MATTHEW ROBINSON

Weblog: Giving insight into online poker

Seizing the moment key to tourney success

DEFINING moments. We've all had them. One of mine was finding out that Father Christmas didn't exist.

It's not only a breach of trust.  A loss of faith in the white bearded one is an example of your parents having your best interests at heart, despite leaving us kids asking why they never bought us presents.

After this ordeal I knew that, at the tender ageof 18, if I wanted to make it in this world I would need to create my own luck and put myself in the best possible situations to succeed. Every defining moment we experience sees something learned and something gained.

It's knowingwhen a defining moment occurs that's difficult. During the course of a multi-table tournament you will come across one point which will define it. A moment when you go from being a medium stack to a big stack with a real shot at winning it all, or when you're eliminated.

Recently, I was involved in a pot with an opponent who raised all-in pre-flop. I held a pair of Jacks and called. My reasoning for calling was as  follows; my opponent had made the same move five times inthe last ten hands, my stack only had seven more rounds in it, and if I won the hand I would have a very good stack with only 40 players remaining.

Doyle Brunson once said luck favours the backbone, not the wishbone, although on this occasion it favoured my opponent, who held King-Jack and snagged a King.

The point is, nothing is for free. You need to know when your defining moment is. At some point you will need to take your chance to truly define your tournament existence.