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The primary beginner’s strategy, Kill Phil Basic, is powerful
and relatively simple. But a reasonable amount of study and
practice are necessary to become proficient in its application.
What if you had to play a no-limit hold ’em tournament
today? Say there’s a drawing for a free entry into a tournament
and your name is pulled. You’re familiar with hold ’em, but
you’ve never played in a tournament before. Can you compete?
Probably not. At least not without help. So here it is.
Your main consideration in choosing your strategy is how much time
you have to prepare. If you have a day or less, you have a problem.
Sklansky’s System proposes the following.
“For the first few levels raise or re-raise all-in with A-A only; otherwise
fold. After this, in unraised pots move in with any pair, A-K, any
suited ace, and suited connectors down to 5-4 suited; otherwise fold. If
a pot is raised before the action gets to you, move in with A-A, K-K, or
A-K suited.”
This extremely simplified approach gives an absolute novice as good
a chance as possible. With the exception of adding K-K to A-A in the
first few levels, we don’t see a better way to play, given the truncated
nature of the advice. (We include K-K, because we feel that the infusion
of Internet and more inexperienced players in today’s tournaments
makes it more likely than when Sklansky originally devised the System
that an all-in move could be called by a player with hands as weak as
A-K, Q-Q, or worse.) We recommend employing the more aggressive tactics
(after Sklansky’s A-A-only period) when the antes commence, usually
at the fourth or fifth level. In tournaments that don’t use antes at
any point, start playing aggressively at the fourth blind level.
While Sklansky didn’t specifically address situations when one or
more players had limped (just called the amount of the big blind), we
interpret his intention to be that an unraised pot with limpers is classified
as an unraised pot. Regardless, in KP Rookie, that is our
recommendation.
This bare-bones approach is surprisingly effective. However, the
player is left in the lurch in two areas that Sklansky’s System does not
address: post-flop (when you’re still in the pot because no one raised
prior to it) and play at the final table.
POST-FLOP
The only time you’ll have to make a decision after the flop is when
you’re in the big blind, no one raises pre-flop, and you don’t have a
hand that meets the KP Rookie raising criteria. Given your very limited
tournament experience as a new player, we’ve kept this strategy as simple
as possible.
If you flop 2-pair, 3-of-a-kind, a set, a straight, a flush, a full house, 4-
of-a-kind, or a straight flush, move all-in when it’s your turn to act; otherwise
check, and fold if there’s a bet. The one caveat is that the 2-pair
must use two cards from your hand that match two cards on the board.
A hand such as 9-7 with a flop of 9-7-2 qualifies; a hand such as T-T
with a flop of 9-9-2 doesn’t. If everyone checks on the flop, you get a free
look at the turn card.
The turn—The same parameters apply. Move in if you’ve now made
2-pair or better; otherwise check and fold if someone bets.
There’s a caveat here, too: If the board shows 4 cards to either a
straight or a flush and you don’t have the top card that makes the
straight or flush, check and fold to any bet. Also, if you’ve made a
straight, but there’s a 4-flush on board, check and fold if someone bets.
If no one bets, you’ll get to see the river card.
The river—The same precepts that guided you on the turn apply to
the river—move in with 2-pair or better, unless there’s either a 4-card
straight or flush on the board. If there is, follow the same guidelines
as above.
As soon as you’re ready, we encourage you to move up to the KP
Basic post-flop strategy, which plugs some of the inevitable holes that
accompany a simplified version such as this.
FINAL TABLE
Should you be fortunate enough to make it to the final table, don’t
panic. Continue to use the KP Rookie strategy until you’re down to 4 to
6-handed.
4 to 6-handed—In unraised pots, go all-in with the usual hands, plus
A-7 unsuited or better, K-T unsuited or better, and 1-gap suited connectors
6-4s and above. In raised pots, re-raise all-in with all pairs 6-6 and
higher and any hand of A-T or higher. Otherwise fold.
3-handed—In unraised pots, move-in with any pair, any ace, any king,
and any suited connector that includes a 6 or higher, including those
with one or two gaps, such as 8-5s, 7-4s, etc., down to 6-3s. In raised
pots, re-raise all-in with any pair, A-7 offsuit or better, K-J or better, and
any suited ace. Otherwise fold.
Heads-up—Move in every hand.
If you don’t lose your nerve and don’t deviate from the system, you
might be surprised at what happens.
As discussed, you should be able to commit the strategy to memory
in about an hour. However, you could also use the Kill Phil strategy
cards, which are a condensed outline of all the Kill Phil strategies and
include Rookie, to help you (or simply jot down the above strategy and
use it as a guide).
With Kill Phil, Blair Rodman and Lee Nelson wanted to write a treatise on
the emerging new style of modern tournament poker and set down the
strategies that will help you guys win consistently. As if to prove a point,
Nelson went to the Aussie Millions this year and won the Main Event. He
also cashed substantially in four others. Bluff just had to find out more...
LEE NELSON
What prompted you to write the book?
Well, I started playing tournament poker seriously around 1997. The
more I played, the more I thought about the game and saw that the way
it was being played was changing. I realized that a new book needed to
be written.
Blair Rodman and I originally decided to write the definitive book on
NL tournament poker, but we realized it would take several years and
several volumes. With the
crush of books hitting the
market, we thought the
best thing to do would be
to focus on long-ball play.
There had been nothing
written on the subject, and
that is what Kill Phil is all
about.
What kind of player
will benefit from
this book?
I think it’s for everyone
and that’s the feedback we
have gotten. The beginners
will certainly benefit
dramatically from Kill Phil
“Rookie” and “Basic.” Both
of those chapters will
make a beginner competitive
in online or live tournaments
immediately.
The “Basic,” “Plus,” and
“Expert” sections include
tournament survival plays
that really haven’t been
written about before, and this helps a lot of the old school players adjust
to compete with the new school players who are playing a very different
game.
What’s the best way for more advanced players to use
Kill Phil?
I think the best strategy is to mix in small-ball play with Kill Phil.
Early, when stacks are huge, try seeing flops with small pairs. Kill Phil
will benefit you most when you are medium- to small-stacked. A lot of
players allow themselves to get blinded down to the point where they
have no chance to win the tournament. When you are short- to mediumstacked,
the all-in move is the best play, and most players’ traditional
handselection is too rigid at this point.
Do you think that Kill Phil is more successful in multitable
tournaments or sit’n’gos?
From our feedback, it’s effective in both. In multi-table tournaments,
I suggest mixing up a bit of small-ball with Kill Phil early on. The problem
with bigger tournaments is the waiting game: you have a huge
stack early, and it doesn’t make sense to play many hands, since you
can often get in a lot of trouble. With Kill Phil strategy, you play very few
hands early, so it’s designed to keep you away from trouble. If you can
mix in a bit of limping to try to hit sets or big draws while playing Kill
Phil, that’s ideal.
In sit’n’gos, the blinds go up so fast that Kill Phil is really the optimal
strategy. You have to get in there and play, and I think using purely Kill
Phil, you give yourself the best chance to win. You will never have the
problem of getting blinded out.
How about live play?
Live, if you pick up big hands early, it can get you an awful lot of
chips. But overall, it’s more effective online. If you mix it in with smallball
live, I think you have the nuts! When you get into short- to medium-
stack territory, there’s no better strategy in my opinion, whether
online or live, no matter who you are.
Even the top players in the world – if they have any weakness, it’s in
their long-ball play. A lot of the small-ball pros, such as the Negreanus,
Hansens, and Hellmuths,
don’t want to commit all
their chips. They only get
all of them in when they
have a huge hand. If you
can prove to them that you
have no fear of putting all
your chips in, it will help
your game and your image
dramatically against those
guys.
Did you use Kill Phil
by the book during
your run in the
Aussie Millions?
There was one play
early on in the tournament,
which, while it was
not exactly Kill Phil, did
use the basic Kill Phil principles.
It was at the first
level of tournament. I
made it 225, with blinds of
50/100, with 6.7. and
20k in starting chips. The
flop came Q.4. 5.. I checked; a guy bet the pot (1,000), and three
players called. I moved in. The first player folded aces, the second player
folded tens, and next player folded bottom two pair after thinking for
six minutes. The last player folded a big flush draw. I increased my
stack size by 25%. While this is a relatively common play in cash games,
it’s not a traditional move in tournaments. I thought, based on Kill Phil,
that this was clearly the right play. If I did get called and was knocked
out, so be it. If I got called and I won, I would have doubled up early. It’s
very difficult for someone to call in that situation without a set
or better.
We tested the Kill Phil “Rookie” strategy by playing 50
$5 sit’n’gos on PartyPoker.com. Here are the results.
Total Money Invested: 50 x $6 = $300
Total Winnings: $315
Return on Investment: 5% (Not bad!)
Average Finishing Position (10-person table): 4.06
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