate the game.

And I love this game.