By SixWays on March 25th, 2008 (more posts by author)

It has been awhile since my last post. I have been working on finding top players to do a Q & A with me. If everything works out I should have some really good emails coming my way.

This time Believer82 was nice enough to take some time to helpout. Believer82 (JohnyWorld on UB) is ranked 33 on Pocketfives and has put up some very nice scores. Some of his big wins include the UB 75k and the Full Tilt Sunday Mulligan.

How did you get to the high buy-in tournys?

[i]"I got to high buy in tournys over a period of a couple years playing small stakes building up a bankroll and moving into higher buy in tournys, I had won around 200k in online tournys on my own then decided to be staked so I could play a full live and online schedule of higher buy in tourny's." [/i]

How do you deal with the frustration of variance?

[i]"Variance can be horrible at times espicailly in tournys you can go a month or two with no scores and run horrible. It can be pretty frustrating, and make you not play your best at all. I try to just treat everyday I play as a brand new day and forget what happened the day before and just try and play your A game at all times and eventually you will pull through the rough patch. Study on your game also. "[/i]

What is a good strategy for playing during early levels at a table full of limpers?

[i]"During the early level play a tight aggressive game. Raise 3 times the bb and one extra time for every limper is a ok strategy. Also you can limp your suited connectors weaker hands to try and flop a monster and snap off a weaker hand .. but I dont think you should be playing tricky the first hour just play a solid A game"[/i]

Late in a tourny, near bubble w/ a stack of 10bb on a table w/ no other shortstacks, how would you play?

[i]"Late in a tourny 10bb is about the point you stop raising and start shoving, you dont have a big enough stack to reraise and get someone to fold. Dont get blinded down though you can wait a orbit or two dont get below 7 bb. I would shove any two before then. Once you get up to 13 14 bb you can make a standard raise again if you wish but then its back to shoving."[/i]

Best tip you would give lower level players?

[i]"At lower levels no need to be tricky just play a tight aggressive game . Pick on the weak players near the bubble and big money spots.. Study alot online and get PokerXfactor or some online tools to improve your game and talk poker with better players than you."[/i]

Thanks Believer!!
If you happen to see Believer82 stop by and give him a thank you.