#285 - Chris Ferguson Thinks About PLOEOB, Part V (conclusion)

PART V – SHORT-STACKED PLAY

I asked Ferguson to tell me about any nuances he could think of that might be relevant to short-stack play in PLOEOB, especially because I was sure I’d get a lot of use out of them.

Chris Ferguson: In this tournament, when you are short stacked and you have a chance to commit all your chips and you have pocket aces you definitely take it. You don’t want to slow play something if you can commit your stack, so if your pot-size raise is a third of your chips or so, you are committed. No hand before the flop is a favorite where you want to slow play it. If you have a deep stack, you may not want to re-raise with aces because they don’t really play that well after the flop.

Mike: What about if you are short stacked and you have A-2 do you want to play that fast?

Chris Ferguson: I am playing A-2 pretty fast if I am short stacked. A-2 is better than A-K but A-K is also a nice hand to have and it’s not a bad hand to play fast as well. That king is actually very valuable to you for winning the high side. Your opponents playing against you are likely to have an ace and if that ace comes you have the best kicker.

Mike: Does short-stacked mean the same thing as in NLHE, about 10 big blinds?

Chris Ferguson: It’s pretty much the same. The problem is you can’t move all-in but you can commit yourself. With 10 big blinds, you can make it 3.5, which leaves you with 6.5. With any call, there is at least 7.5 in the pot. You’re committed, which is fine if you’ve got aces.

CONCLUSION

Mike: This wasn’t meant to be a comprehensive guide to PLOEOB, and Chris Ferguson, despite 5 World Series bracelets, 2 Circuit rings, and over $6 million in tournament poker winning, does not claim to be an expert on the game. But if you wanted to ask someone about how to approach an unfamiliar game, who better? I think you’ll agree that he has shared some very interesting and helpful concepts. Maybe it’s just heedless optimism, but I’m entering the FTOPS PLOEOB event on the strength of this information, and I think I’m finally gonna break through.

If you found this helpful or unhelpful, or want to see more of this kind of thing or don’t want to, or you want to hear more about Harpo or Clonie Gowen or Andy Beal or Ted Forrest or anything else for that matter, e-mail me at mrchaotic@aol.com. And good luck at the tournament.