Tourny Play

[JDMcNugent7]

WHen you guys are in the BIG tournys, 300 ppl or more, do u just let things flow and play the premium hands?
or do you try and set a mark for how many chips you want to have at each level, and bluff and steal blinds if you have to reach that goal?

I used to just let things flow, but lately I've been setting a goal for each level, which seems to be working good but it puts me in more dangerous situations as i bluff and steal blinds to get there many times.

[Zybomb]

To warn you in advance this is going to be long...........

Playing at a full 10 (or 9) person table and stealing when the blinds are still low and antes arent around yet IMO will hurt you in the long run...especially if you are an aggressive player. Not to say it shouldnt be done occassionally to mix things up......but I generally save more of my aggressive play PREFLOP for later in the tournament

Example: level 1 of a tournament where everyone starts with 1000 chips (these damn noble tournament structures SUCK imo, but Im 2 for 2 thus far so I guess I cant complain)) and blinds start at 10/20. You fold a few bad hands, have both your Big and Small blind stolen from you and find yourself on the button with J7o. So everyone folds to you and you decide to make a steal from the button and raise to 80 chips.

Best scenario everyone folds and you are back where you started with 1000 chips again -- but you didnt really gain too much with the the blinds so low.

Say The SB calls your bet and the BB folds, making the pot 180. The flop hits a bunch of blanks but nothing that looks too dangerous. The SB checks, and you fire out a continuation bet of 100 chips. Best case you take down a decent sized pot, but say you are now check raised, you muck the hand, taking a loss of 180, a loss of nearly 1/5th of your starting chips....when blinds are this low, its generally a risk which hurts more than it pays off

even worse is say you are flat called here. the SB checks the turn and then you either slow down and check back, or make another turn continuation bet (these work mostly online rather than in a live play). Fire out 200...or even if you check say the river comes and the SB checks yet again. This now tempts you (at least it would me) to attempt to pick up the pot again (unless I caught a piece of the board, and figure I'll only get a call from a hand that beats me, thus a bet is pointless). So you fire out 200 more chips. Your opponent calls with a midpair and takes over a third of your stack away.

Early tournament stages I play good cards in good position (and depending on the table, most pairs in bad position, for implied odds should I turn a set) Later on I steal alot more (as it becomes profitable) Once I reach a point where blinds are beginning to effect me, then I change modes more drastically.

There is a coin flip to this though.... especially in a big tournament, at some point, accumulating chips becomes more important than simplying surviving, thus aggressive play is needed.....I dont feel this is so in the early stages of the tournament however. I think David Sklansky was the one who mentioned the fact that the day 1 leader of the WSOP had never won, let alone made it to the final table and that there was a good reason for that.

In Dan Harringtons new book, he talks about the M, which he defines as the ratio between your stack and the blinds/antes. For example youd start a tournament which has 10/20 blinds and no antes, and 1000 starting chips with an M off 1000/30, or roughly 33. Harrington groups the different Ms into 4 zones 20+, 10-20, 6-10, 1-5, and reccomends different styles of play for each zone. Knowing the M of your opponents factors in as well. Its a very interesting read and disscussion which isnt found in typical poker books. Rather than go into all the details, a simpler method I use is just the Big Blind amount. If at anytime my stack goes below 8-10 BBs any raise will be all in, and depending on the stacks of other players, I am going to be stealing alot more often (as means of survival) As long as you stay at 8-10 BBs you pose a threat to most with your all in raise, and are in position to steal pots. The M which Harrington speaks about is more thorough, taking into account the BB/SB and antes. (basically how many rounds can you last without playing a hand before being blinded out) and dictates how aggressive you need to be.

I do like the idea of setting chip count goals for each level.... just not early in the tournament -- and not letting these goals dictate overly aggressive play.