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he Guardian Poker Column |
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Victoria
Coren |
Friday Sep 29th, 2006
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How to play poker (How to play has been running from issue 16) |
My
editor thinks that I should spend this week's column explaining how I managed,
last Sunday, to win the European Poker Championship and £500,000. I can
see his point. It would be a natural thing to do in a column which is broadly
intended to explain, after all, how to win at poker. Or, at least, how not to
lose at poker. Or how not to lose very much.
The problem (apart from the
obvious difficulty of tackling the theme "Ooh, get me and my big win") is that
I don't really remember. The four-day tournament is a blur, punctuated by
flashes of memory, as they say happens when you drown. Maybe I'm drowning in
money?
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I remember feeling unhappy when the tournament
began, because I was having a bad day for other reasons, and folding rather
dizzily under the aggression of seven young Scandinavian opponents on my first
table, until - already reduced, much too early in a competition of this slow
speed, to half my chip stack - I got up to talk to a friend and then sat down
feeling better.
I remember being moved to a table of more experienced
and well-known professionals, all of whom played better than the youthful
all-in merchants, and yet were somehow easier for me to play against because
their bets actually meant something.
I remember Phil Ivey being knocked
out after one hand on my fifth table, and how I felt simultaneously
disappointed not to play a few pots with him (because he is the greatest
tournament player in the world) and relieved at his exit (because he is the
greatest tournament player in the world).
I remember making a very
well-judged call to double up my chips at one key stage, and a very unfortunate
raise (as it turned out) with 88 against AA and hitting an 8 on the flop for
miraculous survival. And I remember three significant hands from the final
table.
The rest is just a fuzzy memory of a large field getting
magically smaller and smaller. So I can't really explain it at all, except via
two big, general factors in tournament poker.
Being "in the zone" is
being focused, making the right decisions, and knowing the reason for every bet
that you make. Being "on form" is hitting lucky cards at the right time. Either
of these can get you a long way in a tournament; when both happen together,
you're unbeatable.
Ivey is probably "in the zone" all the time, and "on
form" enough to win a lot of major tournaments. For me, it could be 10 years
before the two come together again. That's why, after the madness of the past
five days, I think I will spend the next week just staring in disbelief at the
trophy. |
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