RammerJammer
Visionary
Silver Level
T.J. Cloutier in his book "Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold 'Em" with Tom McEvoy makes a great point that I try to keep in mind in ANY tournament situation, whether it's a freeroll or a cash buy-in.
"It's all about survival."
You can't win if you don't make the final table. His goal in tourneys is single-minded: to make each break with more chips than he had at the last one. One chip or a thousand chips, it doesn't matter. Just be patient and add to your stack. Stay away from hard decisions. Muck the coin tosses. Put the pedal down on big pairs ONLY. In short, keep it simple. Takes a lot of pressure off your game.
P.S.: I read "Super System" and tried Doyle's philosophy of "attack, attack, attack", and "stab at a lot of pots". God bless him, he's The Man, and he's made millions, so far be it from me...but I nearly went broke. I prefer slow and steady to constant skirmishes.
"It's all about survival."
You can't win if you don't make the final table. His goal in tourneys is single-minded: to make each break with more chips than he had at the last one. One chip or a thousand chips, it doesn't matter. Just be patient and add to your stack. Stay away from hard decisions. Muck the coin tosses. Put the pedal down on big pairs ONLY. In short, keep it simple. Takes a lot of pressure off your game.
P.S.: I read "Super System" and tried Doyle's philosophy of "attack, attack, attack", and "stab at a lot of pots". God bless him, he's The Man, and he's made millions, so far be it from me...but I nearly went broke. I prefer slow and steady to constant skirmishes.
Martinez760
Enthusiast
Silver Level
Yeh i had a bad beat on the full tilt tourney today did terrible. Had top pair n he got trips. Then same guy cought jacks on the river to beat me. Every week is a new strategy but mostly i just call alot cuz u never no wut cuold come up...especially at full tilt.
H
hawkeye2005
Enthusiast
Silver Level
I think strategy depends on the number of players and the pay out structure. This is probably obvious. My strategy is if the pay out is only to the top 10 or so--i'm forgetting about the ones where 100th place nets .50--then you've got to get up early. I've spent far too many hours widdling away my time waiting for good hands only to be slowly widdled down and never reaching the money spots. I figure go all-in every decent hand you get early on, try to double and triple up as early as possible to give you more breathing/waiting room in later rounds. You've got to get a big stack early or you'll lose. This is especially true in any tournament, but even more so for freerolls with 6000+ players.
RammerJammer
Visionary
Silver Level
I read an article by Mike Caro on Multi-table Tournament Strategy. He said that the number of players in the field and the quality of the opposition are factors, but it's important to remember that the one thing that never changes is poker percentages. KK is still a big pair and you still don't try to draw on the river with two outs. Don't get so hung up on grabbing chips in the first hour that you make bold moves with weak cards. On the subject of aggressive vs. passive play in the early rounds, he believes that the low blinds are a good time to play more of the marginal hands that you might muck later on. But initiating an all-in with J 9 is probably not a good idea.