Early Tourny Play

Im not sure this is actually a play of alot of poker players but it seems like alot of the time in early in a tournament i seem to not get a good hand untill a couple hands in and ill raise 3x bb or 5x depending on position and blind will still be 15/30 with strating stack 1500... and someone else will decide to shove all in instead of making a bigger raise... is this normal or all these kids that do this donks

Psycotic17 said:

Im not sure this is actually a play of alot of poker players but it seems like alot of the time in early in a tournament i seem to not get a good hand untill a couple hands in and ill raise 3x bb or 5x depending on position and blind will still be 15/30 with strating stack 1500... and someone else will decide to shove all in instead of making a bigger raise... is this normal or all these kids that do this donks

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Usually... Their Donks.

Sometimes they have a good holding. That early in a mtt it isnt worth it unless you have a premium hand.

yea online people tend to reach for the all-in button alot compared to live, atleast i've noticed. It's not really helping them if they're pushing everyone out of a hand when they have a monster

This happens a lot in micro stakes/freerolls just because people don't really care what happens and want to increase their chip stack ASAP. Just wait for premium hands and call their shoves, you will lose some, its just going to happen and thats variance, however if you keep getting it in good you will eventually win. Also, in the early stages I like to raise 4 or 5x BBs in micro stakes and even more if their are limpers behind. Freerolls/microstakes arn't even really poker but you gotta grind something to make get up to the higher stakes.

Thanks guys this helps i know what you meen when you say its not even really poker but your right small stakes tend to be worthless... I like them sometimes i like to start with a small deposit and see how high i can get it... Sounds like Jmasterrich you get a bit more luck then i do when i raise 4x or5x BB i awlays get shoved all in and forced to fold or call hoping a mid pair will hold against K 7 lol or some random hand

You probably mean freerolls....
Most of them will be donks.
Just watch their play before you get a good hand + you will know!

Well what are you suppose to do in this situation am i supposed to call and let it all hang on a coin flip or fold and wait untill i get deeper into a tourny where the donks are gone

Psycotic17 said:

Well what are you suppose to do in this situation am i supposed to call and let it all hang on a coin flip or fold and wait untill i get deeper into a tourny where the donks are gone

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'it depends' lol. Typically if it's a 1500chip starting stack there's not alot of room for raise/folding (aside from the first couple of levels)... goal should be to play your strong hands & accumulate chips when you can. If tournament is deeper stacked, there's more room to fold/wait & hang around (not really though in a 1500chip game).

You stated in your post,... didn't get any hands for the first few hands (or something like that).... I've played many tournaments where I didn't get a hand for the first hour.

I don't know how smart it is but I've found that "limping" seems to pay off at the low end of things. You know that some of the people at your table are basically playing any two cards or any high card. It seems as though there are some that wait for people to raise pre-flop guess their bluffing and go all in or if they have a decent hand figure if their going for 5x may as well go all in.

Where if you just limp your like everyone else and when you "make" the hand you can start biding from there and get good payout for your trouble. On top of that if your hand doesn't improve but someone else goes crazy your just out a BB.

when you going against a person that is going all in all the time...do not call unless you get pocket aces , kings or queens...this way you are the fav. going to the pre-flop

just try to tighter your game up a bit more and wait...if you wanna gamble,do when 1/3 or half of the field is gone...

why would you raise 5x pre depending on position??

You should only raise more when limpers are in the pot not due to position or strength of your hand.

Also what sort of range are u opening with in say MP/LP with blinds 15/30?

TD

In the beginning stages of freeroll, there are alot of all ins. Just limp or bet 2bb until after the flop. If you still have a premium hand after the flop, and no one has gone all in already, then increase your bet as the all inners probably are not at your table this time. ONce the freeroll has played maybe 5 or 6 hands, the all inner donks have pretty well played out and it becomes more normal. ONce you hit the 30-40 minutes of play time, the poker becomes more real and the remaining players (majority) have settled down to play some poker

I normally follow The Book by avoiding big pots during the low blind levels, but in many FRs & micro MTTS, there's definitely a "Psycho Donk Zone" at the beginning.

It can be highly profitable to risk it against these lunatics. They'll be gone soon and if you don't get their chips another player will.

After the insanity ends, usually by the end of Level 1, you can revert to "normal" play.

Common in Freerolls--been there done it! Also, in the Massive entrant Stars $1 entry 2-3K guaranteed tourneys.

I like to mix it up with the AI wonders. Either I can chip up or move on--after all there are plenty of low-level buy-ins starting all the time!

GL Best advice I can offer is to do what you are comfortable with and works best for you.

Freeroll --> Early--> Play tight --> Middle/Bubble --> Steal -- Past bubble --> Win free change --> Cash change out --> Rub change on mammaries.

Edit Note: Full tilt has a minimum withdrawal of 100 dollars. Since you will never get to 100 dollars playing regular freerolls, use your imagination to rub the cashed out change on mammaries.

If you wait patiently for about 2-3 blind changes, like 25% of the people are out, for the most part its the donks going AI, but hell, if you catch them off guard with a great hand, doubling up at the beginning aint too shabby either.

Psycotic17 said:

Well what are you suppose to do in this situation am i supposed to call and let it all hang on a coin flip or fold and wait untill i get deeper into a tourny where the donks are gone

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sometimes you can't avoid players like this... in this situation, unless you have a monster, i would fold...

early on i tend to play more hands loose to raises up to 3x the blind because you can afford the blinds early on to try to catch a hand.

i think if you have a big hand like AK AA KK AQ i would probably call if hes just betting/reraising everytime.

it's pretty standard in low limits mostly and on FT, that's where i play mostly. i really try not to play first level -- wait till things cool down, unless it's a rebuy/addon, what can i say.

but don't get wound up in it, lay low it's your best bet. blew off the ofc buyin yesterday because 2nd hand pocket Q's. i made a strong bet in late position and utg went allin and i called they paired A's and i was out - pretty much. i keep vowing not to do that but chit happens.

i later played 200k tourny very tight i might add and finished in the 300's there's about. i didn't make a move without a solid hand that's what made the difference and you didn't see much donking going on at least preflop.
gl on the felt.

paumarhas said:

it's pretty standard in low limits mostly and on FT, that's where i play mostly. i really try not to play first level -- wait till things cool down, unless it's a rebuy/addon, what can i say.

but don't get wound up in it, lay low it's your best bet. blew off the ofc buyin yesterday because 2nd hand pocket Q's. i made a strong bet in late position and utg went allin and i called they paired A's and i was out - pretty much. i keep vowing not to do that but chit happens.

i later played 200k tourny very tight i might add and finished in the 300's there's about. i didn't make a move without a solid hand that's what made the difference and you didn't see much donking going on at least preflop.
gl on the felt.

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yea i had a similar situation happen in the FTOPS Turbo warmup..

i had 12,000 in chips, the average was about 4,000 at the time but there was another guy at the table with 13,000 betting like crazy...

i finally hit a hand, KK so when he raised i reraised all in

i was stunned when i saw the quick call, he ended up having AK and hit a Ace, and that was that...

i played tight and smart but couldve folded this even though its hard, the chip stack/position was not worth it i guess...

One of the strageties I am starting to try is limping with many hands that mainly have high cards and see if I can limp in and hit, but I try not to get too many chips in, mostly 2x bb, It is very risky but you have to play some cards and like someone else said it could be hours berfore you see a real hand and it doesnt pay to be short stack in these tournaments.

Oh the pain is all too familiar here. You get a good hand like KK 1st hand with 1500chips, raise it up 3-4 bb's and then wham, some donkey goes allin over the top. Naturally you call with a monster like that and surprise surprise he has 510 of hearts and then the flop comes 55J and its bye bye's for you.
This happens alot to me so I can feel what you are on about I really do. I tend to play normally by raising the good hands when I get them. If it is early in a tourney with small blinds you will get 3 callers on average. Just take it easy post flop as they could have anything.
I remember some valuable words I heard one day. Keep the pots small with your average hands and make them big when you hit your monsters. This can be done with these donkeys early on, so don't be afraid to throw them kings in the trash if you have 5 callers and a scary flop comes out with people betting crazy on it. But if you hit a K, try to get the pot as big as you can without forcing them out. You will always get callers anyway in a MTT under 1 buck.
Good Luck!