Live tourny tips needed

Hello guys,

I have been playing online sngs seriously for about 2months now and recently decided to try my hand at a live multi tourny (freezout).
I am not a very experienced live player and find it much more distracting than online. After a few hours my stack was slowly crumbling down and i made a stupid move off the bb and was out.
Anybody got any tips for live tournys? and also i know the number of hands played per blind (every 15 mins) is much lower than online. What time limits on an online tourny give the most similar hands per blind average as live tournys. e.g 10, 5, 3mins?

Thanks

As far as strategy goes I would say that there's really no difference as to what you want to do live vs online play. If you're finding yourself easily distracted there's a couple of things that came to mind to keep yourself occupied for the slower live play that might take a little getting used to coming from mainly online play.

I would not look at my cards until it's my turn to act, on every hand. This keeps your thoughts clear and you can watch each player make their decision without thinking to yourself "please raise please raise", or just be completely unbothered by what's going on because you're going to fold. It'll keep your thoughts constantly flowing and you might even pick up on a tell or two.

I love to play the game I call "What's the nuts?" I always figure out the best possible hand for each flop, and subsequent card that comes out. Also figuring out the best drawing hands for the board and what I like to call, the most interesting card that could come game, to make the board more exciting.

Also, just watching people that are involved in hands. I tend to stare at peoples hands a lot because I feel that they give away a lot of information as the the strength of their hand, I misread people when I look at their faces and feel I give away to much information as to the strength of my hand when we make eye contact.


Live play is, imo, a lot less distracting then online play because there's no TV, internet to peruse, and there's usually a conversation going on at the table, but if you're feeling distracted maybe try out a few things i mention. i tend to do well in live MTTs and that's usually what I'm doing most of the time to keep me occupied wen I'm not in hands.

Hope this helps, even if you only take one thing from it it's better then nothing.

ps. i have no idea what the ratio would be for online time played to live time played as far as seeing hands go....sorry

Thanks for the reply gin, appreciate the info. I think not looking at your cards untill it is your turn is a useful tip, like you say.
I don't think ill play mini games with myself though, might find that more entertaining than the poker game

I agree with Gin on just about everything he said. Most of the time, I don't look at my cards until it's coming up on my turn to act. Usually, when I'm the small blind, and everybody limps in, I'll call the big blind without looking at my cards. Sometimes dumb, but sometimes, if people are paying attention.. it makes people think twice about raising post-flop. Since you can't read a person who doesn't look at their hand. Makes it easier to bluff if you decide to do so.

I also try to figure out the best possible hand like Gin said, and also figure out what two combination of cards can possibly beat me.

As far as ratio for hands played.. it's probably about 3:1 in games with 8 people. In live poker, on average, the blinds will circle the table 1 1/2 times, possibly twice on speedier hands in 15 minutes.. assuming players don't get knocked out within that time, which is about 10-12 hands. In 15 minute blinds online, I'm guessing at close to 30 hands in 15 minutes. I usually play turbo games online, so I might be a little off on the online number.

Sorry, don't like taking any action without getting all the information you can. That includes what's in your hand. You could be letting people draw for free if you pick up a monster or you could be throwing away money with a crap hand. It's harder to play against someone playing blind, but there's a reason people don't just play all blind. Poker's a game of information, and if you don't even have information about the one thing that's readily available, your hand, then you're hurting yourself.