Best online poker games on Launchpoker.com

  The WPT gave us some real excitement during the Season VI Championship. Whether it was Gus Hansen eliminating player after player on unlikely, game changing river cards, or David Chiu wiping up Hansen's massive chip lead when they were heads up, then sending the Dane to the showers by delivering a bad beat of his own, it was highly entertaining. When you dissect the heads up struggle for the Championship crown, there is a lot to learn about playing from the short stacked position.



  At the beginning of heads up play Gus Hansen had twenty-two million in chips, and David Chiu had barely enough to pay for a baked potato from "Wendy's". What happened next was a pure stroke of tactical brilliance. Chiu put his ego aside and played a game of hit and run with his more chip endowed opponent.



  Instead of getting drawn into direct, big money confrontations, he would fold. Whenever Gus made a bet that was roughly equal to the size of David's entire stack, Chiu would just smile and calmly put his cards on the table and wait for the next hand. By doing this he refused to let Hansen dictate the terms of the encounter. David kept himself afloat by winning small hand after small hand. After a while frustration began to set in on Gus over his inability to break someone with so few chips.



  After about an hour of this relentless play, it was obvious that David was killing Hansen with a thousand tiny cuts. As Gus became more frustrated, Chiu began to exploit this as well and take advantage of Gus's mistakes.



  Eventually the worm turned and it was David Chiu who was in the chip lead. Instead of learning from what his opponent had been doing to him, Gus Hansen reacted to the reversal of fortune by going all in and trying to get everything back in one shot. He lost the hand, and the Season VI Championship.



  The lesson here is that in a tournament where you are confronted with an opponent who has a dramatic chip lead over you, go small, and don't fall for the all in bet unless you have a reasonable chance of winning.