Getting caught by the blinds.

Ok Im sure there has been a thread on this already, its just that Im too damn lazy to go find it. If there is I apologize and someone point that out to me. Anyway Ive raised the issue in playing poker forum under Turkuchip's thread tight tables are no good in freerolls. Again Im sorry for crashing the topic cause I thought it was related. Because I didnt get a reply (or I was deliberately ignored) Im posting it here again.

In my last post I mentioned something about getting caught by the blinds in a tourney, which Im sure often happens to tight players like myself with very little aggression (or should I say skill). Anyway, how often do you find yourselves faced with this problem? And what do you do when this happens? Im just curious to know what you experts do. For me, when I know that the blinds are gonna eat into my stack, I will change my style of play and start playing average hands like suited connectors and A-10s and being more aggresive, often this works but I get knocked out alot as well. My logic is if Im gonna get caught by the BB sooner or later with 7-2os and im gonna get eliminated anyway, I might as well take my chances now with a choice of hands. Of course this is all done in conjunction with my read of the players on the table as well (i.e. go up against the known morons on the table knowing they too have marginal or poor hands). Im speaking on the assumption that you are rarely or not getting any good or premium hands so far in the tourney. So what do you guys think is the best thing to do here?

Happens to me very very often in my freerolls because I do play tight. I've tried to combat it by playing a bit looser about 10 people before the bubble.

Looking forward to some answers to this thread though.

Generally, when I'm about to be blinded to death, I pick a decent starting hand and go all in preflop with it. I find that when I try to play normally with such a short stack, the big boys end up pushing me around, and I either fold something that would win or I go all in with something that's not very good. If I go in preflop, yes it's luck of the draw, but at least I can go in with something I know has a good shot. Then, if I double up a few times, I'm back in the running with the rest of the pack.

I would, however, make an exception if a large portion of the table plays very loosely. If too many people will call my all in raise preflop, even if they have rags, chances are one is going to get lucky. In this case, I'd feel better seeing a flop. But if I get high pair with a good kicker on the flop, I'll try going all in.

If you only have enough chips for about 6 blinds, you are probably nearing "short stacked". Therefore, you must take chances and not let anyone steal your blinds if you can. So, if you are getting blinded out each round - next time someone raises to steal, go all-in. You have to make a move sometime so why not now? If you get called and you win - great; if you lose - its better to go out in a blaze of glory than a whimper.

Also, you can't wait for that perfect hand to steal a blind - you have to watch the betting and your position. If no one bets before you - bet a large raise to steal the blinds yourself. If someone calls it -- re-raise and go all-in if you are short stacked. Again - blaze of glory - no whimpering.

I've been caught myself and after being blinded out to around 2400 chips and a 2000 blind - it didn't feel good so I decided to be the aggressor instead of the meek one from now on.

5x BB is basically the red line for me, when my stack is this low, first "playable" hand I get go allin! Usually any ace or pair... This is most any tournament for me. Now when you apply it to freerolls would not be a bad idea to kick it upto 8x reason being just "placing" in a freeroll is pretty much pointless you want to WIN! I used to play ALOT of freerolls and it just is hard to justify grinding out the last paying place when you are talking about 50 cents, although to someone who is looking for their first taste of real money that 50 cents can seem like a gold mine I understand the thinking. In the end you want to WIN the tourney and being terribly short stacked and trying to back into the last paying spot just isn't worth it IMHO...

Another rule is you cant call as much when the blinds are getting up and ure stack is getting short so its either all-in or fold. The blinds get me alot because i pplay tight. so before the blinds go up just try and build a stack.

When your 10x the bigblind then ure short stacked. 5x is so wrong in so many ways

Back to you, xdmanx007. I can't wait to see your response to that one.

Hate when this happens and it happens to often. I was decling rapidly in last Saturday's cash tourney at Noble and I picked hand and went with it. Wasn't the best hand and I busted out. This is one reason I try to build up a little chip reserve early when the blinds are cheap to be able to weather the storm later on...

Ok guys thanks alot for your opinions I appreciate it. Bascially between 5-10 x BB means its time to move. Ive never thought of that before, not until im like 3 x BB which is quite frankly a bit too late in certain cases.

No advice on this front but I just want to say that that happens to me even when I'm not intending to play tight. I've played tourneys where I've gone 40 minutes without seeing a hand that even an agressive player would consider entering a pot with. In the wild west stages of a tournament even big slick is a toss in against 3 all-ins.

Yep, you HAVE to start making moves while you still have enough to bluff. I personally start if I'm around 15x the big blind, because usually if you do get a hand and go in with it, playing it normally and losing it could mean you're out of the picture.

I don't go all-in. I don't risk all of my chips to steal blinds. If I'm in good position I'll usually make a good sized raise (one you know people will usually not call, because sometimes when the blinds are that high people may not even want to call just a little 3x bet), with whatever I have. A lot of times you'll end up with some blinds. You can't do it often enough that everyone notices, and you can't always do it to the same people. They'll call you on it. My goal at that point is to just grab enough in one round to put me through the blinds for free.

At this point in the tourney you NEED to be aggressive. Being tight isn't going to work unless you're grabbing some good cards, but a lot of the times you won't be, and with the blinds so high at this point sitting and waiting is going to do more harm than good.

I say moving much earlier is the way to go. No point in waiting because you'll be struggling to hang on at that point. If you start early and don't bet all your chips to steal blinds (players tend to associate all-ins at the end like that as weakness and just trying to steal the blinds, I get called much less by just doing a decent raise) then you'll probably end up having enough chips to last you til even later in the tourney. If you're not aggressive, you may come out of playing for 4 hours with $3. If you're aggressive, sometimes you may not quite make it to the money, but often times when you do you'll have enough to make it a lot farther into the money, and get enough to be worth your time.

Phew. Long post. My head hurts.

Jon

There's no point stealing blinds if the pot ends up at 50 or 200 or so. You start stealing blinds when they are at about 1000/2000 so that the pot is worth stealing. I see people stealing small pot blinds instead of playing their hands - I don't think that's wise or very profitable.

If you have 15X the big blind and the big blind is 2000 - then you've got 30,000 chips. It depends what others have. If they have much less, you won't be stealing the blinds to save yourself, but to put other out. I think the question was how to stay in a tournament when you are getting short stacked. If everyone has more chips than you at 30,0000, then you need to start stealing. But I'd say most people get panicky when they are at around 8000 chips and blinds are 2000.

If you need to start stealing blinds with a small chip stack - you need to go all-in because you'll never catch up raising, becaue the big stacks will easily call that raise ... you are nearing the end anyway.

Most large chip leaders steal blinds just to get short stacks out and if the short stacks don't respond with an all-in - then they will be blinded out and just slink away. I'm sure you've all seen it happen many times.

But I'm only a woman and it seems you guys are the only ones who know how to play poker.

That's OK Michele, women are good at other things.

Dogs - Your comment really makes this forum very sad. It seems very male dominated and that is sad too. Its a real shame that men have such fragile egos that they can't bring themselves to admit at any time that women actually might know something.

I posted that sentence just to see what reaction I'd get. And I got what I expected. Darn shame.

Michele, as you often tell me, lighten up, that was a clear sarcastic comment... and your line asked for a reply such as that. There is no gender bias on these forums and we'd love for more women to become active posters here.

The only thing I would add to the sage advice already offered here is to look at the cost of the entire betting round, not just the big blind. For instance, if it's late in the tournament and the blinds are at 1000/500 with a 100 ante, that's not just 1000 chips you have to survive in a round of play. In a full ring of ten players, it's actually 2300. If you have 6,000 chips or less, you're already in trouble.

Funny you say that, because I posted my comment for the same reason. And I got what I expected. I'm just surprised it came from you. I thought you knew my sense of humor better than that.
Darn shame.

As has been pointed out before, sarcasm looses some of its appeal on forums.