Late entries (1hr)

As most of you will know, at poker stars they do late entries for multi player tournaments. At low $ there can often be as many as 7,000 entrants. Even if you enter 1 hr late, the ave chip stack is generally about 1.5 x your starting chip stack. No great loss.

I like to enter these tournaments after 1/2 hr or so has passed.

I am wondering if anyone has any ideas on the subject?

I usually don't go in more that 15 minutes late on standard blind MTTs. Its not the stack sizes that are important to me, its the blinds. Over 1/2 hour in, you are already up to the third blind level, and some of the bigger stacks are starting to really squeeze. You are at a disadvantage because a standard 3x - 4x preflop raise is a good percentage of your stack. By the time you wait for a hand, you could be at the 5th or 6th blind level and be M-10 or 15 without even playing a hand.

Not to say it can't be done, but I just don't prefer to jump in with that much of a disadvantage.

i dont know about stars but i really dont like to do it on tilt

they already played and have more chips and u just pop in..

The only advantage is that u get past a lot of the bingo all in donks. (then again that can be easy $ at times) I'd prefer 15 min to 30 for reasons discussed above.

A few minutes late and your good. Half an hour.....not my money.

poker d player said:

The only advantage is that u get past a lot of the bingo all in donks. (then again that can be easy $ at times)

Click to expand...

My sentiments entirely, the pros and cons of playing against donks. The trouble is, unless I have a note on the guy that reraises allin after the flop, is he a donk or a good player trying to take advantage of a donk? So I give him the benefit of the doubt and fold. Now I am in the same situation (chip count wise) that tonky666 and arahel_jaz have mentioned.

In tournaments you need to be willing to take a fews risks early on to build your stack. A large amount of the bad players will be out by the first hour and their chips have to go somewhere! This doesnt mean that you have to play all the hands early on, just wait until you have a monster and take advantage...

Yeah, i have seen this type at fulltilt too. I dont think it makes that big a difference except it frustrates a bit to see the "remaining active players" increasing rather than decreasing...lol !!!
But frankly, if u think entering late gives you a bit of advantage, i disagree...

I don't mind joining a tourney a little late (about 15-20 min max). I did it one time because I was held up and couldn't enter until after late registration had started, and I was pleasantly surprised the majority of the all-in donks were no longer playing. Now, I will join a tourney a little late once in awhile just so I don't have to deal with the first few hands where someone no doubt will go all in.

I actually hate being dealt a really good hand on the first hand or two (AA, KK, AK), especially in early position because you never know if you are going to get 5 or 6 callers with a couple of all-ins holding who knows what. This is especially true in large freerolls.

jacksprat said:

My sentiments entirely, the pros and cons of playing against donks. The trouble is, unless I have a note on the guy that reraises allin after the flop, is he a donk or a good player trying to take advantage of a donk? So I give him the benefit of the doubt and fold. Now I am in the same situation (chip count wise) that tonky666 and arahel_jaz have mentioned.

Click to expand...

It's easy to avoid them... just 'fold'.
I always prefer to be in there right at the very start. This is the time where you'll be getting a read on your opponent's for when the blinds do start to go up & with a starting stack of 75-150bb's, it gives you the oppurtunity to play some deepstack poker where you'll be able to potentially take down some really big pots against Joe Ultran-nit who won't let go of TPTK, TPGK, or an overpr. I love calling in position with SC's, 2-gappers, and low & med. pp's in the early going (&/or raising/opening with them in LP). If you wait and reg. once the blinds have gone up it starts to limit the types of hands you'll be able to profitably play and more often than not you'll be in spot (in a 1500chip MTT) where you'll be looking for a spot to 're-steal' in LP (shoving AI with a stack of 14-23bb's over an LP raise) and you may have not had the time to get a decent enough read to know whether or not they've been opening alot of pots or not.
Reg. late is better than nothing I guess.... but reg. on time is far better imo.

Agile Beauce said:

I actually hate being dealt a really good hand on the first hand or two (AA, KK, AK), especially in early position because you never know if you are going to get 5 or 6 callers with a couple of all-ins holding who knows what. This is especially true in large freerolls.

Click to expand...

First 10mins of MTT.
I feel just the same, get AA in early pos I raise at least 5 x BB, and hope that ONE player reraises allin, PERFECT.

The reality though is very different, I tend to find there will be 3 - 6 callers, it is after the flop when the problems arise. I bet 2/3 pot on a rainbow flop, and two guys go allin. What do you do? Are they donks or clever players like POKER OFFICE, who from late position has seen the value in calling with his 85s and has flopped a straight. I now become Joe Ultran - nit if I call!

I really hate this 1 hour late registration that most sites seem to have introduced this year. It extends the tourney by an hour and considering most good tournaments start relatively late in my time zone anyway, I just don't play them. IMO if all sites allowed late reg and booted freeroll sitouts in ALL mtt's at the start of the 2nd blind level, there would be a lot of happy poker players.

,,..i think its good cause ive often wanted to play tourneys and am late for ither reasons...so late reg is good..but i dont intentionally reg late...as posted before ur chips might be fine, but blinds are up, and uve probably missed alot of good chances to build ur stack..i dont see a need in giving ur sefl an intention disadvantage...

I was watching this when pokerstars had the $10,000 NLHE in the WCOOP. I think at the start of the touney there was about 150 players and by the time Late reg had finished it was up around 190 players with people entering right up until the 1 hour mark!

I dont think that if you were going to buy into a 10k tourney you would just look at your watch and say "geez Im sure there was something I was meant to be doing today?"

Yeah its pretty ridiculous I would say but you know we all want to get in that tourney of the day and we try so hard to register at last minute. Sometimes I register really late and end up comin deep in the money

If you like to gamble or play turbo tournements than you can enter late....
But you will have the disadvantage against the players with more chips.
Try to enter on time!