How to beat Calling Stations in a Tourney Home Game?

O.K. usually about 6 of us play a Sit N Go Tourney.

We play 2 a night, each is $5.

This is the setup

POKER TOURNEY SET-UP

5K worth in chips

Blinds:
Level
1 25/50 (15 minutes)
2 50/100 (15 minutes)
3 (Get rid of $25 chips) 100/200 (10 minutes)
4 200/400 (10 minutes)
5 300/600 (10 minutes)
6 (Get rid of $100 chips)500/1000 (10 minutes)
7 1000/2000 (10 minutes)
8 2000/4000 (10 minutes)
9 3000/6000 (10 minutes)

(WVHILLBILLY helped me with this ^^^)

O.K I am probably a donk because I can't beat my other donk friends.

One hand I had AQ in late position, I raised about 3 or 4 times the BB.

I get one caller.

Flop comes A-6-(some blank card)

He bets into me, and I call.

He keeps betting the turn and river, and I keep calling.

He shows A6 at the end of the hand. I lose.

Another hand, was late in the tourney and I only had about 10 BB's left.

I get dealt A7 in late position, and shove.

I guy with frekin' 57 calls.

Of course he hits a miracle 5 and I am eliminated.

In conclusion, I am just wondering what strategy I should use to beat my friends that play pretty much ANY TWO CARDS.

O.K. sorry for the rant, and thanks for reading.

I think just keep playing your best game, and hope your luck comes around. See some flops in those early levels. Don't freak out when you get beat -- don't instruct them on why they made the wrong play. They are there to have a good time, and so are you -- when you do win, claim you got lucky.

Play tight. V-bet shit out of them.

Raise bigger pre as well. It makes no difference to them whether they call 3BB or 7BB. If you make a hand carry on betting close to pot. If they never fold and you miss just give up unless you have massive equity in which case wait till you realise that equity then revert to V-betting shit out of them again.

YESSSSS!!!

I won my first home tourney.

We only had 4 people, so first place got 15$ and second got $5.

I won the first tourney, and came in 2nd for the second tourney, for a grand profit of $15.

I played very tight in the early levels, while people were being dumb.

One person got knocked out when the blinds were still 25/50 (5k starting stacks)

I picked my spots, and raised almost every button.

Usually 1 person would call me, and then I would just bet into them when they checked to me, and BOOM! Easy win.

I would have been in prime position to win the second tourney as well, but I lost a QQ vs. AK match up (I had QQ). I figured I would go for the kill, however he caught an Ace, which I was fine with. I was still able to survive until the heads up match, so I got another $5 back.

Thanks for all the help guys!

If the calling stations are aggressive in betting and bluffing, I'd trap them since they may have a hard time folding a decent hand. Good job!

Your hands was just unlucky, over time you will win like that, not these guys.

A,Q, you could of shoved when he bet in to you (of course he is never folding 2 pair) so unlucky but you can't ever fold, I'd just be getting chips in though on flop/turn. A,7 is fine to shove with 10blinds and again, just unlucky...not sure what else there is to say.

They are making incorrect plays, you're not

Just won another tourney.

5 people

$5 per person

2 tourneys.

$20 for 1st $5 for second.

I won one tourney, and lost another

Net gain for night = $10

2 weeks in a row!!!

I'll post more details tomorrow.

Congrats. You guys haven't gone back to playing cash games yet?

No, people love the tourney so much.

The main reason is that the most you can lose in a night is $10.

Usually people will only lose 5 if they can squeeze their way into the money for one of the games.

Plus tourney's just add more fun to the game I think in general.

One guy did mention going back to cash games, but everyone else liked the tourney, so he didn't really care.

If we do go back to a cash game I will be sure to change it to a $.05/$.10 game, because our other set-up was all screwed up.

I definitely want to keep the tourney going though for as long as possible.

If you're generally playing with the same folks week after week you might want to think about starting a league. Back when my group played tourneys we did it a couple of times and it worked out pretty well.

See how that works? Nothing stronger than a well played button. At the least, you don't loose your blinds.

Congrats on the wins.


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How exactly would a league work? Keep in mind that its a bunch of 16-18 year olds that play. And yes, It is the same group of guys every week.

Thank you.

Yea, most of my friends have no idea what position is or what it means.

(And I plan to keep it that way)

I would really like some opinions on this one hand I played last night.

It was the first hand of the night, and I was dealt .

I was on the button, and everyone limped or folded to me so a raised about 4X the BB.

I got 1 caller.

Flop came 3 spades!!!!

I was so pumped, but I kept my cool.

My friend bet into me, about half of the pot, I honestly cannot remember though exactly how much.

I thought about it a while (trying to act weak).

Then I re-raised him, about the same amount that he bet into me.

This was a mistake I think, because I let him get of the hook without making any mistakes.

He instantly- folded, and I won.

But I realized that I probably should have just flat called, and hope that he fired another barrel on the turn, and maybe even the river, where I could then shove.

Anyway, how would you guys have played this?

Thanks

Good realization.

These was the league setup we used.
http://lflsports.com/stfu/stfu_rules.htm

Basically you can do it the same way you are now as far as blinds, etc. but you just need to keep track of how people finish each week and award points.

These were the "show em" chips we used.

STFU doubled as Show Them Face Up.

I play 15 small sit and goes a day. Its mostly luck your battling.I dont notice when Im beating A6 with AQ cuz im supposede to win those...the dark days are when every AA, AK, 10 10 10 set gets beat by 67s,qjs, jjj etc... It happends - play more aggressive - hell shove all in or fold preflop for a wj=hile to change their perception of you - they wont donk u as much.

Thanks man.

In the last four weeks, I have had 3 1st place finishes, so I think I am starting to figure is out.

My best hand is when I had

flop came down : Ace and two other low cards,

I bet, and my opponent shoved all-in.

I could tell he was just trying to make me fold, so I snapped called and flipped over my cards. He showed like J4 or some crap, and I won a HUUUUUGE pot.

It felt nice

i like to tighten up oop and value bet them to death in position

sit back early and watch the fireworks


don't bluff until river ... the stations want to see all those cards 1st and they are more scared of suited or connected boards than they should be ... so you can make bluffs in those spots


bet for value, not to protect your hand or to bluff


if you get chips, bully them later on and force them into big mistakes


when shove fold time comes ... their range will be wide

15 / 10 minute blinds ?? You may as well play bingo.