Your single most important tip for 1st time high Buy-In MTT

Hi folks. I need your very best advice again!

I accidently stumbled upon a promo email from Bwin a few days ago
and for some unknown reason i didnt just delete it. So a Spin&Go and
a satelite later I am now the proud owner of a $320 tournament ticket
that didn't cost me a single cent.

I usually play micros. Have played a few MTTs with buy-ins of 20 -50.

SO what's your best tip for someone playing for a high buy-in for the first time?
It's a Knock-Out Tournament with 50% Bounty/Prizepool Split and a very slow
structure with 20 minutes blind levels. And it is a multi-day event!

My idea is that i go through this thread tomorrow, play Day1 of the MTT and then
come back here to tell you how all your great tips were exactly what saved my tournament

And to motivate you a little more: It's a 1 Million Guaranteed. If I win it I'll sponsor a
$1000 freeroll for CC members. The better your advice, the more likely this will happen

I can not give you serious advice because I have not been in your position yet, but I can advise you to give a quick read on important topics in which you feel lazy, for example about position at the table, opening, rolls, fold and much more. success

kraemer said:

Hi folks. I need your very best advice again!

I accidently stumbled upon a promo email from Bwin a few days ago
and for some unknown reason i didnt just delete it. So a Spin&Go and
a satelite later I am now the proud owner of a $320 tournament ticket
that didn't cost me a single cent.

I usually play micros. Have played a few MTTs with buy-ins of 20 -50.

SO what's your best tip for someone playing for a high buy-in for the first time?
It's a Knock-Out Tournament with 50% Bounty/Prizepool Split and a very slow
structure with 20 minutes blind levels. And it is a multi-day event!

My idea is that i go through this thread tomorrow, play Day1 of the MTT and then
come back here to tell you how all your great tips were exactly what saved my tournament

And to motivate you a little more: It's a 1 Million Guaranteed. If I win it I'll sponsor a
$1000 freeroll for CC members. The better your advice, the more likely this will happen

Click to expand...

Don't be afraid to defend BB even with a short stack A lot of players start to tidy BB when their stack drops below 20 or 15 BB in a tournament, but this is far from optimal play. In fact, in these situations you should defend even wider (against small steals), since with a short stack you will be realizing more equity. Villain will not be able to knock you out by the river with your bottom or middle pair, as he could in deep stacks, because most of the time you will be exposed on the flop.
Fight for antes This tip will be especially useful for players who came to MTT from cash. Ante in tournaments almost doubles the amount of dead money in the pot preflop. This means that you have to adjust: First, the improved style odds allow you to take wider openings from all positions. With a standard open raise, you risk 2-2.5 big blinds to win 2.4 big blinds. If there is an aggressive player to your left, you can re-adjust and vice versa narrow your opening range, or widen your 4-bet bluffing range to punish him.
Second, you have to defend BB more often and sometimes SB. Antes will give you better odds of calling against the standard 2-2.5bb steal, which means you will have to call a much wider range with antes than without antes. You will also need to expand your 3-betting range (especially on the SB). good luck)

kraemer said:

..
My idea is that i go through this thread tomorrow, play Day1 of the MTT and then
come back here to tell you how all your great tips were exactly what saved my tournament
..

Click to expand...

I liked your post.
I've won a few $1,000+ tickets and final tabled a few overseas travel games but was never able to get anywhere with them. I do remember that the hands that took me out were not great (KQu, Ax..etc..) and that the bigger stacks were always attacking the smaller smaller stacks. So...make your read at the tables (with PT4 and check out sharkscope to see the experience at the tables) then gamble and try not to be the among the shorter stacks. You'll probably be an unknown to many of the players at the tables so use that to your advantage. Best of luck and even if you only ITM the buy-in you will have done well.:top:

I think the main thing is to remove the nerves, panic, and completely relax these are the main tips for you, if you have no experience in playing on a very large limit , study and follow closely the opponents on your table. Play calmly, take your time. When the blinds are low, expand your hand range, eliminate the bluff, and don't fold hand's immediately players will bluff when the blinds allow don't rush to play all in, that's the main thing! you can always fly out in time If possible, enjoy the game and do not worry, good luck this is great

My advice would be: do not look to change your game for this tournament. You won your way there. By winning.

Certainly aim to play your best, but not differently.

The tactics and strategies you know well will serve you better than attempting to adopt ones which are unfamiliar.

If you feel that isn't working on the day or you're being exploited, then make adjustments, but you can not definitively know what adjustments are to be made ahead of time...

I would recommend approaching it as you would any other game of poker, instill a sense of calm within yourself and focus your attention on observation and patience.

Use your experience to wait for, and pick, your moments without hesitation.

Perhaps if you haven't played much PKO then have a look at the strategic differences between straight up MTT's and bounty builders, but besides for that- enjoy yourself and I wish you the best of luck.

Looking forward to the winner's freeroll! :wink:

Get Dara O'Kearneys new PKO book. Its under $10 and downloadable online. Its not large and will not take a long time to finish but I cant believe I was playing the format without it. Won my first bounty tourney days after finishing it.

Be patient, the most important thing is to keep going, despite the initial losses (this will probably happen). study and enjoy your winnings and losses, have fun with poker and more fun will return to you.

Tracid said:

My advice would be: do not look to change your game for this tournament. You won your way there. By winning.

Certainly aim to play your best, but not differently.

The tactics and strategies you know well will serve you better than attempting to adopt ones which are unfamiliar.

If you feel that isn't working on the day or you're being exploited, then make adjustments, but you can not definitively know what adjustments are to be made ahead of time...

I would recommend approaching it as you would any other game of poker, instill a sense of calm within yourself and focus your attention on observation and patience.

Use your experience to wait for, and pick, your moments without hesitation.

Perhaps if you haven't played much PKO then have a look at the strategic differences between straight up MTT's and bounty builders, but besides for that- enjoy yourself and I wish you the best of luck.

Looking forward to the winner's freeroll! :wink:

Click to expand...

have no experience at that level but i agree with the above statements, relax and play what you know. Be patient and observe your opponents. Find out where u can steal for later hands and where others try to steal to catch em red handed. Good luck to ya

Play only power cards. Do not play at risk with low cards. Don't be afraid to win pre flop hands if you you have the cards. Bluff or semibluff as much you can postflop. Avoid all ins without power cards, in general avoid all in and win pre flop and post flop. Check guys stats and find the fish at the table, but in this case no disrespect you might be the one, but that doesn't mean nothing if you choose to play by the book cause regular players they always do mistakes but what makes them different by a fish is that they can get back in the game in a few hands, newbies and the fish usually after few mistakes they eliminated in high end games

Try to refresh your game a little bit before the tournament. Sharpen it a little. Other than that just play it like its a lower buy-in tournament. Don't be overcautios just cause of the money, play accordingly and maybe get tighter if you are able to get a ladder because those will probably be significant. Good luck!

WOW!
Thanks for all the great replies so far...
Definitively some points i wouldnt have thought of...

If we are talking about WPT WOC then try the $33 buy-in micro version first

Click to expand...

I thought about using the $33 ticket for that one, but then decided to use it for a satelite for the $320 ticket...


And the 46 cents real money in my bwin account don't allow me to test $33 games

I will now literally cool down by taking a cold shower and then try my best... The good thing is that it is a KO tourney. Since i didn't really pay the buy-in the min. bounty of $75 is already a nice ROI ! So as long as i can kick one out before i bust all is good...


Thanks again for the great input and luck wished... I'll need it

OK... first hour is over....

I'm still alive! YAY!
Stack has grown 70%
But no bounty yet...

This is a 'real name' tourney (WPT). Do you want to let us know what your name is so that we can follow you on the tables in that tournament?

gl

You'll have to look for "Thomas Krämer"
Please don't ask me how to type that 2 dotted a on an english keyboard...
For those who haven't figured it out yet: It is the WPT #05 Knockout Mini Championship Day 1A
on Bwin / Party

Second hour just finished.
I'm still there.
Position 62 out of 995 ( late registering for one more hour )

And I have won my first bounty during the second hour.
Got twice the average stack at the moment.

Let's flop some quads in hour 3

my best tip (with limited HSMTT experience).. 'rungood'

I do!

JJ and KK both earrned me a bounty...

Stack at 400K. Position 12 now.

$300 in Bounties earned already.

So i guess i rungood right now.

3 hours ( 50% of day 1 ) over...

1st hand in 4th hour KK -> next bounty earned.

Position 5 out of 875 and $375 earned in bounties
with a bit more than 3 average stacks right now.

Did i say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious already ?

4th hour over...

I'm still alive. It still works great.

Position 8 out of 615 with 660K in chips
and earned $450 in bounties.

Just 2 more hours to go through to Day 2...

Hopefully i manage to stay focused now... It's getting late and the heat isn't really helping with keeping concentrated....

You got this kraemer 660k stack table boss well played man first place coming and am looking forward to playing the 1k freeroll thanks lol,
Take it down scalp them all serious bounties but a bit of patience and focus make day 2 easily hopefully good luck.

5th hour not so good...
missed flops, split pots and shitty cards...

But still 600K in chips for 55th place out of 417
Average stack is 350K now.

I think i should be playing a bit more aggressive,
but fear to throw it away and therefor play a bit to tight.

Anyway... One more serious pot with a bounty and i should
be able to make it to day 2.

Let's see what Lady Luck has to offer for the last few levels...

Well done $450 a nice cash good game.

Damn....

she hadnt much to offer at all....

Out with AQ vs KK...

Hitting the Queen on the flop wasn't helpfull...

Anyway - took my bankroll from 46 cents
to $450 !

And it was fun.
OK, especially in the first 4 hours.

I guess i have to work on winning a few more pots
without having absolutely amazing hole cards...

And who knows... I might be able to win another ticket
for one of those WPT tourneys...


Thanks again for your support. You helped a fellow CC
member to win a solid micro stake bankroll!

kraemer said:

I guess i have to work on winning a few more pots
without having absolutely amazing hole cards...

Click to expand...

Congrats!

I wasn't able to watch your game at all but did see some of your updates here in this thread. To me it looked like you were putting too much pressure on yourself for not getting involved in as many hands (or going after the small pots) & actually seeing you writing this while you were sitting in the top 5 or 10% of the field!!! What you were doing was working for you.... whether that was playing only 1 out of 20 hands or what have you.

Good luck in the next one!