Question about my live poker game

Hi guys,

I play twice a week in the Quebec poker tournament league tournaments. Poker is very big in Quebec, canada and there is a big community and there are tournaments leading up to WPT events prize packages almost every week.

Tournaments are very well organized and run and at all tournaments the starting stacks is 12000 chips with starting blinds of 100/200 for an effective stack of 60 big blinds. Levels are 20 minutes. Tables are 9 or 10 handed.

My question: How loose or tight should we play a structure like this? I know that at a full table, tight is generally the order of play but with these amounts of blinds and levels, should I play it more like a turbo tournment, i.e take some chances play looser etc??

How would a good tournament player approach this particular structure?

Also players are pretty loose. Caliber of play is not super incredible.

Last 2 times I went, I got pretty much blinded out in under 2 hours since i caught absolutely nothing all night.

Thanks!

I would generally keep it tight but throw in a few raises in late position even if I did not have great hole cards. The one thing you need to do is keep your stack in tact so that when you do get the big hand you have a chance of doubling up. Make sure the other players get to know you are a tight player so that they will back off any raise you throw in.

i'm usually pritty tight at the beginning, and get looser along the way

I play similar tournaments aswell. It is hard because you dont get anywhere near the amount of hands you do in online tournaments. We have 15 min levels and you are lucky if you get 10 hands per level. I do find playing tight at the start is a good strategy, just make sure you are prepared to take chances once the blinds start eating into your stack. You cant be afraid to get your KQ or AT in there with all your chips as you just dont have the time to wait for the perfect hand.

You may have to slightly loosen your starting hand requirements slightly earlier than you're used to, I have the same problem at one of my regular live events and If I don't play I can be the shortstack within half an hour

I like to play a lot of cheap pots early and then play tight. Live this seems to work for me very well, online, not so much.
If it isn't working and I'm getting low I pick a hand to go all in with when I've around 4 BB left and play really loose until I feel I'm safely back in the game or I'm out. Often this so surprises everyone that they give me the blinds a few times before I'm called down.
Never get blinded out - it's like going to war without firing a shot.

I would also play a little loose at the start but not too loose, once you get a chip stack built tighten up right away. If you dont build your chip stack early then you will have to tighten up anyway and play your best hand.

Thanks for your replies guys,

Effectively its a poker development league and I have adapted to the style of play and players. I learned a lot about reading players, identifying player types etc.. I made some deep runs at a few of the tourneys.

Strategy goes like that:

Early with 100-200 blinds play is very loose and passive depending on the players there so its a good idea to see flops with pretty much any two cards.

Once blinds go up its time to start playing tighter but more important because we see the same players often, you have to play the player, know who can fold, who can get bluffed off a scary board even if they have a piece of it..and basically play solid tight poker and wait fro your chances as you will get them.

Conclusion: Live is very different from online, you have to keep up with the pot size, remember who did what pre and post, put that particular player on his particular hand range etc...

I like your idea of playing it like a turbo since that's basically what it comes down to.

I would widen my range here, esp in late pos. Seems like it would be better to take chances to double up than sit and get blinded out.