Forum cherry buster ;]
Single-Table Tournament Strategy
Forum cherry buster ;]
KeithF
01-04-2006, 7:26 AM
First post in this forum. (no offense intended, though the opening line is probably a bit crude)
A quick question for anyone reading. How do you vary your sit n go (single table tournament) strategy, based on starting chip amounts? Do you vary your strategy at all?
Party starts with 800. Royal Vegas 1000, and Absolute 1500. With all other factors aside, how do the starting chips play into your strategy?
For me, I like to see a few more flops with suited connectors and small pairs early when I'm playing a tourney with 1500. The smaller chip starts I usually just look for big pairs (AA, KK, QQ, JJ) or two big cards (AK, AQ, AJ, KQ) and look to double up or go home.
After reading Dan Harrington's books on Hold'em tourneys, it gave me a fresh outlook on the importance of chip stacks in relation to the blinds...
What say ye O wise ones...
Re: Forum cherry buster ;]
atlantisdan
01-14-2006, 2:12 PM
I definately vary my style according to the amount of chips that I start with. The luxury of a larger chip stack is that you can play a few more draw hands early. I too like to "peek" at a flop with suited connectors and smaller pairs in the very early rounds if I have a larger stack. Also I may make a marginal gamble earlier if it is for an amount that will not devestate my chip stack. With a smaller chip stack I actually go the reverse of you though in the regard the I don t know that I have the time to waite on the premium hands. If I only have 800 chips it is imperative to realize that the blinds will be working against you in the not so distant future. With a smaller stack I will play a few more hands and play them considerably more aggressive. In this situation I hope that my opponents are thinking wiht the glass half empty mindset and are less likely to call because of their percieved lesser amount of chips. All players play the game differantly and there definately is not an exact way to play. This is what works best for me. Thanks for the very thought invoking post!
Re: Forum cherry buster ;]
KeithF
01-16-2006, 8:15 PM
We're probably much closer than you realize, as far as strategy with smaller starting stacks. You noted: "I don t know that I have the time to waite on the premium hands."
Definitely agree there. You'll notice that I don't wait on premium hands either... "The smaller chip starts I usually just look for big pairs (AA, KK, QQ, JJ) or two big cards (AK, AQ, AJ, KQ) and look to double up or go home."
AJ, KQ, etc are definitely less than premium. I'd also be happy in a 800 chip tourney to get all in with TT.. maybe less. My view of those 800 chip tourneys on the Party network is that with the low chip count and speedy blinds increases, it's really just a crapshoot anyway. I know that a more skilled player will win more in the long run, but these kinds of structures give far more weight to luck than to skill.
Oh, I picked up Eric Lindgren's (sp?) tourney book. Interesting and very very different from my tourney strategies you'll read. I haven't got far in it yet, but I'm enjoying reading someone whose tourney philosophy is like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, etc.
Here's something I found interesting in that reading, and has a point in this discussion. He talks about how he likes to see a bunch of flops in early play rather than the tighty tight strategy. But he also notes that the tourneys he plays in, and the ones his strategy works in is tourneys where you start with at least...at least!...100 big blinds. In your typical online tourney where blinds start at 10/20, that means a starting chip stack minimum of 2000 chips!
It makes me wonder if that style will work at all in online tourneys where most start at a max of 75 big blinds (1500), and 50 big blinds is common, with blinds increasing at a massively faster rate than offline tourneys.
Re: Forum cherry buster ;]
atlantisdan
01-17-2006, 12:40 PM
It is only my opinion, But I wonder If the reason that Lindegren and his more unpredictable style works really well in Live Professional filled Tourneys only because so few others play that style. When you are playing serious but conservative or at least careful players a contrasting style would be more to your benefit than playing several players of like style.
I also wonder just how well his strategy or Gus Hansen's or even Negreanu's style translates onto the online game where almost everyone is unpredictable. (See PartyPoker sit n go) Many online players try to play that exact style and lose lots of money. I think the reason why is two fold. Mainly they do not have the years of experience playing the game that the players that are successful doing it have. And secondly I question the effectiveness of such strategy in online play.
I believe that most players that are willing to front the large buy ins for The Live tournaments are careful in their game plans. This enables the players Like the Profressionals that we mentioned to be successful because they are not the norm, Keep in mind though that we see so few of the actual hands that are played. The opinions that we have of them are based on the show downs or atleast the hole cards we have seen them play on television. What if they play a reasonable conservative game 75% of the time but gamble wildly only 25%? We wouldn t know becasuse we have only seen them win with the wild plays. They must show down great cards often enough that the other skilled players respect them.