Yesterday I made another final table with a small stack. Actually I had the smallest stack. My feelings were that I NEEDED TO MAKE A HAND NOW! We've all been in the position where our tournament life is at stake and we panic. We decide that this QJ off-suit is a decent enough hand to go for it. I was ready to go for it when I remembered a cardinal rule of tournaments; Patience. If I were to take the 3 blinds I had left and double, I would be in a position to make a raise that might get respect again. So I threw the QJ away and I waited. (I would've lost that hand too, to a KQ) I threw away my blinds to shock and criticism and waited some more. I finally caught QQ. There was an all-in in front of me with a call from the chip leader. I loved these odds and tossed my measly 3K into the pot. (Blinds were now 800/1600) I was up against QJ (all-in player) and AK from chip leader. The board double paired low with no over cards and I now sat with almost 12K. Still short stacked, but I was in a position to buy some blinds in late position, especially since I had earned a lot of respect from the table by not giving up and calling with a lesser hand earlier. (You might want to make a big deal out of throwing away your cards in this position in order to call attention to your tight play.) I continued to not panic and eventually some hands came. I went on to win the tournament.

The moral of the story... Don't ever settle for a sub-prime hand. The three P's of poker are always in effect: Patience, Position and Power! So do not be in a panic to get a hand. Unless you are down to your last blind, you need to be patient. As the saying goes: “Hurry up and wait!

Your are the focal point of all your players at some point. Don’t you think

you should look good? Your shirt should be clean and wrinkle free. You should be freshly showered and shaved. Your hands should be well groomed and not have obvious hangnails, dirt under your fingernails, or open sores. You need to be especially aware every day of your life of where your hands are, and avoid the things that cause bruises and scrapes. Your hands are your livelihood, and should be treated with the ultimate care. Women should spend the extra time or money to have their nails painted. Painted and decorated nails also make great conversation pieces for your players. Men do love beautiful hands. Your hair should be clean and neat. Your players don’t care that you stayed up all night playing in that amazing game where you got so stuck, managed to come back to almost even or a little ahead, and than still lost some money. We have all done it. It is no excuse for looking like you did play all night. The players and your bosses want to see you looking rested and chipper, like you just got back from a 2-week vacation and got all the rest and relaxation someone said was possible. Your players will appreciate you more when you show that you appreciate them enough to always look your best.

There is a saying in this game that goes a little something like this; “I’d rather be lucky than good.” There is more truth in this saying than you might believe. It really does pay to be lucky. Today I set a nice trap for a semi-decent player. I knew he had just lost a hand to a lucky draw. (there’s that word again! Luck.) I figured by his body language that he might be playing something with a little less profit expectation. I picked up pocket queens in middle position. He called in early position. I raised 4X the big blind, (only my second raise of the day and we were in the fifth blind level, but very few players are good enough to watch for something like that.) He called my raise. The flop was 9-8-3 with 2-hearts. He bet $1000. (Less than my original raise.) I thought about where he might have been. From his eyes and body language I did not read him for a big hand. He didn’t blink or glance or get tense as he had once or twice before when he had caught a flop. I pushed all-in for $7400. My thinking was I did not want him to draw to his second pair or his flush if that was what he was on. He thought long and hard and I could tell from his defeated body language that he was going to call. He did. He showed 9-10 off-suit, with no heart. Top pair. He had 5 outs to beat me, barring no straight re-draw on the turn. He stood up in despair, holding his head low. His large stack of chips that he had before was dwindling from poor calls, like the K-J suited calling a re-raise pre-flop and running down an A-K and an A-J, which is how he had most of the chips that he was now losing. I was very happy to see his call, until the river brought that 10. He had $700 more dollars than I did, and once again, a good hand goes down to luck. My luck was no match to his luck. His skill was basic at best. Some patience, some knowledge, but no clue how to pay attention to the whole table, and understand who is loose, who is solid, who is tight, and who is a rock. Watch the betting habits of every player and you will gain a better understanding of what they are doing and why they might be doing that.

Skill will get you to the final table quite often, even more often than luck will, but it takes luck to win a tournament. To have both luck and skill… well that’s a combination that can not be beat.

This is a common rule that is quite often forgotten by dealers. Always greet your players when you sit down to deal. You are being paid to entertain your guests. This does not mean tell jokes at the table, although occasional poker jokes and one-liners can be appropriate. This means that it is your job to keep the game friendly and moving at a pleasant pace. Players love to see a professional dealer sit down, greet them with a smile and quickly get the cards in the air. A happy, fun table will gamble more. More gambling means bigger pots, which means bigger tips.