Shipboard poker - aka How to play with bad players

Just had a vacation - and on the cruise ship there was one night of no limit hold 'em poker tournaments.

$60 buy in - 1500 in chips - single table 4:00 pm tourney.

This tourney had 7 players in it, I think - top 3 positions pay out. I played very conservatively.

But the blinds started high (25/50) and were raised quickly - every 15 minutes (50/100 - 100/200)

So, yes, my conservative play meant that I wasn't out of the running, but I had a smaller chipstack (1050) when I decided to make a stand.

The player on my left was a weak, very, very aggressive player, who got lucky several times.

I limped into the pot with the blinds at 50/100 - and J/10 unsuited - he raised me 100, and the table folded around to me. Knowing his weakness and the weak raise, I tried to knock him out by going all in (850 raise) over him.

He called and showed 5/6 suited.

Flop comes 5/?/? and I said oh fuck - but the ?/? turned out to be 7/J

So, not so bad. Nothing hit on the turn. But the river was another 5. And that was $60 down the drain.

We restarted at 5 pm, every one of us worried about the 6 pm seating for dinner. Formal night - no big deal, right? Righht. 9 folks sat on this game, making the payouts $210/$150/$90

This time around I actually got some cards. Won a hand with A/K - Won a hand with pocket K's, even with an A on the flop. Rolled over top of a limper (small blind) with garbage from the big blind.

I was still seated next to the weaker player, but this time around I took some significant money from him - possibly with that A/K holding up vs. his 7/8 suited or Q/3 or whatever he was playing.

Significant hand in that one was from the button or near it. One of the decent players across the way went all in with a smaller stack. I had pocket 9's, and was the big stack at the table.

I went all in - the weak player on my left went all in as well, and the blinds folded.

He showed crap, the stronger player showed A/? - but the 9's held up and I was now the monster stack, with only 3 folks left at the table.

I stayed out of the action a bit, and the other two players duked it out, until one of them outdrew the other on an all in.

With our stacks almost equal (pretty sure I had the edge) and it now 6pm - we chopped the pot at $180 each.

Moral of the story. I'm still happy to play with weaker players, but I just need time to take their money.

If they get lucky, they get lucky - even the best hand vs. the worst hand still loses about 1/6 times.

So, as long as I continue to make the right play, I'm happy

Edit - I meant to post a link to this, as well - classic example of the type of player I'm happy to sit with -

FLYNT: "The biggest advantage that I have to my play is… you can teach anyone the basic strategy of poker. Where I take the advantage is… money. It don't hurt me if I lose, I can afford to lose, it's not going to change my lifestyle in the least. So, you get some of those guys — even though they may be well known poker players who are very good — that are still coming into the game with a short bankroll. It's tough to play your best game when you're short on money. "

http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/interviews/interviews-flynt.htm