Tournament Help

[rhino]

I play in a 70 person no limit tournament held at a bar every wednesday, and am looking for some advice. Here are the two main problems. There are very many weak players there (buyin only 5 bucks) who will call every preflop bet, who will call everything down to the river, who are unbluffable. Also, the blind structure moves pretty fast, as the blinds start 25-50 into a stack of 1000. They move up every 20-30 minutes and go 25-50, 50-100, 100-200, 200-400 etc. As you can see there is not much time to make a move, and when you do, you often get called down by some guy with low pair who catches the miracle two pair on the turn/river.

Does anyone have any advice to offer? I've read the stickied tournament strategies too. I try to play tight, but it seems I get blinded off as often as I make it to the final table. Aggression does not seem to work because of the calling stations. I have stopped playing mid-low pocket pairs because they flop the set so few times, and they cost so much in this tournament. Thanks ahead to any advice!

[Sed]

When are you busting out, early or late? Is it a glorious push to steal someones blinds or are you whittled away to nothingness by the blinds?

A couple pieces of advice...

1) don't try to bluff the unbluffable

2) overbet every time you have a hand that is worth playing and are first in the pot. Make them pay to call. If you catch a high pair early when the blinds are 25/50 bet 300 etc...

3) all you can do is get your money in with the best hand, let the cards fall how they may.

- sed

[Radashack]

it a situation like that I would limp everything, give myself as many opportunities to hit a good flop as possible, especially if you are going to be paid off by the fish consistantly, this will allow you to build a stack early, and then you can tighten up and pick off small stacks and lean into a table.

[Sed]

Radashack,

Would you limp your big hands or bet them out to limit the field? The problem I see with limping everything is that 4 limps and he's down 20% of his stack. That's a conservative estimate assuming he gets 4 hands worth playing in the first 20-30 minutes (~15 hands live). If they had regular online-like blinds, I would agree, but with the structure they have set up, I think you need to pick your best hands and hope they hold up. Even from the first blinds a 3x raise with a couple callers followed by a pot sized bet and he is close to committed with >50% of his chips in the middle.

My homegame has a small 10 minute doubling blinds tourney (25/50 up) to start the night. Luckily I talked them up from 1000 to 1500 chips or I would still be playing the exact same game as you. The only way I am successful in it is if I catch a good hand or two and they hold up to get me some chips and breathing room. After that, I follow Radashack's plan and play some real poker. Same issues with calling stations and unbluffables at my game too, possibly because of the ease at which you can become pot committment in such a game...

The luck element is pretty high in games structured like this which is why I recommended to take your best hands, bet big and hope to double up before getting blinded out. This is just my analysis from how I can beat my own game. Maybe there are other ways, please tell me if you find them.

- sed

[rhino]

Thanks for the posts guys, limping it is. I'll have to try it tomorrow night. Another question, kinda like sed's previous. Is it worth preflop raising with my AKo 3xbb if it only thins the field by 2 or 3 players? Even when I raise bigger like 5-7xbb I have 3 or 4 players, and if it doesn't hit I've just blown 1/4 of my stack. And repping the flop doesn't work with 4 players who are loose callers. Thanks.

[Radashack]

As for the waiting for a hand and going with it, then you are putting all you eggs in one basket to be crushed week in and week out. The idea is to limp to see the flop, your not going beyond that point unless you have a great drawing hand or a nice made hand. No repping the board in a game like this, it wont work.

For an AK In this situation i would limp it and hope for a hit, Remember AK At BEST a 60 to 40 advantage over the worst poker hand (approx). The only hands I would bet out with are my large PP's, because they put you a significant advantage over random hands.

[Iconoclastic]

As for the waiting for a hand and going with it, then you are putting all you eggs in one basket to be crushed week in and week out. The idea is to limp to see the flop, your not going beyond that point unless you have a great drawing hand or a nice made hand. No repping the board in a game like this, it wont work.

For an AK In this situation i would limp it and hope for a hit, Remember AK At BEST a 60 to 40 advantage over the worst poker hand (approx). The only hands I would bet out with are my large PP's, because they put you a significant advantage over random hands.

I think limping with AK is giving the blinds too many chances to outflop me (two pair or set against TPTK). If I knew that everyone was THAT loose, with a Group 1 hand I'm pushing. AK is dominant over many hands people like to call pushes with, not just 60-40. With a structure like this, you're not gonna win playing it safe anyways. AK is a great hand, and if you consistently get called all in preflop when you still have the best of it then that is more +EV than not getting the maximum in when you have the best of it.

[Radashack]

the point is he is playing with a bunch of calling stations and can easily get his hand paid off if and when he hits it big, in turn he is playing with calling stations that will still call his raises and when he doesn't hit, he will be loseing more chips, which isn't ideal for the beginning stages of the tournement (where the advice to limp AK comes from). Blinds increasing quickly and low starting chip count makes raiseing with AK an even EV position at best, add calling stations with 3-4 people calling a raise and it quickly becomes -EV overall. Suffice to say unless you hit perfect with 3-4 callers you are in a _EV position. especially considering 1 or two of them is probably taking a couple of your outs.

[Sed]

Rada, you have me convinced... I think I initially took your "limp everything" to mean literally that you would play any hand even slightly worth playing. In my game you go quickly broke doing that. But what I think you are saying is to limit your play to hands you would normally raise and the occasional high pay-off hands like small pocket pairs but always limp with them to minimize your exposure in non-made hands. High pairs (JJ/QQ/KK/AA), it is worth raising to push out the chaff who might draw out on you if they see a cheap flop.

Is that right?

- sed

[Radashack]

close, but I realy mean limp anything worth playing. You are essentially giving yourself the greatest amount of opportunities to make a hand and get paid off on it. Sometimes the board just wont hit you, and you wont get any cards, but thats poker. Better opportunity that you hit a hand and make some chips off the callign stations. enough to the point that you can shove people around.