Tournament Advice to Ignore and Habits to Break

[CRStals]

I think the article is good for the most part but I think there are some things that need to be added / deleted / changed:

I've got to keep you honest, I needed the information and the price was right to call are all things that make sense to avoid as a MTT player that you might find cash players doing more because the buy-in is as big as one's bankroll is.

Avoiding the big stacks though I think isn't something to avoid. They tend to be more aggressive with the bigger stacks, looking for eliminations, and are more likely to double up a shorter stack. Or, others are more vulnerable to three betting into them all in as their opening ranges are going to be larger, and pushing them to a call or fold position would result in more folds. It's more important to know your opponents and adapt your strategy to them then to be fixated on the number of BB they have left.

Defending your blinds though needs to be removed. Or at least altered quite a bit. Why? It's how you defend your blinds that's important. Late in a tournament when your stack to BB becomes small you can't let BB after BB go - you'll be exploited by others and forced to wait for great hands to react. You're better off identifying the aggressive players at your table earlier and three-betting back into them more to defend. Really late in a tournament you need to be aggressive against the shorter stacks when defending.

One trait that may be missing is ignoring the standings. A tournament has a leaderboard, and decisions you may make early may not be the correct decisions to make later in a tournament. You have to adapt your game as you move through late registration, through the middle stages of the tournament to the bubble, and then through the bubble to the end. You can't stick to one strategy the whole way through and expect to be successful.

 

[roadmanraja]

Being a mathematician myself, I agree with no. 4, its crazy how people justify there rationale based on numbers alone.

 

[PHX]

If you have #1 as a bad habit please let me know where you are playing I would like to join game.

Bad Habit #2 in only bad in an MTT at early and mid stages. On final tables or close to information can be very useful especially if the price is not too high. I do do this all the time spin n gos to guage type of opponent.

Bad Habit#3 is only bad if taken as aboslute. I defend blinds alot for right price, right situation and right hand. Example calling a single raise in a multi-way pot early when you are deep or calling with late in tournament against only one opponent with the intention of bluffing if I get the right board.

Bad Habit #4 - We all call at some point in time or the other just because of price. Even if we behind we will catch up sometimes. However if we are running low on chips must consider stack preservance.

Bad Habit#5 - I tend to stay away from big stacks when they are running hot but the article is indeed true big stacks tend to play too many pots and put too many chips in pot for what their holding are and this is easily exploitable.

 

[chicopaw]

Well we all have bad habits and for the most part are the worst to correct.sacrificing chips say at a min to see cards can be a real benefit in the later game.i for the most will defend blinds if there only 2or3 players and mostly if youknow there trying to steal.Last one the big stack,i always tread carefully,even tho they often jam on you ,worst part is when u know u have a better hand and call and they hit

 

[Ryan Laplante]

Ugh - I am way under 75% defending my big blind from a late position min raise. What is the optimal amount to re-raise in this position - and how do you play post flop when you totally miss?

Depends on where your opponent opens from.

I run around a 11% BB 3bet stat, and can 3bet as loose as 25% vs a btn open.

Overall I play around 55 to 60% of my BB.

 

[milencenov]

#3 and #5 I think can be misleading.

#3:Most players dont defend their blinds enough. Heck, most pros dont defend their blinds enough!!

Against a min raise from Late Position you should defend around 70% of the time, most people are wayyyyy too tight.

#5: Pot odds are an essential part of poker at all stages. Its always important to use them properly. While your tournament lufe has value, rarely can you pass on a great pot odds spot.

For #3:
Most players know what is "OOP". And most players know that on average, a player gets good cards once per 5-6 hands. It is either a great coincidence or very suspicious, if a player defends his blinds 70% of the time. The blind defender does not have good cards 70% of the time.


And this is exploitable. The CO or BTN player has 3 streets to play in position if the SB/BB tries to defend against a raise pre-flop.


My recommendation:
LOWER the percentage of blind defending, but INCREASE the aggression !
That is, make 3-bets as many times as possible, and only flat call when you have hands that can be used for trapping.


For #5: Oh, I can pass on great pot odds, even with AA !!!


If there is a tournament where top 10 win tickets of equal value, and I am 4th from 12 remaining - I will fold AA against an allin by a big stack.


Doubling up will not give me two tickets - it is still one.
But losing can eliminate me, even if the probability for losing is low.


When I am close to the bubble - I avoid calling with "good pot odds", if I may risk my elimination.
Doubling up will not guarantee me twice bigger prize.


But losing kicks me out of the game.

 

[Hackerosito]

Very good article, I like the 5 tips, especially the number 3 and 5
in the first one it is tempting to play connected cards many times thinking that we can take advantage of the pot, but we will be out of position and lose money to the final. And in the last advice, be very careful of the players with big stacks. Excellent tips to keep in mind.

 

[SPANKYSN]

Do I get a prize? I think I have been guilty of all 5 of those bad habits at one time or another. Reading the bad habit can sometimes make sense, but the translations point out just how poorly I play.

 

[VovanBaron]

Personally I noticed few bad habits and advices during learning about poker.Many articles for beginners teach to play only by some range and do only certain list of moves to get win and further player get a harmful habit playing classic poker.Another bad habit is pushing all-in at the beginning of tour pre-flop from early position.For me such players try to show their fishy strategy.These are few thing that I dont like.

 

[Ivansito26]

One of my bad habits is always playing high cards, and defending my big blind when we are close to the final table, but sometimes entrop on tilt and I have a flaw that I play all kinds of cards I lose control when they lower my chips and it is impossible to have the same toll again and it is my worst habit that when I enter the tilt I lose more than the bill

 

[Ahoy]

The article has some merit, but I dont agree with the blinds defense part. If ante is present, you NEED to defend the blinds VERY often. I had some courses from professional tournament players and they always stress that your BB defense range should be very very wide. This will later prevent for getting pushed around. And the antes in play give you good odds of defending too.
Of course there are hands where you just cant defend becuase you would bleed even more, but you have to defend wide!

 

[AgentXtreme]

I have some on these bad habits too.
The price is good to call and it costs me everytime a lot of chips and put my tournament on risk ,
your oppenent make on river 1/4 or 1/5 bet size and I'm like ok it's not really expensive and I just go for it even if I know I'm far behind.
But I will try to work on this part of me and recognize the good spot where to call this cheap bets.
Defending the blinds is a big issue for me too my range is a bit high than what is supposed to be .
Also the fear of the big stack , I play too tight against a big stack wich makes me give free cards and loose some pots that I might be winning from a c-bet on flop or turn maybe .

 

[Gary_Heart]

Bad Habit #1:
Great advise on River bets - fold or raise. BUT if I'm thinking I'm beat on the river - that is when I usually kick in my Bad Habit #2
Bad Habit #3:
"Always defend your blinds" is not good advise. Even though you will often see BINGOs from these positions pre-flop with rags - Don't get caught up in the frenzies.
Bad Habit #4 Being behind in a hand and calling will lead you right into Bad Habit #1. :bebored:You never "have to" call.
Bad Habit #5 Tangling with bigger stacks is something I feel has to be done - just try and do it when you have the advantage. In MTTs Big Stacks very often will try to knock you out - hopefully you will win that race

 

[elton015]

I assume that I have some bad habits.The first one is play poker and watch tv at the same time,the second is playing drunk sometimes,and one bad habit that I have is to play Spin go.Playing Spin go make me spend almost all of my bankrool.

 

[king11682]

Sometimes it is better to retire in time to save chips and not make the bad habit # 1 and # 2 to see what your opponent has, you have to wait for the best moment to increase the bet with a monster hand, we have to have patience. And do not make the mistake of always betting and defending your blind position; Do not get excited about a big pot unless you have enough good cards and less against an opponent with enough stack.

 

[Tulipaneiro]

Hello

I think lots of people playing poker mostly for a cash. If they did not think about that it would be such easier for them in future They are focused at balance only and that is bad habit in my guess.

 

[Vorem]

This is a good article with the right thoughts, especially for the beginner. But I still think that it is necessary to protect a big blind more often, especially in tournaments. Of course, everything depends on what position was made by raise, from the opponent, but we have to show everyone that it's not so easy to intimidate and steal our blinds

 

[Dejange]

Overvaluation your poker pair is the most common mistake upon me ,,,

 

[Dejange]

This is our strategy discussion for January Week 1 in the CardsChat Forum Challenge:

Tournament Advice to Ignore and Habits to Break

We could probably write a book on this topic! Everyone is always trying to tell us what to do - and sometimes we discover later that it was not great advice. Old habits are hard to break.

Discuss this article and let us know some of the worst advice you were ever given and any bad habits you had a heard time breaking.

This should be a very long thread lol.

I can not remember an advice I got - which is not working in some way or extension, so far. More likely you could read some strategy or tactics articles which later proving unsuccessful, instead.
In this relation, I find myself very skeptic regarding articles explaining new trends in playing preflop hands and new trends overall in poker. I think these could really happen only for higher stakes tournaments. Not affecting too much micro and low stakes mtt's.
Bad habits: completely different approach is needed to explain your weak sides
Something wrong in my game I worked out already was me relying too much on speculative hands like Ax, and thus loosing too much on flops, turns and rivers.
My approach to LAG players also I could see improved a lot, still not the best, though.
And of course, BRM is something I am struggling a lot, mainly because of some bad streaks

 

[alienat3d]

"alien's two cents"

#1: I think you've got me but I feel like giving you some chips anyway.
Honestly you gotta put your opponent on specific range already at Pre-Flop and restricting it at every street, so at the river you should have figured against which specific hands you could be playing. So if you think your hand vs. that range you put your opponent on is too weak, then better option to fold and wait a better situation. However re-raise is also an option, if our opponent is very passive against such actions on river. But we need to have good reads or a decent hands seize for that.


#2: I'm willing to waste my chips to see what you are holding because this intelligence will help me defeat you later
I do totally agree with an article. We shouldn't pay our precious chips for getting information, better let the other players to do so and making notes while not playing a hand.


#3: When you're in the big blind or small blind, you must call any pre-flop raise
Obviously we have to defend not "any blind". It really depends on many things. How deep is our stack, is that guy, who raising us played before tight or loose? How aware is he about position, from which position does he raising? How much does he raising? What hand do we have? I would definitely take some suited connectors or some higher gutters for making cold calls or even turn them to re-steal hand to vary our line. But in general we need to have a decent stack for that, otherwise just do re-steal push, if we have a short stack and that been really stealing very often.


#4: I knew I was behind, but the pot odds were so good I had to call
Haha, i do really recognize myself in it. Have the same problem sometimes, where i got a real trash as hole cards, but blinds are big, i am on a big blind and shove from a short stack looks so inviting. Well it's tricky situation of course. I would say it depends how good pot odds are. It's really a must call any two if we have odds 1 to 3 or even better. Especially with small cards, which rarely can be in his range to avoid domination and having live cards. For example i would rather call 27, than J3. And of course it shall be a heads-up situation and not a multipot. But yeah it's all about ICM, have to learn how to deal with such situations. Sometimes we really have to call any two, it depends.


#5: Try to avoid tangling with one of the chip leaders at your table because they can take you out
Ah, recognizing myself in this one too. How often did i stacked against a big stack and been kicked out of tournament, however i had a better hand, than him. At such points, although math says it was +EV decision on a long run, but hell you are out anyway and have lost money again, so you just have a feeling still making a mistake, as it subjectively feels like those guy is simply sitting on a lucky chair in this game and you would be busted with any hand against him. I know if you think about, it's a complete superstitious bullshit, but it feels that way so often, that i really have to scratch my head about it, maybe i had to fold a better hand and better get stacked with smaller stack size..

 

[Muzyka1996]

#5 It's really so, sometimes it's amazing how this chip leader could play with this shit especially in knockouts
But I do not like to be a chip leader in the early and middle stages of the tournament, it's a great temptation for me.

 

[AvovchikA]

The article is too general. Only novice players will find these tips useful. I think you just always need to understand what you want from the tournament. And depending on the dynamics of the table, to look for ways to implement

 

[Katyushka4]

I've never been able to defend my BB. Often everything ends with a check-fold on the flop, which is extremely undesirable with a short stack. After the introduction of the ante defend of BB becomes even more attractive.
I am constantly being forced to make difficult decisions. Therefore, to get rid of this load, I am folding BB more often recently.

 

[JRNorris95]

I really enjoyed reading this article. These "bad habbits" describe me to a T. Although I try my best to limit how often I give in to the temptation of acting on them, I still find myself making those choices at least a few times each tournament. I do agree that they are bad habbits, but there are some positive aspects of making those decisions. Information is important and its also important to let your opponents know that they cant easily steal or bluff you.

 

[hellomynameiswhat]

I've heard "Lucky chips count." But not in the long run. And maybe I'm new but I never understood "Play tight aggressive" lol