Played my first live tournament (sucked!)

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I played my first live tournament today. I am not a horrible player but not good by any means.

I was getting pretty trashy hands. When I play online, I try to play tight on the beginning and loosen up in later stages of the tournament. I did not get any playable hands, though. Everyone was limping in and usually calling on every raise. The best hand I got was K10o and I tried to raise 3BB on the button when only 2 people limped in. Some guy ended up going all in and I decided to fold.

I had ~8BB left later in the tournament and decided to shove A,8s and ended up getting called by one person with A,10s. We both ended up with top pair but he ended up getting a flush and knocked me out of the tournament.

I need to study some of the advice here.
 
DougPkrMonsta

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I played my first live tournament today. I am not a horrible player but not good by any means.

I was getting pretty trashy hands. When I play online, I try to play tight on the beginning and loosen up in later stages of the tournament. I did not get any playable hands, though. Everyone was limping in and usually calling on every raise. The best hand I got was K10o and I tried to raise 3BB on the button when only 2 people limped in. Some guy ended up going all in and I decided to fold.

I had ~8BB left later in the tournament and decided to shove A,8s and ended up getting called by one person with A,10s. We both ended up with top pair but he ended up getting a flush and knocked me out of the tournament.

I need to study some of the advice here.

Sounds like you were playing patiently enough but were totally card dead, it happens!

In a live setting raising to 3BB after 2 people limped in will not accomplish much. If you wanted to have a chance at taking the pot down pre-flop you should have raised to 5 or 6 BB minimum (and they would have called this amount too, most likely). For future events if the table is playing very loosely you should be attacking the callers with value hands and keep betting good hands relentlessly.

Yes, check out the tournament forum for information but training videos are available, as well as books on tournaments, (Harrington on Hold'em for Tournament Players is particularly good) which will certainly help your progression.

Good luck at the tables! :)
 
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Sounds like you were playing patiently enough but were totally card dead, it happens!

In a live setting raising to 3BB after 2 people limped in will not accomplish much. If you wanted to have a chance at taking the pot down pre-flop you should have raised to 5 or 6 BB minimum (and they would have called this amount too, most likely). For future events if the table is playing very loosely you should be attacking the callers with value hands and keep betting good hands relentlessly.

Yes, check out the tournament forum for information but training videos are available, as well as books on tournaments, (Harrington on Hold'em for Tournament Players is particularly good) which will certainly help your progression.

Good luck at the tables! :)
Hi, thanks for the reply.

That is very true, I definitely need to work on my betting size. The player that went all in was a very aggressive player and every showdown he had something good. He seemed pretty loose though.

Do you prefer tournament or live games? I find myself enjoying tournaments more but from my online experience, I do better in cash games. I usually play on ACR but I downloaded betonline and there seems to be some really good freerolls which I am going to use to practice.

As for the videos/book, I try to watch some of Alec Torelli's advice on his youtube channel. Is the book worth the $$?
 
ilyass

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Sounds like you were playing patiently enough but were totally card dead, it happens!

In a live setting raising to 3BB after 2 people limped in will not accomplish much. If you wanted to have a chance at taking the pot down pre-flop you should have raised to 5 or 6 BB minimum (and they would have called this amount too, most likely). For future events if the table is playing very loosely you should be attacking the callers with value hands and keep betting good hands relentlessly.

Yes, check out the tournament forum for information but training videos are available, as well as books on tournaments, (Harrington on Hold'em for Tournament Players is particularly good) which will certainly help your progression.

Good luck at the tables! :)
I would add that there is such a factor as the psychology of the game and live a very different movie, with online games, you can take only the rates in the position and matimatichesky calculation .All the rest will be on the new))
 
DougPkrMonsta

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Hi, thanks for the reply.

That is very true, I definitely need to work on my betting size. The player that went all in was a very aggressive player and every showdown he had something good. He seemed pretty loose though.

Do you prefer tournament or live games? I find myself enjoying tournaments more but from my online experience, I do better in cash games. I usually play on ACR but I downloaded betonline and there seems to be some really good freerolls which I am going to use to practice.

As for the videos/book, I try to watch some of Alec Torelli's advice on his youtube channel. Is the book worth the $$?

I definitely enjoy playing tournaments more, but spend a lot of time playing cash tables too.

Practicing in freerolls is a great idea, I've been playing the freerolls on FullFlush Poker, ACR and BetOnline for a couple of days now! FullFlush has a lot spread throughout the day, but they haven't been paying out players for quite some time now (so it is more for fun).

I think the book is definitely worth it but you can probably find it used online for cheap if needed. It will help you understand how to play given different stack sizes and help you to get the basics down.
 
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It just sounds like you were card dead to me. I agree with another post. It happens a lot. I remember my longest card dead period of 8 hours in a cash game. I was very angry. I realized with 9 to 10 people at the table constantly, you will be more than likely to be card dead because the cards are so spread thin. I was younger then and had way more patience than I do now which is odd; because the stereotype from most people is to think younger people are more prone to being impatient. I wouldn't dare wait 8 hours now. Lol. Because of that experience, I put in a time limit on my play per session and it has worked wonders for my brain. The downfall might be why I'm not as patient anymore. None the less though; you probably played that tournament pretty good, and just didn't rack up enough good hands. Good luck on your next tournament.:)
 
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Im actually going to play another one tomorrow. I hope it turns out in my favor
 
7svetoslav

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Dont get it too much deep as you do. This game needs to be practiced and learned. There are a lot of things that makes difference between live table and online poker room.
That makes the online poker more likable from players who cant hide their feelings or simulate some. The play is the same, but the outcome from others is different! Real poker game is like a theatre, also you have to be the "big trick" there not the phantom who disappears at the begining of the tournament.
And from that ive red these months, the tournaments should be play safe at the early phase, no metter they are live or online.
I hope i helped you with something. Get more confidence, every player needs it to win, but it has not be big enough to cheat on you!
 
mbrenneman0

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I would strongly recommend some push fold charts too.

There's a chance you were playing right and really weren't getting the right cards, but also there's a chance that you weren't adjusting your range properly.

When you have less than 15 big blinds, you should be in push fold mode (most of the time, sometimes if everyone is short stacked you can play differently). You do not have enough chips to navigate postflop, so you need to just put all your chips in to maximize your fold equity. And sometimes a 50% flip is a better chance at staying in than waiting for a better spot.

Adjusting your range as the tournament progresses is really important. Also, push fold charts should be a basic starting point. You should adjust your pushfold range further based on individual reads and table dynamics.

In tournaments you must always adjust adjust adjust.
 
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edc1

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i play more live than online and i enjoy live alot more-when im dealt aces at 1n2 nlhe cash tables i raise to at least 14 bucks,as someone else already stated you need to raise more live for some reason-not sure how long youve been playing live,it took me awhile to be in a relaxed state-especialy when im in the hand-you def dont want the other players seeing your heartbeat thru your shirt,once i was more relaxed i was able to observe the other players at my table,after a bit i was able to pick up on some tells-nothing like seeing who your in a hand with start to sweat while holding the nuts-i also had to stop playing nit poker and open up my calling and raising ranges-ive learned that playing live your gonna make mistakes just like online-its a different beast playing live with 200 cash on the line in one hand-those mistakes hurt and wont soon be forgotten-the best lesson learned is one thats lived or at least my pop used to say,crazy thing he turned out to be right-finaly you will never beat lady luck, you have to have luck to win any tourny without out luck you,ll miss the flop, get outdrawn,lose to one outers,the list goes on-when your not lucky or at least me anyway i find other things to do until lady luck returns
 
Brandlad

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Online poker needs luck and Patience at the beginning.
There are days and sessions when your any two cards would give you thumbs up.
There would be days when your top pairs and sets get crushed by All in freaks.
Like yesterday, Once, my A K was crushed by 6 6 and again after few minutes my A A got crushed by set of 6 by the same player. Lol. Whether you call it variance or luck or anything else it is the nature of online poker and it do happens a lot.
Do not get frustrate. Have patience. Play wisely and ice you get enough experience at online you will enjoy it.
 
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I remember being very nervous the first time I played a live tournament. I got lucky and got a couple of huge hands that were no-brainers that helped me hang around. I've played dozens of low buy-in tournaments since then and have overall been profitable. The main challenge for me is keeping trace of bet-sizing. The poker site software makes it easy, but when you're live, it's easy to make a mistake.

Anyway, it is definitely a little more stressful playing live the first few times if all you are used to is playing online. But after a few games, you'll settle in and really enjoy it.
 
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everything takes practice!! ou wont get it the first time around...you have to keep going and getting use to the live tables!!
 
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I don;t know hjow you were playng maybe too tight or just folding good hands , BUT... what DougPkrMonsta said.
You will have tournaments were you are card dead. You can search games of top pros like Negreanu, Esfendiary & Ivey (people who we might say are at leas not bad at live poker) on youtube and see some times they say it themeselves "I've caught a cooler", "I've been card dead"....
 
Stevan

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I played my first live tournament today. I am not a horrible player but not good by any means.

I was getting pretty trashy hands. When I play online, I try to play tight on the beginning and loosen up in later stages of the tournament. I did not get any playable hands, though. Everyone was limping in and usually calling on every raise. The best hand I got was K10o and I tried to raise 3BB on the button when only 2 people limped in. Some guy ended up going all in and I decided to fold.

I had ~8BB left later in the tournament and decided to shove A,8s and ended up getting called by one person with A,10s. We both ended up with top pair but he ended up getting a flush and knocked me out of the tournament.

I need to study some of the advice here.

It requires way more patience than online poker. I understand that u get some not quite good hands but you need to play with that aswell.
You just need some experiense. Try some live holdem game.
 
Jim Brown

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Pretty much every live tournament is effectively a turbo. Blinds go up relative to stacks too fast you can't just wait around for premiums. Try to target players that have shown an ability to fold. Don't get married to your mediocre hands where your opponents show stickiness
 
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