Thinking of playing my first tourny - advice please

Hey guys,

While I've got time over Christmas I want to have a go at playing my first tournament. I'm doing well on the $50 cash tables at empire, and can do well at the $100 tables but my bankroll doesn't like the variance when I play aggressively ;-). My bankroll's just shy of $500 now.

I've played a few $6 single table sng's to get a feel for things, both turbo and normal placed, and usually get to the top 3 now.

The question is, what kind of tournament would you recommend, and do I need to consider moving to some higher sng's first? I don't want to commit huge amounts of time and money (3-4 hours is my absolute upper limit), but if I'm going to dedicate a few hours to this I'd like a chance of a decent size win at the end...

My bankroll's solely on Empire Poker now, but moving between sites isn't a problem if I need to.

thanks,

Myx

With a bankroll of $500 I would consider a $5-$10 buy-in mtt as my first one. It's only one percent($5) so wouldnt matter too much if you didnt cash. As it's your first one, consider these points when deciding:
1. Dont play re-buys, or turbos, till your familiar with them.
2. Play a mtt with between 200-300 players(for some reason I cash better at these) with an added pot if possible.
3. Study the schedule before you play your first one, pay attention to the blind structure and familiarise yourself with it, ie, are you happy with how the blinds rise, and how quickly. If you consider yourself a good poker player(dont we all!), then try to find one with extended rounds, that way you get to play good poker without worrying about being blinded out.
4. Pick one in the next week or so, as most sites have big xmas bonuses on some of their tournaments, where they juice the pot a hell of a lot.
5. Have fun. But take it seriously. Treat it as a fun tournament, that's the way poker should be played, but also consider all your poker knowledge when playing it, when to fold, when to draw etc.If you consider you are beat in a hand, then act like you are, ie fold!
6. Good luck with it, and tell us how you got on.
KD
(Tell me if any of this is wrong, cc-ers!)

Thanks KD, how long can I expect to be playing in a tourny of 200-300 players?

Depends....(on game, blind speeds, freezeout, etc)

If we take a bog standard freezeout, then you are looking at between 4 and 5 hours for this number of people.

KerouacsDog said:

(Tell me if any of this is wrong, cc-ers!)

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Nope, seems sound to me, KD.

Btw, Myx, I don`t think you would want to be playing $100 tables with a BR of just $500. Have you read the articles on BR management, like this:

https://www.cardschat.com/build-your-online-poker-bankroll.php

Yeah, was on the $100 tables for a good while, but after a bad run dropped back to the $50's to sort myself out. Basically got over confident after a really good run. Playing a lot better now, but I've still got a very aggressive style so I'm still a bit worried my variance is gonna be huge on the $100 tables.

myxiplx said:

Thanks KD, how long can I expect to be playing in a tourny of 200-300 players?

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well, see, that depends on the site you play, and what blind structure they have.
My home site(my most-used by me) has this wierd turbo blind structure, but only wierd to other people(as has been mentioned to me, politely!) but quite normal to me, as that's what I'm used to, anyway, the basis of it's blind structure is to near enough double every 8 minutes. Which, like ive said, could be turbo to some people, but normal to me. Anyway, a 200 people tourney there lasts from anything between 2.5 and 4+ hours, but Ive been into the cash by an hour and a half, depending on play, then it's all down to how good the people are who are left, but I would say 3 hours average for 200 people.
My only ever win in a big freeroll was at Absolute, 2000 people, and that lasted 6 hours with me winning the big $10 first prize. So 2000 people at absolute=6 hours. But not always!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the immense detail, that's just me getting carried away!
Good luck.
KD

I agree with KD (again).

Would just add one point - rebuys tend to be significantly longer than freezeouts. The first hour is only an intro. The game doesn`t really start until the rebuy period ends, and then there will be a lot of chips floating around relative to the number of players.

KerouacsDog said:

1. Dont play re-buys, or turbos, till your familiar with them.

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Re-buys and Turbo's have thier advantages if you get really pay attention to how they work.

Another bit of advice is to read up on tourney strategy because there is a lot more to look at then at ring-games. You gotta keep track of your stack and blind structure....your chipstack compaired to your opponents....how close to the payout you are. There are a lot more things too.

JimboJim said:

Re-buys and Turbo's have thier advantages if you get really pay attention to how they work.

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True. I have only fairly recently discovered the joys of Re-buys myself, partly as a result of reading tips from other members here at CC.

I think KD is right, tho, they are not the place to start. Become comfortable with freezeouts first before trying the more challenging formats.

Egon Towst said:

True. I have only fairly recently discovered the joys of Re-buys myself, partly as a result of reading tips from other members here at CC.

I think KD is right, tho, they are not the place to start. Become comfortable with freezeouts first before trying the more challenging formats.

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Probably a good idea. My fist online game was actually a re-buy and I came in 2nd without rebuying. If you can make that happen it is sooo sweet.

Egon Towst said:

True. I have only fairly recently discovered the joys of Re-buys myself, partly as a result of reading tips from other members here at CC.

I think KD is right, tho, they are not the place to start. Become comfortable with freezeouts first before trying the more challenging formats.

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JimboJim said:

Probably a good idea. My fist online game was actually a re-buy and I came in 2nd without rebuying. If you can make that happen it is sooo sweet.

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Not sure if Im right Egon, but just giving my take on it.
MTT's can be quite daunting if you are used to sngs/cash tables, so if you're gonna play them, IMO it's best to start off small, until your comfortable with them. Also, a big factor in playing mtt's is to remember that obviously you are not going to cash as frequently as a single table sng, but when you do, more often than not it's a good payout for your initial stake. Ive had runs of 20 mtt's without a cashout, and then I'll hit 2 final tables in a row, by luck/skill(a combination of both!) and the payouts take me way back up. Just have patience with each one, a good idea is to write off the buy-in as a loss as soon as you register, so that when you do cash it's almost a bonus.That make sense?

Rebuys are fantastic, if you know how to play them.(Not sure if I do yet?).
My girlfriend played one this morning on costa, 0.25 euro buy-in, unlimited rebuys, I think she rebought 5 times, total stake 1 euro 50, and managed to cash 26th place for 13 euros. i think the winner got 300+ euros. not bad if you only bought in and never rebought!
Lastly, didnt Phil Ivey, or some pro play a rebuy, and rebought 37 times, and still managed a cashout with profit?

KerouacsDog said:

Just have patience with each one, a good idea is to write off the buy-in as a loss as soon as you register, so that when you do cash it's almost a bonus.That make sense?

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What I do is keep track of my ring game winnings. I then use half of those winnings to buy into a MTT. Then I keep track of my MTT winnings seperatly and use that as fun money to buy into satellittes, buy into MTT's bigger than my BR should allow, to cash out...whatever. That way my BR usually is going up even if I lose every MTT I buy into and the winnings are all like a bonus.

JimboJim said:

What I do is keep track of my ring game winnings. I then use half of those winnings to buy into a MTT. Then I keep track of my MTT winnings seperatly and use that as fun money to buy into satellittes, buy into MTT's bigger than my BR should allow, to cash out...whatever. That way my BR usually is going up even if I lose every MTT I buy into and the winnings are all like a bonus.

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+rep for excellent idea. cant wait till i can play some more mtt's(2 weeks without,and counting!)

Just make sure you have the time for an MTT. Depending on the number of players it is a big time investment. Things do pop up from time to time when playing that you can't control. Just try not to schedule or play when there's a chance of people popping over.

pokerstars have large number of entrants to their tourneys. Im thinking thats not that good to have even if it adds to the pot. But it means its tougher and takes longer.

Maybe try absolute poker's tourneys? They have a few where they add quite a bit to the prize, and not as many entrants as stars.

Those are only ones i have experience in.

Thanks guys, some great replies already. All this is so useful to know when you've never even seen a tourney played.

Tropical Poker has a lot of $100, $200, and sometimes $500 Guaranteed tourneys that sometimes dont even get enough entries to pay for half of the prize. I've been having problems with it booting me a lot though.