Porsche Night

[SirFWALGMan]

Tonight is the night. On the good side it is a limit contest which I do better in. On the bad side Empire started promoting it everywhere and it has ballooned to 500+ people. Wish me luck! If you have played large scale limit contests: Do you play aggresive early to try and build a stack, or wait until the blinds are higher and get all aggro on them?

[PShabi]

I've never played one with more than a couple hundred people, but my strategy is to just play it like I'm playing my normal limit ring game while the table I'm at is full and the blinds are low. In a 20 or 30 man SNG, the table gets shorthanded at a point where the blinds are up and you can start to be aggressive. I imagine, you are going to be playing against a bigger field than that, but that's how I would play anyway.

If you happen to get some "top ten hands" or limp in and catch a set during the early going, you'll get ammo for later. But don't hurt yourself by trying to get cute while the bets are small and people are willing to make calls they won't make later. You'll nickel and dime yourself to death.

It's better to be patient and lose blinds for the first hour of the tourney, rather than push with crap cards and kill your chances. You probably know this, so Good Luck!

I'm stoned.

[Talking Poker]

This may be completely wrong, but in large limit tourneys, I play nice and right and let my premium hands build my stack early on. I find the people who are pushing, being super aggressive, only cost themselves a lot of chips.

[TajaUk]

True, if your patient and a bit lucky those top hands will come along before you get short stacked. Otherwise you have to change your style and build up your chips.

[SirFWALGMan]

Well.. I am not going to be driving a Porsche anytime soon. I did pretty well but not super. I ended up 128th out of 500. I guess that is a fair showing. I was doing well and was above average when I overplayed AK a little and went down to a smaller stack size. The blinds were so high I ended up basically deciding to play my next AKo to the bitter end. I raise pre-flop, and get 1 caller. Nice. The flop misses me totally. She checks. So I bet. We are talking substantial money here now. The next card misses. She checks. I bet again! Either I am way ahead or way behind right now. The river is a 10, I am all in, and she flips over 9-10o for the rivered winner! Umm.. yeah, way to go out. I might have overplayed the AKo again but the blinds were 200/400 I think and I had about $1400 left. It was getting near the now or never point. Any comments?

[BrianSwa]

If she was checking after the flop I probolly would of checked right with her until the end. Its real hard to push people out of pots in limit expecially when the blinds are still low. Other then that good job!

[2Tone]

A check on the flop shows weakness, and she'd be likely to bet first instead, forcing you to call or fold A/K, which you can't really do at this point. Betting first at gives you a chance to win it right there.

With blinds that high, and her not raising, you pretty much have to go for it from there on in. An A/K on the river, and you'd have been looking good!

[BrianSwa]

I disagree, but thats what the forum is all about I suppose not sure if Id want to put my tornament life on the line in LIMIT tornament. I could see if I could push all in on the flop but you probolly wernt all in until the river.

[SirFWALGMan]

The blinds were 1/3 of my stack. I think I was pretty much either going to wait and get blinded down to a point where it would be very difficult to come back and win, or wait for the best hand I could find and hope. I was pretty much all in by the turn bet. I could have checked down with her but that would have shown weakness and to be honest she should have folded. I do not think I played this poorly, it just did not work out. Tourneys are a mix of playing the best you can and getting some luck. Today was not my lucky day.

[BrianSwa]

in no way am I saying you played it poorly and yes she should of layed it down, unless her odds where good all depends on her stack compared to yours if hers was alot more then yes she should of called you down at the chance of eliminating you. If you where about even or she only had slight advantage then she should of layed down. But you are right you do need luck and make the correct decisions to win one.

[Windbreaker]

Was this a freeroll?? Usually what happens in limit tourneys like that, is that you once you commit to a pot, you must go all the through with that hand regardless of weather you think you're behind or not. You can't limp and hope to catch once the blinds are high relative to your stack, you'll end up dead that way anyways.

[BrianSwa]

I dont think 400 chips is pot commited in any way. The pot max had to be 1,000 tops, If wanted to could of layed it down and depending where the button was wait for low pairs or something. If the button was about to get to me and I knew id have to go through the blinds again then yes I probolly would of went through it just like he did

[Windbreaker]

When the BB's are that high already relative to your stack, you can't afford to wait for a better spot. If you fold with only two BB's left, you're basically committed to the next playable hand...I rather risk it now.

[SirFWALGMan]

The was a psedo free-roll. I had to spend 2000 Empire VIP Points, but I basically get those for free. SO it was either the Porsche or an Empire Polo.
I basically chose to commit myself on AK, if it worked out, I would have been in good shape and she would have been hurting but not dead. If I missed like I did I was pretty committed. Wish I could have sat around and waited for a better hand.

[Windbreaker]

What's the Empire Polo? Was there only one position that paid out for the Porsche Tourney, cause if it was, the more reason to push it all. I've always found in limit, once you're short stacked, you basically are committed to the hand since you can't afford to fold away like a third of your stack hoping to have a better opportunity with only a few BB's left.

[SirFWALGMan]

They have a Polo Shirt that is ok for work. heh. It was between that and one place Porsche. It was really going to be hard to win the Porsche but I figured I would give it a try.