chips building

i got a serious problem building chips in poker tourneys , i wll reach middle stage every time with lack of chips i.e blinds will be 1000/500 my stack will be 3000-6000.


i will wait for monster cards like AK,Asuited etc .
but i am not able to double it up .

6 or 10 seater tables? what are the blinds speeds?

sounds like your waiting too long in the middle stages, A K dont come around all that often, once your down to 10BB your already in a very dangerous area and should be shoving prety much any Ace, put your opponents on ranges, you will have seen them, and if the 2 cards in your hand are above there range then get those chips in, if he doesnt call and you have 10BB your improving your stack by a massive 20% if he does cal you double up and if the worst case scenario he has you dominated 8 9s v A Ko, then you always have the 42% chance of doubling up when you have a stack that matters

pokersharkk said:

i got a serious problem building chips in poker tourneys , i wll reach middle stage every time with lack of chips i.e blinds will be 1000/500 my stack will be 3000-6000.


i will wait for monster cards like AK,Asuited etc .
but i am not able to double it up .

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Given your figures, you only have 3 to 6 big blinds left at that point. Using ten as being considered by many as "short stacked", you are still short stacked, even after you double up to 6k or 12k, with blinds at 1k! Plus, just prior to level change if you are at Big blind = 1,000, then a 25,000 stack is 25 big blinds. When the level changes, the big blind is now @ 1500 and the same 25,000 stack is then only 16 big blinds; you lost 9 big blinds in reserve in only two hands once the level changed! In your extreme short stack case, this is your end. Even the ante makes a big dent in your stack.

This also means the reason you cannot double up is that;

A) with so few chips, you are just not a threat to anyone other than another short stack. So big stacks will call you with a much wider range just trying to knock you out. Plus it is hard to get heads up this short, so they will just "play over your head" 3 or more at a time, again, just to get rid of you. More than HU is a greater risk that your hand will not make it. And even if you merely double up from 6 to 12 big blinds and wait for that monster to re visit you, you are right back in the same situation.

B) waiting only for big cards makes you a easy bullet to dodge as after you sit there and fold 10-20 hands in a row the whole table knows you have big cards when you do finally play a hand. It's all you play, obviously! So while they might call a preflop raise from you, they simply fold when an ace/big card hits the flop and they cannot beat it. So you cannot get value from your hands when they just fold. And they know you are bluffing when big cards are not on the flop. Hard to bluff something other than a big card hand when that is all you play.

Survival is key in an MTT but I think you are going way to far with it and playing scared, IMHO. You must be willing to play other than AK and continue to play good hands along the way, or become an "open book"; everyone knows your range and plays around that. Just shutting down and waiting might get you a few spots higher in the pays, but will almost never see you ever actually win an MTT.

Get your chips in earlier and more often.

Any time you are under 30 BBs you should be looking for a good spot to flip.

You need good play in start and than in middle... In start wait good cards. If you have suited connected and than if you need small invest than you can see flop and see. KJ is good cards, but you often lose with this cards...
Read some articl how start and about bubble... I think that helps you. And don't play wery thief and watch players and how they play. It's very important.

baudib1 said:

Get your chips in earlier and more often.

Any time you are under 30 BBs you should be looking for a good spot to flip.

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I disagree. You don't need to shove just b/c you are under 30 BBs.

He didn't actually say shove - he said "good spot to flip," which with less than 30 bb's will often mean a 3b shove spot. If someone is opening 2 - 2.5x and you have a decent suited ace with 25 bb, it's often a good place to ship it in and either take down the pot or flip against hands like KQ and KJ that will call you a lot.

in my eyes, once you reach 20BB, your not open raising then folding too often, so usually at this stage im quite open for a shove, as long as im getting about 10% increase to my stack with my shove im happy to race, this then allows me to carry on playing agressively to build my chips when i win, and if i lose well tourney might be over depends of stack size of the caller, im usually hoping for somebody similar stack size as me to call

At the beginning of tournaments you need to pick your spots and be patient. When the blinds start to go up you need to take down easy pots. This means stealing blinds with marginal hands and 3 betting your opponents when you feel they are weak. When your opponents do call and see a flop you should always make a continuation bet to see where your opponent is at and most of the time they will fold which will give you a nice pot. Also if you do get low on chips you need to shove with a lot of hands. A lot of times I see short stacks make a raise pre flop which is a terrible play because it often pot commits them. Any hand that you have that is good enough to raise under 10 bbs is good enough to shove. I hope this helped.

Depends on the tournament, but I'll assume you are playing faster tournaments and not deepstack.

In faster tourneys, you cannot afford to wait for good hands. They'll either not show up at all or you won't make much from them. You have to play position aggressively and take shots at pots with nothing in your hand.

What would you rather do: go down swinging early, or advance to the middle stages and get eaten alive by blinds? I'll take option B.

Yeah..... AA QQ JJ AK AQ AJ man.... I will wait and wait and when i call i get set up every time. I suck.

Scourrge said:

He didn't actually say shove - he said "good spot to flip," which with less than 30 bb's will often mean a 3b shove spot. If someone is opening 2 - 2.5x and you have a decent suited ace with 25 bb, it's often a good place to ship it in and either take down the pot or flip against hands like KQ and KJ that will call you a lot.

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I still would not shove in that spot with 30 BBs just with a suited ace.

You don't need to flip yet so why risk your tournament life when you don't have to?

credsfan03 said:

At the beginning of tournaments you need to pick your spots and be patient. When the blinds start to go up you need to take down easy pots. This means stealing blinds with marginal hands and 3 betting your opponents when you feel they are weak. When your opponents do call and see a flop you should always make a continuation bet to see where your opponent is at and most of the time they will fold which will give you a nice pot. Also if you do get low on chips you need to shove with a lot of hands. A lot of times I see short stacks make a raise pre flop which is a terrible play because it often pot commits them. Any hand that you have that is good enough to raise under 10 bbs is good enough to shove. I hope this helped.

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Typical half pot size continuation bet?

NeverEnough said:

Typical half pot size continuation bet?

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I'd go 3/4 or pot size. If you bet half the pot, it only takes one caller to make it correct for anyone else to chase their flush or straight draw. If you bet 3/4, it would take two callers to make it correct.

I feel you bro, I have exactly same problem pretty often... I dont have a problem in first hour to build average stack or little bit more, but later near bubble I always feel like I am card dead... but some good advices here

NeverEnough said:

I still would not shove in that spot with 30 BBs just with a suited ace.

You don't need to flip yet so why risk your tournament life when you don't have to?

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You basically always need to flip if you can. 30 BBs is not a stack worth sitting on nor is 50 BBs.

NeverEnough said:

Typical half pot size continuation bet?

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Half pot is fine but don't actually hit the half pot button. Make sure you always type out a number so your not giving away bet size tells.

credsfan03 said:

Half pot is fine but don't actually hit the half pot button. Make sure you always type out a number so your not giving away bet size tells.

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I like this, I will try to put this in my game and see if it helps. I seems like it does just playing so many hands and seeing from experience.

poker software

which poker software to use in NL Texas holdem tournament ,
in this which value to consider while playing and how to use it?

1st thing prior to any tourny you wanna earn respect. In other words make people fear you on the tables. This is will prevent you from ever getting to a short stack situation.

Ok fine, now we're in a short stack situation what do we do. Position is key. Knowing your opponents is the 2nd part. This is because your going to want to steal a few pots before those blinds come back around. Lets say 10 person table, 1000 to call, and you get 4 callers who generally have a decent size stack but have been playing tight most of the game. What do you do? ALL IN! Most of the time your lucky enough to steal the pot because these don't want to go up against you since if they lose now they are in a bad spot. They wanna leave it up to the big stacks to knock you out. Yes you can get caught out there but hey you only have a few more blinds to see before the antes start catching up to you as well.

There is no 100% working answer in an poker situation. The only thing a strategy can do is give you an edge on the game. I mean don't be pushing all in with 7/3 off suit. But feel out the table and know when your going up against weak minded opponents.

In the middle stages of MTTs you have to be prepared to take coinflips with marginal hands and get out there and gamble, so that you arrive at the end stages with a huge stack. It is fine if you lose your stack, there is always another tournament.

Constant problem for me: my stack is dropping from 20BB, 15BB, 10BB, and the whole time I'm getting nothing but hands like 32o, 93o, 72o, J2o, no aces, no pairs, no kings, no decent connectors, just absolute junk. Should I just shove the first hand I get once I hit 10BB or lower?

This is happening in the vast majority of MTT's I play and apparently I need to change what I'm doing because this keeps happening again and again, and I feel that I'm just wasting time sitting here watching the blinds go up.

This gives rise to the same problem Michael pointed out, in the rare event that I do get a hand that is at least above average like KTo and want to play, it's like I farted and everybody flees the sandbox because I've been folding all these loser hands and waiting for something better.

Propane Goat said:

Constant problem for me: my stack is dropping from 20BB, 15BB, 10BB, and the whole time I'm getting nothing but hands like 32o, 93o, 72o, J2o, no aces, no pairs, no kings, no decent connectors, just absolute junk. Should I just shove the first hand I get once I hit 10BB or lower?

This is happening in the vast majority of MTT's I play and apparently I need to change what I'm doing because this keeps happening again and again, and I feel that I'm just wasting time sitting here watching the blinds go up.

This gives rise to the same problem Michael pointed out, in the rare event that I do get a hand that is at least above average like KTo and want to play, it's like I farted and everybody flees the sandbox because I've been folding all these loser hands and waiting for something better.

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If you are playing in extremely fast tournaments, it will pretty much come down to who is getting the better cards. If you are playing in medium to slow tournaments, you need to improve your play: take more shots with weak hands, play your position, be more aggressive. The goal of most tournaments is not only to avoid being short-stacked but to build a chip stack that can win you the entire tournament.

Read The Poker Tournament Formula for more information on tournament speeds and how to identify tournaments where skill is only a small factor.

baudib1 said:

You basically always need to flip if you can. 30 BBs is not a stack worth sitting on nor is 50 BBs.

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We will have to agree to disagree.

Propane Goat said:

Constant problem for me: my stack is dropping from 20BB, 15BB, 10BB, and the whole time I'm getting nothing but hands like 32o, 93o, 72o, J2o, no aces, no pairs, no kings, no decent connectors, just absolute junk. Should I just shove the first hand I get once I hit 10BB or lower?

This is happening in the vast majority of MTT's I play and apparently I need to change what I'm doing because this keeps happening again and again, and I feel that I'm just wasting time sitting here watching the blinds go up.

This gives rise to the same problem Michael pointed out, in the rare event that I do get a hand that is at least above average like KTo and want to play, it's like I farted and everybody flees the sandbox because I've been folding all these loser hands and waiting for something better.

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Sounds like you're playing too tight. I am a very tight player myself & have caught myself playing too tight too often. I still need to work on it.