What Is Gamble?

[Sentinel]

I know what the definition of the word is, but want to know what it means in a poker setting and, more to the point, in relation to good tournament poker.

I ask because Erick Lindgren (a good player) is a major exponent of it and believes you need that gamble and to take risks. Unfortunately I have only read about him espousing this but have never watched him.

Fearing too much for your tourney life is another line of thought I often hear about and that not giving a sh*t about it could pay dividends. And on top of this is the well known sight of a complete maniac enjoying good fortune time and again. So, building on this, and after watching yet another a maniac tear up a 2nd stage qualifier with unbelievable luck (like Q6 outdrawing pocket K) I decided to gamble myself.

I called a pre flop all in, after a raise, with A7. I guessed my opponent was strong but vulnerable and put him on a medium pocket pair. He flipped 10s and I hit my ace but lost to a higher flush. Then in another tourney I called another pf all in with A2 suited, taking a chance on flush and straight draws as well as the fact my ace may be good. Again, I flopped top pair but my opponent held KA.

I know A7 and A2, even suited, are weak hands and that the chance of flopping a flush is low. However, I decided to test out the 3 schools of thought above. Surprisingly enough, I was close both times I did. Is this the kind of gamble that Lindgren talks about?

Thx

[MrDarling]

First poker is gambling.
Every hand you play you are risking money hoping to be favorite when most money is going in. Even if you only risk your stack when you are 90% favorite, you are still gambling.

How this apply to tournaments? Well, almost never by calling big AI PF.

1 example will be to reraise AI loose aggressive player with small suited connectors . You are hoping villain doesn't have a hand and will fold most of the times. The times he elects to call with to big cards, you are likely to only be a slight dog. And the times he call with a big over pair you'd still win some % of the time. So combining all those together ,ie the amount of time he folds + the amount of times he'll call and you'd win make this a profitable (of course as long as you don't abuse it and lose fold equity)

[Jernej Zorec]

its like MrDarling said,

the gambling u are looking for is not calling off your Chips with A rag.
Its gambling where u apply pressure and reraise all in and let other player to make a terrible call.

What hands to use ? either big hands obv. or cards that have alot of potential and will be live if u do get a call,
so souted connectors, sooted 1 gapers, conecting cards etc.

Kevin "Belowabove" Saul (he won one of wpt events and was top of P5's online rankings) once replied in a thread saying "pushing with 74s is better then calling your stack off with AQo"

[tame_deuces]

Well, making the odd funky call will make a lot of raises carry a lot more weight vs player who knows you might see this hand to the end - even with not much of a hand.

I'm not saying to make a general rule of it, but the odd funky call is ok.

As always and with a big caveat; This ofcourse only applies vs opponents who actually care about such things.