The Real Solution to Tame the Donkeys

I constantly read and,or hear about the boo-hoo stories of how some" DONKEY busted me out of the tournament " usually followed by " with the lamest of hands" or something like that. The author goes on to say how sick and tired he was of" this crap," and often swear off ever playing again. Do you read and hear that all the time too? Are you one of those people that are burning up the blogs with this kind of a story?Or are you someone like me that will never post a story like that because it just doesn't happen to me and you? " WHAT" you say, "what do you mean it never happens to you Topcat ?" Well, I am here to tell you that it doesn't happen to me and a lot of other players too ! "how can that be," you ask ? I will tell you, in a minute, but first I want you to take a little test, ok? ...........here it is : It is the first hand of a Railbirds freeroll with the winner to get about $40 and you in the big blind and every person at the table in front of you has gone all in , all 8 of them, you look at the cards that have been dealt to you and you see the mother of all starting hands, pocket rockets, american airlines, two big beautiful aces ! what do you do?..................................................... "Push all in " you say without hesitation " I have the best possiable hand, I have to call the all in and win this $13,500.00 pot and I will be well on my way to the final table".............Right ?..................................

If you said "hell yes, Topcat" or anything other than a flat "NO" You just failed the test ! If you said yes and went all in you would have been playing what I call "lottery Poker" and it was the wrong move to make !.............. I can hear all of you saying this guy has gone nuts (LOL) and can hear all the reasons that you are shouting at me to justify calling, but that doesn't matter to me ! It was the wrong move to make and if this senario were in fact real you would be here at Railbirds by now typing out your story of how that "DONKEY" cracked your Aces and how "stupid he was for ever being in that pot" .

Let me run some numbers past you before i give you the secret to my success in not getting beat by the donkeys.

First off , you're pocket Aces are at worst tied for the lead in the hand at this point pre flop, if not in the outright lead. There are 4 aces you know and it is possiable that someone else has the other two. Your aces against 8 other random hands are nearly a 35% favorite to win the pot PRE FLOP. Chances are that the other two aces are not in the deck waiting to jump out on the flop to make you quad aces, but in one or two of your opponents hands. If by chance, someone else does have that other pair of aces, your chances of winning the pot outright just dropped to about 3%. If two players had "big Slick" and the other six players had a pair of something each, your probability of winning the hand stands at under 12% pre flop ! .........What I am trying to show you here is that you ,at the very best case senario, have slightly better than a 1 in 3 shot of winning AT THIS POINT !!!!!!!!! AND IT IS PROBABLY GOING TO GET WORSE AS SOON AS THE FLOP COMES OUT! !!!!!!!!

Here is what you have been waiting for, the nugget of nuggets, the 1 thing you can do that will keep you from ever having some DONKEY knock you out of a tournament again............ NEVER GO ALL IN PRE FLOP IF THERE IS SOMEONE SITTING BEHIND YOU THAT HAS AS MANY OR MORE CHIPS THAN YOU ! ..........period......... It is not worth risking your tournament life for ,even for all the chips at your table, the odds just aren't in you're favor. ............I can hear someone saying right now , "But you have the best odds of everyone at the table Topcat, How can it be the wrong play"" simple,,.....you have 35% of 100% that means that you're oponents have 65% collectivelly and that makes you almost a 2 to 1 underdog !

There are other times and situations that the jackass player will want to gamble with you when he is the underdog, and that is what you want. Always get your money in with the best hand but, (here it is ) NEVER GET ALL OF YOUR MONEY IN WITHOUT THE NUTS ! And I will guarentee you that no donkey will ever knock you out of a tournament again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hope this helps ! TC