Playing "for fun"

I've noticed that players will often use the uninteresting stakes of the game (or of a preflop wager) to justify their loose, unsound play. That is, if the money involved means nothing to the player, they may very well make some plays which they wouldn't make had the price been steeper. In fact, some people, especially those who do play for money, are incapable of playing tight aggressive poker anytime there is no money at stake. This adds a lot of value for the people in the game who are playing like they have any sense, especially in a tournament.

I was playing a free tournament on FullTilt last night, and I saw an extreme example of this. The entry was 250 play-money chips (your bankroll starts at 1000 pmc's, but you can reload if you go broke), and there were 90 entrants. A friend of mine was competing in the tournament too, so I was watching both our tables. On the first hand, at both tables, almost half of the table was all-in before the flop, though the blinds were 15-30 with stacks of 1500! In fact, I checked "tourney info" right after the first hand's conclusion and found that a third of the field had been eliminated.

Never, ever, ever, play like these guys. The fact is that that happens in almost every 250pmc tournament, which is one reason I've been able to beat them so consistently - it's almost like a 50-50 shot as far as getting to the final table is concerned, but that's more than okay since when you get there you'll be getting more than double your entry back (7K to the winner).

Though there was no money involved, and I was bummed over the fact that I had lost twelve bucks earlier, I was glad when I came in second in the 90-person tournament last night, because it proved that I do know how to outmaneuver people who play too many hands and go too far with them. Hopefully this will give me confidence in tonight's game, and I can record another win.