Turbo tournaments

[trent32la]

as a pretty much only turbo MTT player heres some tips for playing these tourneys....overrall early on you play like a normal tourney...tight and looking for spots to limp behind with SCs and small pairs for decent implied odds..in the mid stage (before the $) you should be playing tight still and focusing a lot on position...eventually the blinds are gonna go up and your then going to have to widen up your shoving range aswell as your call off range...and postflop play is limited...overrall you must have a main idea of whos who at your table and how wide they are going to be shoving/calling off...aswell as who you can abuse...understand that blind stealing at this point is critical and at times you can build by taking down uncontested pots preflop...at many times your going to have to make positional shoves wide and positional folds that if normal stacked (20bb+) you would normally raise with....and you should be shoving wide in LP...it is always better to be the pusher than the caller...understand there is a luck factor in these so prepared to get slapped in the face by variance often..use of a push fold chart is a useful tool aswell...here is one that has helped me heaps!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiRCAFDKL6fIdHE0QWt5elZMUkU4YzVrSlBVZk5EMFE#gid=0

 

[locha2013]

I don't like the turbo tournements, because you see just a few hands before the blinds are really high, and so you can't often look at the flop. I play them fairly aggressive to have often some double ups. Often I try some all ins with premium hands. That's why I don't really like them. I have often failed in such tournements and rarely won. I can't get like especially the freerolls at poker stars, there are too many players and the blind level is too fast.

 

[Hemi06]

In turbos, during the 1st 2-3 levels..I will limp big hands (JJ-AA and AK) in early position. The table is usually pretty aggressive and someone will raise. Then I will 3-bet all in and they think their A9s is good.

 

[Masick1981]

they require a little more luck than standard tournament

 

[Jacki Burkhart]

the faster the structure, the less time you have to wait for premium hands. so by necessity you need to open up your starting hand requirements or risk blinding out (or blinding down to a puny stack so that when you finally catch AA you get 5 callers and lose to 9To...or you DO double up with AA and you're still not healthy!)

There are 2 ways to open up, or "loosen up". You can be loose passive (calling station) or you can be loose aggressive. Loose aggressive (LAG) is much more preferable than loose passive.

Here is my basic thought process for various "styles" in various tourney types.

Loose (10)----->------->-----Balance---<-----<-------<-------Tight(1)



Aggressive (10)--->----->---->Balance----<-----<-----<-----Passive (1)



so on both of these scales, whether or not you realize it, you will always be somewhere on a scale of 1-10 in terms of your looseness and aggressiveness.

Deepstacked tourney:
loose/tight: I'm about a 2 in early position and a 3 in late position
pass/agg: I'm about a 7 in any position, but I become more passive when facing a LAG....I tend to call them down with reasonable hands.


Regular tourney:
loose/tight: I'm about a 3 to a 4 in late position
passive/aggressive: I'm about a 7 to 8

Turbo tourney:
loose/tight: I'm about a 4 or 5 and a 6 in late position
pass/agg: I'm about a 7 or 8

Hyper Turbo tourney:
Loose/Tight: I'm about a 5 and a 6 or 7 in late pos
pass/agg: I'm about an 8-9 in any position. there is little room for anything besides raising, folding and jamming.

 

[Daniel72]

just adapt, if it has a fast structure, play fast, if a slow structure, play slow
it is like a normal tourney, just faster

 

[SwiftHax]

Obivously if the blinds are rising faster you'll have to adapt and play faster yourself.

Early in a tourney, while the blinds are low I like to lowball and pick up small pots while looking for chances to double up.

Later on when blinds are far more important you have to be way more aggressive and value every single BB.

If shortstacked, push or fold, when average you can loosen up a bit - steal blinds, bully shortstacks. When deep, I go loose aggressive making everyone's life at the table harder. Mainly aiming at the average stackers, min-raises and 3-bet bluffs seem to work well against them.

In general though, be more aggro and play wider ranges than you would in a regular tourney.

 

[Aloparo2012]

I always play faster and more agg. It drives me crazy when people just sit there, get the time bank, wait till the last second then folds. Theres a lot of people who sit out and don't click sit out. lol

 

[Tgen]

Just play the same , its still poker , make +ev moves etc..

 

[romych007]

well as the blinds increase and rivals will play tight, you can win

 

[1blanqueanu1]

I think in the first levels you have to play very conservative and as you go up the blinds open a little more range because when you fall short of turbo faster chips.