need opinions and answers

player7000

player7000

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I have read in "poker" books that in low-stakes tourneys to ease into playing and maybe folding a lot of hands the first hour or so! Iwas thinking that wouldn't you want to play more hands when the blinds are so low because it dioesn't cost a lot to see flops? I tried folding for the first hour and only play very strong hands,but after that I am sitting with a low chip stack and escalating blinds forcing me to play hands I usually wouldn't! I usually get knocked out before the bubble or right after it! In tourneys I see very few hands that I would consider playing- AA,KK,QQ.AK,AJ,AQ,mid to high pocket pairs.
I try to steal blinds when I see the opportunity arise!But most of the time I have a bully at the table and get out-betted(is that a word?).
I guess what I am getting at after rambling is-How do you get to latter stages of these tourneys? Do you need good cards or just play aggressive as hell and hope for the best?
I don't have examples, I was just looking for some general advice and strategy!:)
 
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Pokertron3000

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KingCurtis wrote a good article, you should search it out, I am not sure how to put links in(I have only been here 9 months you think I would know by now).

While the blinds are low its a good time to limp some pocket pairs, see if you can grab a set. Yesterday I got into the top 20 of a 3663 player one dollar tourney and I was card dead for the first half hour. Think of a tourney like a marathon you cannot win it in the first few hours. If you get a chance to get a nice stack start bullying the players you think will fold to your raises preflop steal some blinds , pick on the weak players and only commit against the bigger stacks with a great hand. Using this stratagy I usally get quite far and have made a few final tables but Im in need of much work in my poker all round play too.

Try not to panic if your card dead for a while and be patient, wish I had more to offer but I am pretty much a novice myself.
 
Mase31683

Mase31683

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I think a lot of this depends on your strategy. In tournament poker, I really like to be an aggressive force at my table. I'm with you 100%. If I'm in a tournament with less than average players, AND as long as limps seem to be the trend preflop, I want to take a lot of cheap flops, trying to stack people in situations that they shouldn't be letting that happen.

If players know what's going on, then this strategy starts to break down, as you have to take lots of flops to hit a good hand for this, and good players can fold, meaning you bleed off all this money then only make back a % of the total you spent to get to this flop when you hit it, netting a loss.

It is true that you can't win a tournament right away, but you can put yourself in a heck of a good position to win it later. If there's people who are looking to give their stacks away, I want to make sure I'm there to pick up whatever portion they're willing to ship my way.

Further, my strategy necessitates a big stack to keep pressure on opponnents and being able to threaten them with elimination. Without accumulating chips early on, I'm not likely to go deep in this tournament anyway, so busting isn't that big a deal.

Remember in tournaments, don't try to just make it into the money. Making the money is fine and all, but it's not how you really win. You need to go deep, like heads up or 3rd place deep! That's where the money's at in a tourny. And building your stack early on when the play is weak is a great place to start building the empire you'll need to carry you to that deep finish.
 
Jayson745

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I do the same. Limp into a ton of unraised pots early with small blinds. Alot of people dont want to sit around and wait for hands, so they will give action when they hit. Probably thinking "I'd rather double up early or get knocked out early, instead of wasting hours playing for nothing". Those people are prey and will be gone by the time you get your AA KK hands. By the time the blinds get big, I want to be able to afford them with ease. That only happens by winning some hands early. And if you dont see cheap flops against weak opponents, your odds of winning hands early are slim to none.

I'm guessing that the books your refering to were talking about live tourneys where an hour isn't gonna hurt you much. Online, not playing a hand for an hour is not a good idea.
 
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