Rare Live Tournament for Me This Weekend - Any Wisdom to Share?

I'm playing at Ameristar Casino this weekend - a $60 buy-in deep stack (10,000 chips with no rebuy or add-ons). They run this every Saturday, and I'm told the field usually has 50 to 60 players.

Does anyone have experience in this type of event? Will the field contain pretty serious players - or will it be more weekend warriors that will be happy to donate $60 to my bank-roll?

Any nuggets of wisdom or other anecdotes would be appreciated.

Thanks!

You will have some solid players but for the most part with this small of a buy-in you'll have the typical recreational crowd.

Best advice I could give is to have patience, play position and play the players.

i would imagine it would be weekend warriors with a handful of more experienced players. be patient, pick your spots, and MOST IMPORTANTLY......HAVE FUN!!! good luck

as the others said, be very patient, especially w a DS (although 10k isn't that deep) and 50-60 players. Pick your spots but when u got them, go after them. Double ups go a long way in 50-60 player tourneys.

Lastly, and in my mind, most importantly, there is a very good chance you will be at the table with the same guys for a long while bc of the low count. Find their tendancies, weaknesses and patterns early and you will crush them. Pay particular attention to the action, who the check/raisers, limpers/folders are. When cards are shown, make sure you remember who did what, when, and especially how.
good luck

Yes, play these a lot - you will find some serious weekend warriors who are pretty predictable once you get them deciphered.

Don't let the $10k stack fool you - this is probably not much different than a turbo and I would bet the blinds will escalate quickly enough that you will be down to 10BB within 90 minutes of action or so (assuming you stay at $10k). So you want to increase your stack and hopefully double it by the first break. There are two ways to do that - uber tight or loose dabbling hoping to hit a spec hand. Since so many guys opt to dabble, I usually go for nit with the exception of button hands. When you get that monster raise it up - someone dabbling with 78s will be glad to see a flop with you.

Keep track of how many blinds you have at all times - it can get away from you really quick in these. All of a sudden you have 7BB and didn't even realize it was coming up. The blinds are an even bigger enemy to you than the other players. View them as such.

POT CONTROL - small hand, small pot - big hand, big pot (TPTK IS NOT A BIG HAND).

Jillychemung said:

Best advice I could give is to have patience, play position and play the players.

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MediaBLITZ said:

Keep track of how many blinds you have at all times - it can get away from you really quick in these. All of a sudden you have 7BB and didn't even realize it was coming up. The blinds are an even bigger enemy to you than the other players. View them as such.

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^^^ good advice above!

I believe Jilly said it best. Be patient and pretty tight in the beginning. When Venessa was on here I asked her a question about the way to play in the beginning and she said to be tight, play from position and feel out the table. There will be times where you are card dead and its okay. Just be patient and wait for the right time and right spot to do your thing. One thing I do before a live tournament is write "Be Patient" on my wrist. Its just a little reminder of what i need to do. Good luck

playing a similar tourney this weekend. looking to play my blinds early and hopefully catch some good flops and get some chips than get aggressive later on.

There will be as stated above some grinder solid players in this event,but you will also have the what the heck its only 60 bucks player in the mix to.
I play alot of live tournaments,and I mean ALOT . Most ofthe tournaments I play ar eusually guarantee prizepools,and at least two day events,but the smaller buy in held at local casinos I play in off time as well and are usually fun to plsy.
I would recomend a good night sleep the night before,a good breakfast,clear your mind of anything going on and just focus on the game.Be alert to your surroundings and to players around you.
Even though it is only a 60dollar buy in there still could be a couple grand to be had,and that isnt a shabby payday.
Have fun and tear it up.

Thanks for the suggestions...it's always good for me to be reminded to be patient!

Well I'm back. I finished 6th in a field of 60 - good for $150.00. They paid 6 positions, so I just made it off the bubble. I hit one monster pot in the entire 5 hours I played - tripling up with pocket Queens when we were down to about 30 players. I was in excellent shape at that point but went stone cold card dead for the next 40 minutes or so.

At the final table (10 handed) I figured I was in 5th position when we started. To my immediate left was the big stack who easily had 6 times my stack. I hung on long enough to cash - finally shoving with AQo only to run into AKo by the big stack.

I was the tournament nit...partly by design and partly by necessity. I'm sure I set the world record for the most times a player was dealt Q7 off-suit. But I did resist the temptation to play marginal hands just to see if I could catch a piece of the flop. I never once regretted folding and it saved me in the end.

I'm playing at the Lumiere in a similar tourney in a few hours here, wish me luck. Believe this si a $50 buy-in though.

Go get 'em LCD...

I was surprised by the amount of limping, which created a lot of multi-way pots. Not a great environment for all of my Q7o.

even though i m posting it late it s nice to read all your live experience. I did played it once with 55 euro buyin and there was a field of 47 players. I came 3rd for 320euro...so not a bad payday for me who was playing his 1st ever live event. this coming march 6th i am going to play again but for live sattelite. The buyin fot this sattie is 55 euro and it qfs for main event buyin worth 750 euro. So hope i ll make it to main event. The only proble is for me though that this sattie is a rebuy one , i can afford only the buyin. so that gives my opp extra advantage..But still i think i can do it...so lets see

Blue_Fossil said:

Go get 'em LCD...

I was surprised by the amount of limping, which created a lot of multi-way pots. Not a great environment for all of my Q7o.

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I play MTTs at my local casino & there are always a ton of limpers.