Couple Tourney Questions

[copa]

My friend is having a multi table tourney tomorrow with probably 20 or so people showing up. The buy-in is $20, and I'm feeling pretty good considering the degree to which play has improved recently. I just have a couple quick questions.

1st: Pot odds
I wanted to make sure that I was calculating them correctly. I understand the simple calculations based on soley one bet, ie the turn or flop, but when calculating pot odds based on a probable second bet is this how to do it:

$40 pot $10 bet 20% to call. I have flush draw, so I have 35% to hit. That puts me over 20% so I should call. However, If I believe that there will be another bet on lets say $10 on the turn should the calculations be:
$40 pot $20 bet(probable) that would give me a $20 bet on a $60 pot so 33% odds. This would be closer to my odds of hitting on either street but still lower so I should call. Let me know if my reasoning is correct.

2nd: Tournament Setup
What setup for the tournament do you recommend that would minimize the ammount of luck that the fishies can benefit from. (ex stack size vs starting blind size/how blind increases are done) I have heard that quick blind increases favor luck while slow increases favor skill, but I'm not sure.

3rd: Tournament Strategy
My tournament strategy so far has been to play tight at the start, play tighter in the middle, and loose at the end. This strategy has been sucessful, to a degree, but I have had difficulty breaking into the money in the multitable games. (last one 400 people, I finished 23). I was wondering if it would be benificial for me to limp in with more mediocre hands near the beginning (ie more suited connectors) to try to hit an amazing flop, before the blinds increase. I normally fold most suited connectors, and try to play mostly premium hands. I do not have a problem chasing and do not have a problem folding of the flop. Thanks for any ideas.


Thanks so much for reading and thanks in advance to any info and ideas.

[copa]

Can anyone can help me out with any of these questions?

[DavSimon]

$40 pot $10 bet 20% to call. I have flush draw, so I have 35% to hit. That puts me over 20% so I should call. However, If I believe that there will be another bet on lets say $10 on the turn should the calculations be:
$40 pot $20 bet(probable) that would give me a $20 bet on a $60 pot so 33% odds. This would be closer to my odds of hitting on either street but still lower so I should call. Let me know if my reasoning is correct.

After the money is in the pot it is not longer yours and looking at your example: On 5th street the pot would be $60, your opponent bets $10, so you are looking at calling $10 to win a $70 pot. You are good to call $13-$14 bet.

What setup for the tournament do you recommend that would minimize the ammount of luck that the fishies can benefit from. (ex stack size vs starting blind size/how blind increases are done) I have heard that quick blind increases favor luck while slow increases favor skill, but I'm not sure.

You are correct, and it depends on how much time you have to play. In my home game we start with $1500 chip stacks...blinds at 10/20. The blinds inrease every 30 minutes (we are usually playing 6-7 handed) Top 2 positions paid. My home game is mainly a fun and friendly type thing - most of the people are very new to poker.

My tournament strategy so far has been to play tight at the start, play tighter in the middle, and loose at the end. This strategy has been sucessful, to a degree, but I have had difficulty breaking into the money in the multitable games. (last one 400 people, I finished 23). I was wondering if it would be benificial for me to limp in with more mediocre hands near the beginning (ie more suited connectors) to try to hit an amazing flop, before the blinds increase. I normally fold most suited connectors, and try to play mostly premium hands. I do not have a problem chasing and do not have a problem folding of the flop. Thanks for any ideas.

I generally play the same way you do, but I will look for opportunities to take advantage of weakness...and limp suited connectors when the blinds are low.

[Pyroxene]

2nd: Tournament Setup
What setup for the tournament do you recommend that would minimize the ammount of luck that the fishies can benefit from. (ex stack size vs starting blind size/how blind increases are done) I have heard that quick blind increases favor luck while slow increases favor skill, but I'm not sure.

Consider this from a logical standpoint.

Regardless of how good one player is compared to another, there is still just a 50/50 chance that the good player will be dealt the winning hand on the next deal assuming it goes to showdown and we ignore the rare split. So, I could sit down across from Doyle Brunson in a 'One Hand Takes All' match and have a 50/50 chance of winning, even though he is a much better player than I will ever be.

Good poker players do not win because they are always dealt the better hands. They win because they:

1) extract more money from their opponent when they have the winning hand which also means they lose less money to their opponent when they do not have the winning hand.
2) win more money then they lose when they have the losing hand and attempt to get their opponent to fold his winning hand.

So, consider a poker player that extracts 10% more money from his opponent when he has the winning hand (which means that he losses 9% less money when he has the losing hand) and exactly breaks even in the bluffing game. Over time, his stack will grow as his opponent's stack shrinks and we will all be able to see that he is the better poker player of the two.

But, consider the situation where we make the blinds sufficiently oppressive that there is enormous incentive to go to showdown because each player knows that he will be blinded out in just a few hands if he does not pursue aggressively. When this happens, it starts to matter less who is the more skillful player and begins to matter who got dealt the better cards.

There is an interesting article (I will try to find the URL) about a B&M tournament where the blind structure started normally but escalated so rapidily that when the final table formed up, there was only 1 stack that had more than 2xBB. When the final table formed, the first people out were simply those that were unlucky enough to be saddled with the SB and the BB. Obviously, there was very little skill at that point and just a matter of who was stuck with the blinds and who was dealt the best cards; because if you called you were going all the way to showdown.

So, tournament structures that allow for more hands to be played tend to favor players that play their hands more effectively (i.e., good poker players.) Tournament structures that allow for fewer hands to be played and more 'forced action' are emphasizing the luck element of who gets the best cards. The more oppressive the blinds, the more the luck element is emphasized, finally degenerating to the trivial case where the blinds equal or exceed everyone's stack size, forcing at least the BB and likely the SB to play whatever they are dealt all the way to showdown (pure luck of the draw).

[aokrongly]

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