10:32am: Somebody once asked me what my secret is to keeping my graph so steady and upward. I couldn’t really sum it up into one phrase, until I read the first line of this article describing how Kenny Tran won event #25 at the 2008 World Series of Poker:

“I definitely have a strategy. I like to grind people out and make them feel bored. I just torture them and let them finally make a mistake.”

All of a sudden, it hit me: this is exactly the same strategy I employ, especially in the early blinds at a heads up SNG. Everyone talks about “mixing up your game”, “playing unpredictable”, “loose aggressive” — and to all that I say: yadda yadda. Loose aggressive is not the new basic strategy. By basic, I mean that in everyone’s quest to try something different and unpredictable, they become — well — rather predictable.

In sharp contrast to this, the whole reason people play poker is because it’s an action game. Half the enjoyment of half the people who play poker is in the adrenaline rush that they feel when playing the game. If you grind them down slowly, you take that enjoyment away from them. So to that, I say try something truly new and innovative, go ‘against the grain’ and do what I do:

“Torture them to Death”