wagon596
Legend
Bronze Level
Thanks for the thread,,,,I only play a live tournament every couple of months. In fact I've been in only 5 or 6 so for. The tournaments are similar to what you guys (and gals) have been discussing. Sixty dollar by-ins, twenty minute blinds and five thousand starting chips. Anyway I've picked up on a few things I might give a shot next time I play. Thanks again for the input.
S
Snorkeler
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Passive/Loose I love to limp in and mid raise small ball style early on especially in 10 - 12 minute blinds . That much time you can wait for good cards no rush . Also play a lot of upraised pots & under raised pots . And players who don't bet enough pre flop thus not protecting their hand strength Easy $ to catch counterfeit even there.
K
kwhilborn
Enthusiast
Silver Level
Early on I would say tight. Avoid players who like to bring you all in until you can afford a suckout on their part.
Obviously rules go sideways with hyper (especially) and turbo (somewhat).
I still play positions when possible and vary my hand accordingly. It is a healthy habit, but avoid all ins or aggressive betting. Get out. A 10 000 player tournament you are going to run into monster hands at least a few times.
I also look at my chip stack. If I start to become average I am looking to double and cannot wait for the perfect hand as much.
If you are in the lead at say 8000 chips and the rest of the table is around 2000 then it is a good idea to wait for monsters and be very tight. I dislike risking my lead for players who are so desperate they will go all in on nothing and often regret losing my stack by a few bad calls. when you are playing 10 players to a table someone is getting a good hand every deal. watch some replays.
I say play tight always in a tournament except at very end or low stacked. You need to play a LOT of hands to reach the final table and one badly placed bullets or set can throw you under a bus.
Once you are getting paid and become average or lower stacked go all in with any pair AJ or above a lot of the time if blinds are huge and cross your fingers for the bingo portion of poker. If you have a good chip lead go back to being tight.
I only play tourneys though. I can usually do well in big tourneys but am just a beginner at higher stakes stuff.
Obviously rules go sideways with hyper (especially) and turbo (somewhat).
I still play positions when possible and vary my hand accordingly. It is a healthy habit, but avoid all ins or aggressive betting. Get out. A 10 000 player tournament you are going to run into monster hands at least a few times.
I also look at my chip stack. If I start to become average I am looking to double and cannot wait for the perfect hand as much.
If you are in the lead at say 8000 chips and the rest of the table is around 2000 then it is a good idea to wait for monsters and be very tight. I dislike risking my lead for players who are so desperate they will go all in on nothing and often regret losing my stack by a few bad calls. when you are playing 10 players to a table someone is getting a good hand every deal. watch some replays.
I say play tight always in a tournament except at very end or low stacked. You need to play a LOT of hands to reach the final table and one badly placed bullets or set can throw you under a bus.
Once you are getting paid and become average or lower stacked go all in with any pair AJ or above a lot of the time if blinds are huge and cross your fingers for the bingo portion of poker. If you have a good chip lead go back to being tight.
I only play tourneys though. I can usually do well in big tourneys but am just a beginner at higher stakes stuff.
Aces2w1n
Legend
Silver Level
I always notice the regulars in everyhand early on... and after a few blind levels they start respecting the blinds.
I guess it's all about implied odds and getting cashed up... your getting chips in and playing multi pots so your connectors will work in favour. Trick is when you've gotten your stacksize reasonable is to change gears and settle down.
50BB+ stacksize is healthy and that'll be my goal before changing pedals... i just need to work on my bubble player last time it got the best of me cause of my inexperience and i stressed and played too tight/scared.
I guess it's all about implied odds and getting cashed up... your getting chips in and playing multi pots so your connectors will work in favour. Trick is when you've gotten your stacksize reasonable is to change gears and settle down.
50BB+ stacksize is healthy and that'll be my goal before changing pedals... i just need to work on my bubble player last time it got the best of me cause of my inexperience and i stressed and played too tight/scared.
T
Tgen
Rock Star
Silver Level
imo loose is always better early , tight will give you very few small pots unless you are very lucky and it will force you to flip with lower edge later , if you are loose early you will find a lot of nice spots to play for stacks and this is a good way to reduce variance , tight is better later because implied odds hands lose a lot of strength even though you should still be aggresive from position and steal blinds.
duggs
Killing me softly
Silver Level
if it is folded to you in the BB, this is a walk
olliejjc16
Visionary
Silver Level
it depends on your post flop reading skills imo. If like me your post-flop skills aren't great its better to play tight in the early stages so you dont get involved in awkward situations post flop, the better you are at post-flop play the looser you can play in the early stages!
BlackMoth5
Enthusiast
Silver Level
I play more speculative hands (flush draws, straight draws) earlier in the tourney bc it's cheap. It's dangerous to risk a lot of chips with simply top pair early in the tourney so I play my high card hands very aggressively, but that's just from my experience!
TheKid84
Legend
Silver Level
I flat call a bit more than raise preflop - use the opportunity to practice pot management when I'm working on draws. If hit, always finish with a reraise on the river if in position. Only raising and calling with good hands though...
