Jay Greenspan Presents: "Learning From Allen Cunningham"

On Friday, Allen Cunningham completed anotheramazing World Series of Poker. He made three final tables in the 2006 WSOP,won one bracelet, and finished 4th in the Main Event. This comes on theheels of his 2005 WSOP performance, when he was named Player of Year aftermaking four final tables and winning a bracelet. During this year's WSOP, I wrote a blog for Full Tilt Poker and, during theMain Event, I decided to focus my coverage on Allen. For four days, Iobserved his play and, in that time, I came to see some of the qualitiesthat make him so great. For this tip, I thought I would share some of what Ihave learned about the best WSOP player over the past two years.Big Pot - Big HandThe pros often say they're not going to play big pots without big hands, butAllen applies this principle better than most. Over the two days leading tothe final table (about 18 hours of play), Allen played a total of four bigpots. In two of them, he had sets. In one, he had the nut flush and, in thelast, he had pocket Aces and was all-in pre-flop against pocket Kings. BoardLeft<http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/email/20060814/lessons_board_left.gif><http://tor-mail00.fulltiltpoker.com/trk/click?ref=zqac6cer3_1-423x32dx3497383&> Board Right<http://tor-mail00.fulltiltpoker.com/trk/click?ref=zqac6cer3_1-423x32dx3497383&> When he had something like top pair, Allen played far morecautiously. He'd simply call bets or check one street so that he couldcontrol the size of the pot. When the big money went in, Allen had a handthat would hold up. Don't PanicThe WSOP Main Event is a grueling two weeks. During that time, there arebound to be big shifts in fortune and Cunningham saw his change severaltimes. On days 2 and 3, he was among the chip leaders. But a bad stretch ofcards brought him close to the felt on day 4 and again on day 5. At onepoint on day 5, Allen had to survive a race to stay in the tournament.When his chips got low, Allen didn't panic. He didn't push his chips in thepot with dreadful cards. While he had enough chips to survive a few roundswith the blinds, he waited for a hand that could win at showdown. Of course, it took some luck to survive when his stack got low, but by beingcalm and patient, Allen gave himself the best possible chance to see anotherday. Always the ObserverAt the table, Allen is quiet, but friendly. He doesn't say anything duringthe course of a hand and he never shows his cards unless a hand goes toshowdown. In the Main Event, Allen's opponents regularly showed their bluffsor tabled big hands that were uncalled. This gave Allen a distinct advantagethat he could exploit. He was gaining knowledge on how they played their bighands and their bluffs, while his opponents were learning next to nothingabout him. Allen was always focused on his opponents, even when he wasn't in a hand.When a big confrontation occurred at his table, he studied the players'actions, picking up information that he could use later. It's been an incredible year for Allen Cunningham. When ESPN broadcasts hisplay in the coming weeks, you'll get to see just how well he played in thisyear's WSOP. Jay Greenspan
>> Another great article from FullTilt Poker. Good Luck at the tables. Tony