Should you join a tournament on time, or wait?

[ramorleans]

What is the best time to join a Poker tournament? Early, Middle or Late?

 

[hardongear]

Micro/low stakes. I've had success both starting from the beginning or registering within the first 30mins. I rarely late register. I mostly play MTT's with 8min or longer levels. Prefer 10mins blinds or longer. But a lot of the Bounty's or KO....MTT's are 8 min.


Cheers!!!

 

[Leandro6803]

I prefer to start early, register before the tournament starts and wait.
I believe that luck or randomness will not benefit equally, for example who enters later in the tournament is not more profitable than anyone else.
For me to enter early in the tournament and have the chance to double up against a weak player is very advantageous.

 

[German629]

I think, this depends on kind of tournament... If this, for example, KO tournament, then better, by my opinion, to play at once,
that to win, by possibility, more the bounties in addition to basic prize money!.. If this tournament with rebyus and add-on,
then may to register and later, that to waste a less of money on rebyus, and etc... Some thing like that!..

 

[Luvepoker]

There are many thoughts on this to be honest and some I belive are not so bad. I tend to start from the begining. I want to have every advantage I can playing and I think this is a great way to play. I do think its OK to join later if you need to and I will when i miss the start of a tournament.

 

[hamon08]

What is the best time to join a Poker tournament? Early, Middle or Late?

In my opinion, it depends on the structure of the tournament itself, its speed and the number of players. If we participate in fast tournaments with blind levels up to 8 minutes, it's better to play from the very beginning to try to increase the number of chips right away. But in tournaments with 15-minute levels, I would start playing after two hours from the start of the tournament and still have a good stack for normal play. Well, I don't play tournaments often, but if I do, it's exactly this strategy.

 

[Erickaie]

id say middle if you have a healthy bankroll and you can rebuy pretty easy if its affordable for you, with a low bankroll though I would just start off from the get go

 

[elchonga]

For me it depends on the tournament
There are turbo tournaments that are very aggressive so it is better to sign up late

 

[dreamer13]

You need to register from the very beginning of the tournament, because if you register late, there will be a large backlog of chips and it will be difficult to win back, unless you are very lucky or using a bluff.

 

[Grabobbe]

For me it depends on the tournament
There are turbo tournaments that are very aggressive so it is better to sign up late

Unless you join too late… Joining a Hyper on pokerstars 1/2h late, and you will be left with just one all-in with all your eggs in one basket.
Joining early will make it possible to rob some of the poor players, or the ones who doesn’t care if they bust out quickly. Just play defensively in the beginning, and you’ll be fine with all the aggressive players.

 

[redmast]

I prefer to start the game right away at the start of the tournament. More chances to watch the flop when the BB is low. That means raising the stack.

 

[CryptoBlood]

It depends,if I play freerolls I love to join in late game because many bad players will leave game until then but if I play with my own money then I would go and join in start because I would need to build really big amount of the chips so I can be ready for late game.

 

[rachelle2291]

For me I decide mainly on the opportunity cost of my time. If there are other things I should or could do instead I will late register. Right now with the ACR streamer tourneys I am mostly late registering because they are extremely long tourneys and I do not want to commit that much time. However I know in doing so I am forfeiting almost all chance to win a thousand dollar bounty.

 

[antonis32123]

I like 50-60 blinds stack , more I tend to make mistakes, overestimate the high cards value

 

[whitetailbuck10]

It ABSOLUTELY depends on the tournament and your own personal goals.

I have a weekly tournament that I can earn a free entry into very easily. In this tournament I wait till the last second then I SLOW PLAY the entire game and I ALWAYS make the prizes. I can't say it's FUN poker just using up the clock, but hey it's a guaranteed win. Once I am in the prizes I will play regular poker.

BUT..... in general I tend to do better playing right from the start. But that is because of my style of play. I look at the game style and speed and decide then.

GREAT question!!

 

[ramorleans]

Wow! All your insights are awesome! So I think it really depends on the tournament structure and how you play including your bankroll.

 

[ObbleeXY]

whilst I'd generally prefer to start on time, in reality, I play whenever I see a tourney which has a decent payout and with a relatively small number of players. I like to search for the games which offer good value, regardless of how far into late reg it is. I still play a lot of freerolls and will register any time i can with those. For most knockouts or bounty builders its good to get in early and set mine...but I don't mind getting in with 18 blinds or so..it's still enough to make people think twice when you shove...but yyou can double up quickly when shoving AA/KK/QQ/JJ/AK against the big stacks.

For the super deep tourneys though, I can find it tiring if I'm just playing and not doing something else at the same time. So I'll go as late as possible with some of them. As some have mentioed, the stack size can still be reasonable, and it saves a couple hours without seriously impeding your progress and you avoid those early crappy suckouts that happen when playing against the fish who are playing any two cards.

In the end, do what works for you and which suits your needs.

Cheers,
JT

 

[makisaa]

If it has late registration, early till middle is better because the blinds are suitable to play comfortably. If you get in the game late, the blinds are very big compairing to your starting stack.

 

[waitandblead123]

I like to start the tournament from the beginning, sometimes from the middle.

 

[Gallarado777]

the sooner the better you enter the tournament, you will have more time to collect the chips from the fish and go far ahead so that you have a chance to make it to the final table later

 

[hilary antonik filho]

What is the best time to join a Poker tournament? Early, Middle or Late?

for me it all depends on the late registration time, up to 30 minutes, I enter from the beginning, then I try to enter in the middle of the late registration

 

[whinwa]

Depends on format. I never late reg for PKO/KO's but for standard tournaments I often late-reg down to 20BB.

 

[blata8ruga]

I like to be playing right from the start. I like to get in when the blinds are super low and get a feel for the players at my first table.

 

[Amanda A]

Online in the micros I do like the late reg and try and double up quickly.

 

[Artbart805]

On Time or early, get to know the players..... Catch the fish.......