LIVE SHOVE FEST

I play in live pub tournaments fairly regularly. But these tend to turn into shove fests late in the day because the blinds go up so sharply eg

15 minutes 200/400 300 /600 500/1000 1000/2000 2000/4000 (12 minutes)

In the latter stages an awful lot of players hold off rather than shoving with M<5 stacks. And there does seem to be some merit in doing this (especially if down to the last six players)

Has anyone got a good strategy for these types of tourneys, I'm thinking some sort of Lee Nelson Kill Everyon/Dan Harrington combo?

Plus any thought on this play - I went out last night on this hand.

Blinds 1000/2000 - stack (about average ) 22000

I get A,J UTG 5 handed and raise to 6000
Everyone folds to BB who shoved.

My table image at this time was quite lag - had been raising a lot and my read on BB was he probably had pockets.

I called - he turned over 3,3 it held up.

Any thoughts.

I play in similar tournaments and find myself playing the same type of waiting game that the others do but I am just starting to try out other, different ways of playing them.

We get 10k start stacks with a 15k add on at the break which is after level 3. Generally 30 - 50 players.
Blinds go 100/200, 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, 5/1k, 1k/2k, 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, 5/10 with 15 minute levels.

Although I do seem to do well in them by just waiting around until the blinds get to 1k/2k or 2k/4k then start open shoving whenever you get the chance. This isn't great though as my 20k stack isn't really in to great shape already...

As for your hand, UTG I am open shoving AJ all day long. Puts more pressure on these 33, 44 as you could well be holding a larger pair.

What was the payout structure? I know a lot of these things are winner-takes-all in which case there's really not a lot of point nitting it up with five players to go unless you've got a massive lead or something.

On the specific hand I either open shove it or fold it, depending on my reads on the other players at the table, their stack sizes etc. The more I think about it the more I might just open fold it actually - unless there's a couple of total maniacs on the table we're probably not getting called by worse very often (even if they do all see you as a LAG) and we don't stand to win all that much if we get everybody to fold. I'd wait for a better spot.

OzExorcist said:

What was the payout structure? I know a lot of these things are winner-takes-all in which case there's really not a lot of point nitting it up with five players to go unless you've got a massive lead or something.

On the specific hand I either open shove it or fold it, depending on my reads on the other players at the table, their stack sizes etc. The more I think about it the more I might just open fold it actually - unless there's a couple of total maniacs on the table we're probably not getting called by worse very often (even if they do all see you as a LAG) and we don't stand to win all that much if we get everybody to fold. I'd wait for a better spot.

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Really? I think you're getting called with a decent amount of worse hands, and you have a good amount of fold equity. I'd be shoving there definitely.

OzExorcist said:

On the specific hand I either open shove it or fold it, depending on my reads on the other players at the table, their stack sizes etc. The more I think about it the more I might just open fold it actually - unless there's a couple of total maniacs on the table we're probably not getting called by worse very often (even if they do all see you as a LAG) and we don't stand to win all that much if we get everybody to fold. I'd wait for a better spot.

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I really think it depends on what stack sizes compared to blinds are... I'm presuming that he was shortstacked as these blinds can get to you crazy fast. Where I play, the final table's blinds go up once every orbit although once we are down to 4 or 5 handed the TD will let it go around a couple of times if it's not too late. Very informal I know, but it keeps it enjoyable...

I play in these sorts of tournaments in my home town every once in awhile. The strategy you should implement while playing them is completely player-dependant. Most guys that play in these tourneys are just looking for good fun and will stick their chips in the middle any time they can while the others will nit around with 5 BBs and not make moves at all.
About the hand you mentioned I don't know why don't you just move all in since you are pretty much commited to calling a reraise.

On the hand, I agree with others, shove from the gate, 5 handed, its a high percentage SH. Your gonna call a reraise shove anyway.

stubzy11 said:

I really think it depends on what stack sizes compared to blinds are... I'm presuming that he was shortstacked as these blinds can get to you crazy fast. Where I play, the final table's blinds go up once every orbit although once we are down to 4 or 5 handed the TD will let it go around a couple of times if it's not too late. Very informal I know, but it keeps it enjoyable...

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We know the stack sizes - he has about 22k, which is about average, and blinds are 1k/2k.

sit back and let them get drunk and wait to cash in on their mistakes and remember that ak vs any pair preflop is a coinflip suited or not so i do try to avoid them early and will always lay down near the bubble. if you want to play ak near the bubble i would say try to disguise it as aa or kk by limpin if in early position and if you get the raiser we're lookin for then shove. you may get most value for your cards from them folding, and you also may b able to avoid missin yer a or k and makin yer way to the bar for a shot and b bitter cus the 3's got us again.