First Live MTT tommorow! Any tips?

PokerFunKid

PokerFunKid

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Hey everyone!
I'm playing my first live EUR 35 Freeze-Out tournament tommorow. It has 30 runners and pays top 3/4. Would be nice to gets some tips.

Do you recommend playing the same game as you normally do online? Don't make reads unless you're really sure your read is correct?
Any other tips or things i should know?

Thanks.

Mat
 
Mr Sandbag

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Most MTT's have a fast structure, so I'll assume the one you're playing in is fast as well.

- You'll never be 100% confident in a read since tournament sample sizes are way too small. Play as close to optimal as you can and go with the info you do have.

- Pay close attention to stack sizes. Misplaying stacks sizes is by far the most common mistake I see in live MTT's. As the average stack decreases, your range should get tighter and your willingness to steal blinds should become greater. You should also pay attention to who is stealing your blinds and defend when appropriate. Limping is usually a massive mistake.

- Late in the tournament, don't become too nitty to try min-cashing or jumping a few pay levels. You play MTT's to win, so if shoving is correct then do it.

- Don't stare at the tourney clock or player count. Just concentrate on correct plays through the duration of the tournament.


Obviously there is more to beating tournament fields than what I've listed above, but it should point you in the right direction.
 
PokerFunKid

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Most MTT's have a fast structure, so I'll assume the one you're playing in is fast as well.

- You'll never be 100% confident in a read since tournament sample sizes are way too small. Play as close to optimal as you can and go with the info you do have.

- Pay close attention to stack sizes. Misplaying stacks sizes is by far the most common mistake I see in live MTT's. As the average stack decreases, your range should get tighter and your willingness to steal blinds should become greater. You should also pay attention to who is stealing your blinds and defend when appropriate. Limping is usually a massive mistake.

- Late in the tournament, don't become too nitty to try min-cashing or jumping a few pay levels. You play MTT's to win, so if shoving is correct then do it.

- Don't stare at the tourney clock or player count. Just concentrate on correct plays through the duration of the tournament.


Obviously there is more to beating tournament fields than what I've listed above, but it should point you in the right direction.

Thanks for the usefull tips! Will try to do so! :) Will bring my CC hoodie to represent CC :D

I think it has a decent structure for a live event of this buy-in.

05f08bde94.png
 
coolDadJimbo

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cardschat has hoodies?

nice....
 
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Good luck, good luck!

Only thing to remember is the stay calm and focused, everything else is just technicality.
 
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lukeellul92

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15 minute levels means you're going to be seeing about 5 hands before the blinds go up a level... Play your very best poker, focus on other people stacks, don't focus on anything but the cards and the people at your table. the second you look at remaining players or average stack sizes you get distracted.

30 runners is a good amount for a quick tournament.. At the casino I play at, our cheapest tournament ($100 AUD) has about 180 runners with close to 100 rebuys, so the tournament can go for about 12 hours if you make final table.

Don't beat yourself up if you don't win or cash, especially if you play your best poker. This is a very fast paced tournament, alot of the time it will be bingo and coinflips.
 
PokerFunKid

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@AviCKter @Lukeellul92 Thanks both! Good to have all this information :). I'm going there with the goals of playing my best game, make the best decision every hand and play every hand, hand for hand. Hopefully i can ship it ofcourse, but i don't feel (bad) presure for a 35 EUR buy in. One thing is sure, i will earn experience in live poker and that is also one of my goals. I hope to play more live events yearly. Excited to experience live poker and will let you all know how i did after the tournament.
 
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lukeellul92

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I get that it may only be 35 EUR, but the thing is , if you treat it as "oh its only 35 EUR" you won't play your best. You need to treat it as if you're playing a $2500 main event. Everyone starts somewhere, and %99 of poker players start at very low stakes poker. The ones who treat low stakes like it's everything they got, are the ones who make it far.
As far as tournaments go, for a live tournament, 35 EUR is fairly low stake.
 
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Two tips:
- dont stare on flop, look at you opponents instead. Then a bit later check the board. If you are newbie live player, you will have problems to hide your first reaction on flop cards.
- be very careful about announcing you action:
- you can say action first
- or you need to put all chips you want to raise at once (even if you go all in, you push half of chips, then reach for rest, it will count only as raise with first half)
- and beware, if you put single chip forward, its considered as call (unless you say you action before that). Dealer will then change the chips. So remember 1 chip = call. Also if someone before you put his 5k chip on BB=200 in front of him, its only a call.
 
PokerFunKid

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I get that it may only be 35 EUR, but the thing is , if you treat it as "oh its only 35 EUR" you won't play your best. You need to treat it as if you're playing a $2500 main event. Everyone starts somewhere, and %99 of poker players start at very low stakes poker. The ones who treat low stakes like it's everything they got, are the ones who make it far.
As far as tournaments go, for a live tournament, 35 EUR is fairly low stake.

Yeah i agree, i should'nt have said that. I ment to say that i don't feel bad pressure to lose the EUR 35. My goal is to play every hand the best way i can and hopefully ship it. Ofcourse i have some pressure for it being my first live event, but i will try to be comfortable, don't think about the money (ofcourse i do think about it, but i will try not to make bad decisions thinking of the money) and play every hand the best possible way i can.

Two tips:
- dont stare on flop, look at you opponents instead. Then a bit later check the board. If you are newbie live player, you will have problems to hide your first reaction on flop cards.
- be very careful about announcing you action:
- you can say action first
- or you need to put all chips you want to raise at once (even if you go all in, you push half of chips, then reach for rest, it will count only as raise with first half)
- and beware, if you put single chip forward, its considered as call (unless you say you action before that). Dealer will then change the chips. So remember 1 chip = call. Also if someone before you put his 5k chip on BB=200 in front of him, its only a call.

Thanks for the tips! I'm pumped and ready to do my best tommorow :)
 
EvertonGirl

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I am so jealous!! GL I hope you have a lot of run good :)
 
teepack

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Let us know how you did!

As others have said, remember the oversize (one chip) rule. Be clear in your intentions. Don't fiddle with your chips. If you are thinking of raising, announce, "Raise." And then call out the amount. Then put the chips in in one motion. Be cool. Don't come across as nervous if you are raising.

Pay attention to position and chip size. If you get a player with a small stack on your table, be aware that if he/she plays a hand, he will likely go all-in. So if you have to act before he/she does, just be careful. You need to be prepared to call a shove, and if you're not willing to do that, then you should fold. I've seen people throw away a lot of chips pre-flop when they fold to re-raises.
 
PokerFunKid

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Let us know how you did!

As others have said, remember the oversize (one chip) rule. Be clear in your intentions. Don't fiddle with your chips. If you are thinking of raising, announce, "Raise." And then call out the amount. Then put the chips in in one motion. Be cool. Don't come across as nervous if you are raising.

Pay attention to position and chip size. If you get a player with a small stack on your table, be aware that if he/she plays a hand, he will likely go all-in. So if you have to act before he/she does, just be careful. You need to be prepared to call a shove, and if you're not willing to do that, then you should fold. I've seen people throw away a lot of chips pre-flop when they fold to re-raises.

Thanks for the tips! :) Will let you all know how i did!
 
PokerFunKid

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Hey everyone. Just letting you all know it was a great experience and made a nice result! Ran deep and end in 3rd place for 140 (should be 160 but 4handed we decide to give 20 from each pay out to 4th place). Had a wild run and wrote a lot about it on the PC. When i tried to post it my internet went down. I copied it and will post tommorow. Super tired now. Gn :D
 
Flayst

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Congrats! Looking forward to reading about it.
 
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lukeellul92

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Nicely done! really good result for your first live tournament to make the final table!
 
PokerFunKid

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Thanks Flayst and Lukeellul92.

Hey everyone! It was a great experience playing my first live MTT and... a nice result! :D

Carddead
I started the first 75 minutes totally card dead. I kept patient while others were picking up monsters. I finally got a hand (A9) open it UTG hoping i would get some respect but 2 people called and then someone jammed. Ez fold. Then made a good fold with AT on A67J2sss board where villain showed me a flush. After going card dead again and couldn't find a good spot to get it in i went down to 5 big blinds 2 big stacks on my right who kept opening and i just didn't had a good hand to get it in with.
Back in the game
Then finally i got a hand, AK. Shoved it for 5 big and QTs called. Hit a king on the river and villian a straightdraw, which he missed on the river and gave me the double up.
Funny hand
A few hands later i pick up pocket 8s in the small blind. A very weird hand. Agro bigstack opens and it was my turn. I tanked for a while look at my opponent on my left (not the raiser) to see howmany chips he has. He was prety short and i was looking for around 20 seconds to my opponent in the big and he folds, while i still had to make action. The big stack gets angry at me saying i have to make a decision and don't look to my opponent on the left because I made him think it was his turn. I quickly moved all in and he got even more mad, saying i made a trick on him and saw he was weak after he got mad that the bb folded because i was looking to long to him. He tanked for a bit and called with A2. 88 hold and i get another double up.
Honey, he called me with K9 honey!
Later i had around 15 bigs and pick up KK in the bb and a guy opens. I shove and after he tanked for a while he called me with K9 and said ‘’lets flip’’ lol. 9 on the flop but a king on the turn. Finally I had a decent stack and possibly a nice result. I continue to play my strategy and play tight. After a few levels we reach the final table and the blinds went up prety high and everyone was kinda short 10-15bb and 2 bigger stacks. I played tight and didn't really play a hand untill we were down to 5 players. Where i started to pick up some small pots.
Deal
After someone busted we decide to make a deal. Instead of 3 players getting paid each pay out gave EUR 20 to 4th place. Then quickly someone busted and we're down to 3 guarenteed EUR 140. I was a short stack and was waiting for a good spot to shove when the 2 big stacks got in a big pot which made one of the big stacks a shorter stack.
Bust hand
The blinds kept going up and got us in a ICM situation where i had 5bb, guy on my left around 15 and the guy on my right about 6bb. I decide to shove K9 from the btn and the bigstack snapcalled me with JJ. Prety unlucky the bigstack woke up with a nice hand but overall I had a fun times, gained experience and walked away with some money. :)
I was a little nervous in some spots but i got compliments from players and they said the didn't believe it was my first time live :D. Friend who was with me busted in 15th place unfortunate, but he was railing and said i was looking chil and played nice :)

I'm very happy with how i played. I played prety standard and didn't make any mistake in my opinion. Didn't bluff early and only did it twice at the final table in a limped pot when it went check check twice and had to take a shot for the pot and took it down.
 
EvertonGirl

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Congrats WP Kid, you must be over the moon to get to the FT at a live game, I know I would be :)
 
PokerFunKid

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Congrats WP Kid, you must be over the moon to get to the FT at a live game, I know I would be :)

Thanks :) Yeah it was a nice experience and exciting to make the final table and the money in my first live event :). When i went down to 5 big blinds i wasn't thinking i would get close to it. Luckily, i finally picked up some cards, hold, and worked my way back up :D.
 
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lukeellul92

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So much different playing live to online! you're never as card dead online as you are live. How did you take the blinds goign up so quickly?

I guess the best thing is you kept cool calm and collected and just waited your turn!
 
PokerFunKid

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So much different playing live to online! you're never as card dead online as you are live. How did you take the blinds goign up so quickly?

I guess the best thing is you kept cool calm and collected and just waited your turn!

Yeah, i just played hand for hand. Keep in mind what my stack is and my opponents (they must got iritated by me asking so often what their stack size is lol) and just go from there. I'm confident playing push or fold. Had easy decisions when i was super short. Even when i was so short i stay patient and wait for a good spot to get it in. I think everyone played way to loose and i just played it like it was a online tournament.
 
MasterOfDisaster

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Very well done i am proud !
 
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