I don't play regularly and only tournament I've played in until very recently was a charity one, which I did fairly well in but most of that was luck because I didn't really know all the rules.
As a hobby and just for fun, I want to get into playing in tournaments at my local casino once a month. Nothing serious, most of them $100 No Limit or satellite's to bigger tournaments.
In my first live tournament, I won a seat from a $80 satellite to play in a larger tournament this weekend. Although I do have a few questions which I'm not familiar with and needed help understanding. Here's the info....
$500 WITH $200 BOUNTY NLH
$50,000 GUARANTEED!
Players start with 20,000 in tournament chips.
Levels change every 30 minutes. 40 minutes after level 8.
Late and re-entries are allowed for first 6 levels.
$260 from each entrant goes to the prize pool, $35 is the house revenue, $200 is the bounty, $5 is withheld for registration staff.
$20 Dealer add on for 5,000 chips at the table.
Breaks will be 15 min approximately every 2 hours.
Dinner break will be 45 min after level 11.
Guarantee includes the bounties.
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I get that buy-in are $500 but what is $200 bounty? Do they award $200 for every player you knock out?
What does it mean "$20 Dealer add on for 5,000 chips at the table"? Does it mean that they give me 20,000 chips for my inital buy-in but when I sit down at the table, I can buy 5,000 more extra chips (25,000 total) directly from my table's dealer for just $20 more?
Final question, since this will be a much larger tournament then the satelite I played in, what is the best strategy? I was planning to play very tight early on until after level 6 where there are no more re-entries. Then when the blinds go up, loosen up a bit and play suited connectors and see a few more flops. Any tips? Thanks.
Add on I believe is you getting a chance to buy the 5000 chips for $20, but it's not when you sit. It should be at a set time, likely the end of the rebuy period I think. I think at the table means to distinguish it from being knocked out and losing your seat. You keep your seat when adding on at the table.
(2) The dealer add-on is typical. It's usually a significant amount of chips compared to the original starting stack, so you're basically compelled to pay for it. The dealer add-on doesn't go into the prize pool so consider it additional rake/vig.
(3) There's more than one strategy to play a tournament. Generally, I'd say you should look for opportunities to acquire chips from the first hand and take smart gambles. Understanding the ratios between stack sizes and the blinds/antes is crucial to tournament success.
When the blinds get bigger you'll generally want to player more aggressive and try to steal the blinds (or re-steal on a weak raiser with an all-in shove if the stacks are big enough) as much as possible. The blinds usually go up fast in live tournaments, so don't be afraid to shove all-in (note, that's very different than calling all-in) before the blinds eat you up. Better to be all-in as a 40/60 dog with 10K tournament chips than to get blinded to 6K and get it allin as a 60/40 favorite.
Tight tends to be best IMO until you know the people at your table. Particularly early on in a rebuy tournament. Alternatively, play loose if you're willing to do multiple rebuys.
I've always been a tight player. I make 90% of my money from 10-20% of the hands Im in on.
Good tip about the $200 bounty effecting game play. If you knock 3 players out, you already made a profit, so I have to be careful about getting put All-in out of position.
Early on, I just try to collect a couple of small pots just to pay for my blinds before I loosen up my play. Plus that would give me a good read on who the aggressive players are at my table who are gambling to knock people out for the bounties.
Oh, I definitely will be careful during the re-buy period which runs to level 6. Until then I plan to play very tight and only play if I have a strong hand or in position to collect the blinds.
Theory of Poker by David Sklansky imo is the best book you can get to learn basic poker strategy. You need to know the odds and things like that. Doyle Brunson's Supersystem is overrated imo too. It's good for seeing one style of play but isn't an instant help like Sklansky would be.
I know people like Poker Tournament books by Harrington. I haven't read those though.
I'm a mid-stakes player, but I got more out of his books than any others. I'd recommend:
1) Beating small stakes tournaments
2) Secrets of professional tourneys Part 1
3) Secrets of professional tourneys Part 2
The 3rd volume is all hand histories, which is OK, but not something I really get into reading.
2. Essentially half the prize pool is allocated for bounties. That means there's going to be value in knocking out players that doesn't exist in a traditional freeze out tournament. Combined with point 1 above, there's going to be a ton of action early in the tournament.
3. The 5k add on for $20 is just that. At the end of the rebuy period, you have the option of adding an additional 5k chips for 20. I recommend doing that if you get that far.
4. You mentioned the blind levels but you didn't say how the blinds start/increase at each level. There's a huge difference between blinds starting at 24/50 then going 50/100, 75/150, etc vs starting at 250/500 and going up from there. My guess is it's a faster tournament which means you're going to need to accumulate chips early.
What you should do from a strategy standpoint really depends on how many rebuys you're prepared to bring, if any. It seems like you probably won't rebuy, so you should probably focus on playing good starting hands in position and trying to see cheap flops w spec hands in the hope you smash the flop. Be wary of playing big pots with top pair or over pairs on draw heavy boards. Don't be afraid to get it in pre w bigger pairs as you'll be ahead of your opponents ranges.
There's a ton of info out there on strategy, someone mentioned the Little series. That's pretty good although a little dated. The Sklansky and Harrington books are way too old.
Good luck!
There's a ton of info out there on strategy, someone mentioned the Little series. That's pretty good although a little dated.
I'm curious, do strategies get dated that quickly and in what way; how so?
Which books would you recommend that you consider more current?
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There's a ton of info out there on strategy, someone mentioned the Little series. That's pretty good although a little dated.
I'm curious, do strategies get dated that quickly and in what way; how so?
Which books would you recommend that you consider more current?
Some say strategy can get dated in as short as 6 months. It's not a static game -- good players see what other players are trying to do and adjust. Good players see what the gen pop of players do from a general strategy perspective and adjust. That's how good players keep their edge.
An easy example is blind play. Early on pros stole blinds relentlessly from amateurs at a profitable rate. Then amateurs learned this and started stealing themselves. Then pros adjusted by 3 betting light out of the blinds. Then stealers adjusted by 4 betting light. So on and so forth.
If OP already understands and has experience with this stuff then, yea, the book might be dated and can be avoided, but just spending a few hours reading it will really help get a good mindset for a tourney IMO.
Sort of off-topic but does anyone on BBI still play a lot? With online shut down for those of us in NY, it's hard to find games. I get to AC and play the borg when I can, but only a couple times a year due to distance. Most of the NYC underground games have insane rakes and characters that might be a little too "interesting" for me.
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There's a ton of info out there on strategy, someone mentioned the Little series. That's pretty good although a little dated.
I'm curious, do strategies get dated that quickly and in what way; how so?
Which books would you recommend that you consider more current?
As far as strategy/book recommendations, I'd check out the 2+2 poker forum. They have strategy threads and discuss recently released books/material.
But again maybe I'm way off on this.
But again maybe I'm way off on this.
It's not necessarily about following the latest strategy, it's about knowing what your opponents are trying to do to you. If you can recognize what your opponents are doing then you can counter that and exploit what they're doing. That's how you profit -- exploiting your opponents. Assuming the OP is relatively new to tournament poker, I'd recommend:
Harrington on Hold Em series
Kill Phil/Kill Everyone
Winning poker tournaments one hand at a time series
The Raiser's Edge
I got a couple of decent hole cards real early and took several early blinds. Then I had suited connectors and flopped a straight. That enabled me to knock out two other players who went all in against me in position and I called. One had a set and the other had a flush draw.
With a large early chip count, I made the mistake to play very loose and kept on trying to knock more people out. I knocked two more out but overall I was too loose as the early chip leader trying to cash in on more bounties. Overall not bad, played $80 satellite, then knocked out four guys for a bounty of $800.
Need to read up on more books. Need help calculating pot odds better and playing with a large stack which I wasn't accustomed too.
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Admittedly since I have never play in a tournament I may be way off about this but I can't help but think you aren't going to fool anyone if you try and follow the "latest" strategy that is agreed upon on a public forum. Assuming one knows the game it seems to me going with your own strategy would be more efficient and harder for opponents to quickly read.
But again maybe I'm way off on this.
It's not necessarily about following the latest strategy, it's about knowing what your opponents are trying to do to you. If you can recognize what your opponents are doing then you can counter that and exploit what they're doing. That's how you profit -- exploiting your opponents. Assuming the OP is relatively new to tournament poker, I'd recommend:
Harrington on Hold Em series
Kill Phil/Kill Everyone
Winning poker tournaments one hand at a time series
The Raiser's Edge
Thanks
NYG27 : 10/22/2016 5:36 pm : link : reply
This was my just only my second "real" tournament, first was winning the satellite to this bigger bounty tournament.
I got a couple of decent hole cards real early and took several early blinds. Then I had suited connectors and flopped a straight. That enabled me to knock out two other players who went all in against me in position and I called. One had a set and the other had a flush draw.
With a large early chip count, I made the mistake to play very loose and kept on trying to knock more people out. I knocked two more out but overall I was too loose as the early chip leader trying to cash in on more bounties. Overall not bad, played $80 satellite, then knocked out four guys for a bounty of $800.
Need to read up on more books. Need help calculating pot odds better and playing with a large stack which I wasn't accustomed too.
In a bounty the object is to knock people out and you did that!
I played in a tourney at Maryland Live a couple months ago that awarded $100 for each person knocked out. I finished at the final table in 4th place, which only payed out $725, but I ended up knocking 12 people out of the game. You played it well - and being loose in a bounty tourney is a good strategy.
This tournament had 44 players enter and prize pool a little under $4k. After the $10 dealer add-on, I started with 20,000 in chips. My strategy was to play it tight till the first break after the first 2 hours, which also marked the end of the late\re-entry levels. I did pretty good and played really tight and got up to 25k in chips at the break.
Although almost just after the break, I flopped a set of 7's and called on another guys All-In on someone who shoved with a flush draw. He made his flush on the river, which left me with only 1,200 in chips. With ante's being 100 and that I had 6 more hands till I was in the Big Blind, I decided that I had 5 hands to risk all my remaining chips. I got absolute garbage with 2/7, 3/9, 4/10 and 2/10 all off suit and folded all of them hoping to get a decent opportunity to shove my remaining 800 chips.
On my next hand before I was back on the Big Blind, I got a 5/6 off suit and decided to commit my remaining 800 in chips thinking I just didn't want to get blinded out. Flop was a 3/7/A but I hit the river 4 for my straight and got a little over 5k. I then just got on a incredibly hot streak and kept shoving my remaining chips and built back up close to 60,000 in chips about 30 minutes from our next break. I was feeling good about the remaining 4 other players at my table and had pretty good reads on everyone I was playing with.
Unfortunately, once the 19th person busted out, they split my table to form two final tables. Three guys went to one table and I went to the second with another guy. Didn't play with 5 of the 9 guys there yet and as I was stacking my chip as I sat down, another guy busted out of the tournament.
Very next hand, we're at level 10 with blinds at 1k/2k with 300 ante, I picked up a suited K/J. I had 4 just people call the big blind in front of me and with around 13k in the pot, I decided to raise to a pot size bet to see who was serious about playing. Everyone folded except a guy with just a little bigger stack then mine and he re-raised to 25k. At this point, since he called the big blind first time around and re-raised me with a big bet, I placed him a mid pocket pair, something like two 9's or two 10's. I decided that I would go All-In with my King/Jack, as he'd either fold and save half his remaining stack or we'd race and I'd have two suited over cards. He did a quick call and showed Ace/King off suit. I could still catch a Jack but when the flop came down with another Ace, I was finally out.
Overall, I was real happy with my play with finishing 17th out of 44 and I learned a lot from the 4 hours last night. Especially with my short stack play as I build 800 chips back close to 60k. Another thing that I learned and will apply to future tournaments, if I get moved to a new table, I need to real tight for a few turns around the table to get a better read on the new players I'm playing with.
Lastly, I played a combined 10+ hours of poker in the last 3 tournaments I played in the past 4 days. I'm physically F'n drained, I don't know how those guys on the big TV tournaments can play 10+ hours for 5-7 days in a row. LOL
Took 1st place for $12,000! But we didn't finish until 6AM. At that point, I was too damn tired to enter a WSOP tourney.
I did play one the following year. $2,500 NLH. Uneventful. Busted out just after dinner break on Day 1. Queens were cracked with an Ace on the river. But the best story was on the first hand. A guy proud as a peacock talked about how this was his first WSOP event ever. Really jacked up. Very first hand, he and another guy keep re-raising each other until it gets all-in. They both flip up pocket Aces. Second guy flushes out on the river, sending Mr. Happy to be there home on the first hand he ever played!
Funniest story from last night, a new guy joined my table really late at level 6 and took a picture of his starting stack. He won 2-3 pots and took another picture of his stack. At this point, the entire table just started to give this guy no slack about taking those pictures. When he busted out and had no more chips, they guy next to him took out his phone and took a picture of him without no chips and asked him what email should he send that picture too?