Live, low BI, fast blind tourney advice?

I am going to my local card room (Lake Elsinore) tomorrow to play their morning tourney. This is the second time I've played in it, the first time I took 8th out of 52, my first cash and final table at a casino! Anyway, I was wondering if anybody has any advice on how to do well in these things.

Lake Elsinore has an abundance of elderly regulars who are ridiculously loose and passive with a few aggros mixed in.

The tourney format is $15+5 with $5 rebuys for the first three levels and two $5 add ons for 2000 chips. You start with 1500 and blinds go up every 15 minutes. The levels start out fairly shallow but get steep quick

Levels are: 25/50; 50/100; 100/200; break; 100/200/25; 200/400/50;
400/800/75; 500/1500/100; 1500/3000/300; 3000/6000/500;
5000/10000/1000 and so on. People drop off very quickly after we reach the 400/800 level. Top nine players get paid and there are usually 50-60 players to start.

Does anybody have any advice for this kind of tourney? Anything will be appreciated.

gambooooooooool!!!

It's strange how tourneys in casinos are always like that. When i was in vegas the tourney was much the same and most of the time you do as Jack quite thoughtly explained, have to "Gambooooool".

Basically keep a close eye on your stack size and the size of the blinds. Play tight in the early stages and wait for good hands. I find this is good because it gives you a good image and will help you steal later on when you actually care/need the blinds to survive.

Once the big blind gets around 10x your stack you've got to start losening up a bit. Raising in position (on the dealer button, or maybe 1-2 before then) to try and take down the blinds, or to get them on the flop with a continuation bet.
For example, you have 2300 chips, the blinds are 100/200/25, you're in the CO with KQ and it folds around to you. In this position i would put in a raise up to maybe 500 chips. I wouldn't recommend an all-in, because if you know the blinds are tight and will only call you when you're dominated it means you can get away from a re-raise and still have some chips left.
If in the example, you manage to steal the blinds, you've now padded your stack with 475 extra chips (if there are 9people at the table) which is obviously very useful.

Another thing to remember is that it gets to push/fold poker pretty quickly too. This means that if you have around 5 times the big+small blinds+ a bit for antes, you cannot raise or you'll be commited anyway, so it's best to just push it all in.
Push/fold poker is pretty self explanitory but if you have around 2000 chips and the blinds are 200/400 you really cannot wait for an amazing hand to go with, and most players would advocate pushing on the BTN/CO with any pair/suited connectors/broadways, just to try and take down the pot and pad your stack a bit.

Obviously if you get the chip lead use it to your advantage. Look at the short stacks on the table, how much do they have in relation to the blinds? Are they in desperate mode yet? No one likes to face a big stack because it means they could be going home if they lose, so don't sit on the stack use it to raise medium holdings in position and get players playing passively and folding better hands.

Of course there is a LOT more information in the MTT section of the forum, i suggest you go over and take a look too. I hope some of what i said was useful and good luck

Clar