Live poker short stack turbo strategies

triplesyxx

triplesyxx

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Live Poker short stack turbo Strategies

So I played in my first live tournament last night with a group of people that I had never played with before (I have only played in live games with friends of mine before and even then its very limited to the amount of hours I have played online). There was only 14 players and by my definition it was a short stack turbo. We started out with 5000 in chips, blinds started at 250/500, and they went up every 15 minutes. I tried to stick to my usual playing style, tight aggressive and get my opponents to play their chips when I felt like I had the better hand. I wasnt getting any cards, while it seemed as though all of my opponents were playing extremely loose, betting two and three times the pot, obviously they were bluffing and pushing, but it seemed as though I just wasn't getting the cards I wanted in the positions I wanted and ended up going all in with QJ off suit, if I had waited any longer I would have been blinded out.

What strategy does everyone else employ? What should I have done differently so I didn't get straight pushed around? I should've been more aggressive, but then the strategy would almost become obsolete and it would be straight gambling, until I got donked or donked someone else.
 
youregoodmate

youregoodmate

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Betting two or three times the pot? How?

Youve started with 10bb so any hand you want to play will be a shove. No flop play at all.
 
triplesyxx

triplesyxx

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Sorry, I meant two.and three times the BB
 
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Nooneinparticular

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That is a truly horrific structure. Seriously, find somewhere else to play.
 
jaxpaboo

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Starting with 10 big blinds is pretty harsh. Gotta treat this as end game right from the start.

Goal one would be to double my stack from the start.

I think you need to push all in to start with if you are going to enter pot. I would expect more limpers with weird structure like this than standard raises. Punish those limpers with all in.
 
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credsfan03

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I would shove all in with any hand you get. Dont even look at your cards, just put your chips in and hope for the best.
 
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Mr_Slip

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Agreed... i never heard of such a ridiculous structure... but if the casino keeps getting 10-20 players to play it, then they'll keep spreading it to rake in the vig and keep the almighty churn machine going....

IF you must, and are stuck in that again, throw out the window the idea of waiting for premium hands.. make your range as wide as really weak hands such as 9-10 off... in that kind of structure its IMPERATIVE that you double up early to withstand the horrid blinds... else, every time you'll end up doing what you did, stake your whole tourney on one hand, and all-in that you would never do under reasonable conditions

good luck (you'll need it under those constraints)
~Slip
 
triplesyxx

triplesyxx

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Ok everyone, I'm going to attempt to compete in the same poker tournament tonight, I will keep mental notes on everything going on as well as hands that stood out to me. Thanks for the support so far!
 
TEG2300

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Yeah I would love to hear more about this. Kinda wondering what the draw to a game like this is. Is this a freeroll of some sort or super-satellite?
 
triplesyxx

triplesyxx

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So I ended up getting blinded out after 45 minutes when the blinds were 300/600. I was much more loose than normal and made it further than last week. It's actually an on base tournament, I'm an active duty marine trying to increase my live game strategies. The only thing I can think to do differently is to shove more often. I don't know if I should even continue going to play there. I love poker, but I don't like to leave my hands up to chance if I don't have to
 
MediaBLITZ

MediaBLITZ

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I love poker, but I don't like to leave my hands up to chance if I don't have to

Well then, this is definitely not your cup of tea. This is a HIGH VARIANCE structure whose outcome (as you have already figured out) is much more determined by luck than skill. You need good cards and you need them right away.

I do regularly play a tourney that devolves to this structure quickly (if you have 10 BB after the break you are doing pretty good) and have been pretty successful at it. A lot of what you can get away with is going to be determined by your table image. Since this is such a fast tourney you will need to develop that over the course of several tournaments. It does seem you will be running into the same guys over and over so this should work out well.

Stay tight but definitely be way more aggressive. You have to capitalize on your opportunities when they come up and not be shy. There will be lot's of players willing to stack off, even though they are behind so that's in your favor.

Patience and discipline will be key. You should also be making notes on how different guys are playing. You need to know who the bluff monkeys are. Know who is going to shove 10BB with KT so you can shove your weakish Ace back at them.

This is not your kind of tournament - BUT it has value in the fact you can get in a lot of practice playing short stack. Instead of looking at it as a real tournament you could consider it as short stack phase practice.

But again - it is going to be HIGH VARIANCE whatever you do. The adjustment you need to make is when you do get a hand is get it into a position to play for stacks - this might mean shoving, this might mean limping, this could go down in different ways - but you need to chip up fast and get into a position of watching the bottom feeders knock each other off until you get another hand worth playing.

You can play LAG and make it work but remember the general rule - play the opposite style the table playing. if you have a bunch of guys who are very active (which I am guessing is the case at the start) then definitely lay back and wait for a hand. As the field gets smaller I would be willing to bet the play gets tighter - this is when you can open it up some more and rape and pillage the blinds. Someone will get fed up with this just about the time you have another good hand and you can felt them (hopefully).

Also once you have established that image of being uber-tight and guys bail out of the hands you are in (and trust me when i tell you it really sucks when you have AA and everyone folds preflop) - then you know you can open it up a bit and play more hands until they catch on - it becomes this never ending game of adjusting - which again will be great practice for you in real tournaments you want to play.
 
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