Secrets of the Amateurs

So now I'm thinking about how to approach this main event. The structure is interesting, 20K chips, 90 minute rounds but it starts at 50-100. This would be exactly the same as 10K and starting 25-50, except that the antes still kick in at the 100-200 level, which in this case is level 3. So there are only 3 hours of play without antes. My fag-packet calculations indicate that the average stack is going to hover around M10-12 for some considerable time.

It's a good job I brought Kill Phil with me because it's possible that I may need to revert to some version of that. It really depends on the line-up. Last night's $500 was noticeably tougher, clearly the field was filled out with people who had arrived for the main event and so didn't need to play the super. If I find myself at a table without many, or even any, weak spots and good players to my left I can't really afford to play as I have been on this trip so far. Now it's a real possibility that late position raises will be met with semi- or even complete bluff reraises. So I should whack my all-in threshold back up to 8 or even around the 10 level, varying according to my actual hand. And I can think more about the steal reraise myself.

The endurance factor comes into play as well. It's difficult to play for 2 days at full intensity if you're not used to it, never mind 5. It's good to have some kind of basic fallback strategy for periods where I want to lie low. Tonight there's another $500 and I think it would be a good idea to play it in the same KP-like style that I may have to employ at times in the main event. Then tomorrow I can have a full day off before kick-off Sunday noon, 6pm GMT.