Tournament Strategy

Iago

Just some random thoughts on tournament strategy, feel free to pick apart or point and laugh as appropriate. No rocket science contained in here, just the ramblings of a madman sprinkled with a little common sense

I was reading this post...

Jem wrote:

I have never played in a tourney like the one next week. Play in home game with a good lot of chips, no buy backs.
Any tips on how to play this typeof tourney eg play very loose first hour tighten up then etc.
looking at the set up for it the blinds will be a killer very quick after 2 hours they will be at 800/1600 while after 3 hours they will be 6400/12800 if they follow through what they say.
I would normally be a tightish player, not afraid to put in the chips when I have the cards but likewise willing to dump decent cards if I recon I am beat.

and it got me thinking about tournament strategy and how it varies not only from tournament to tournament but also from person to person and even within one person.

For me there are a number of things that effect how I play in a tournament, stack size, the frequency of the blinds, rebuy or freezeout, how much I'm willing to spend, players on my table, players in the tournament, prize structure..

Now a number of these indicators change as a tournament progresses and therefore my game has to change alongside them, going through the gears if you will, so is it correct for me, or anyone for that matter, to say we are "tight aggresive" or "loose passive" or "tight passive" or any other term that we throw around regarding playing style? I'm starting to think that your playing style isn't as valid in a tournament as it is in a cash game. In a cash game you play with what you have, you win whatever is on the table and you generally have the same players sitting around you as well as the blinds never changing. This is a world of difference to a tournament situation where you have to shift from aggressive to passive and back again regularly.

In a freezeout tournament I tend to play a lot tighter and passively than I would in a rebuy tournament, no surprise there. I fold marginal hands more and I play it almost like a cash game, waiting for the right hands to play. I can sit and fold for an hour without playing a hand and it doesn't bother me. The problem with this is the increasing blind levels, unless you get paid on a monster hand you're just sitting getting blinded away and soon you have to play a marginal hand and hope you hit your cards. I'm willing to slow play strong hands preflop in the hope of catching someone out when the cards come out. Key to this is being able to throw away your KK or QQ for example, if the board warrants it.

In a rebuy tournament I've already decided what I'm willing to pay before I start the tournament and this means that sometimes I'm willing to risk more 50-50s than in a freezeout situation. So my range of starting hands increases as well as my willingness to bet/call raises pre and post flop. The benefits of this are obvious, but so too are the drawbacks. You need to win hands, it doesn't matter if you're involved in 10 hands or 100 hands, how many of those you win is the important statistic. I'm more willing to push here with KK or QQ in the hope that others are playing as loosely as me and will call with Ax or medium pocket pairs. Post freezeout in rebuy tournaments I tend to tighten up initially and start waiting for premium hands again, or play the occasional marginal hand, depending on stack and blind size.

When I get down to the end of a tournament my play merges. The closer I get to the money the more aggressive I get. I don't chase pots or play bad hands (well not all the time ) but I play a lot more aggressively when I hit a hand or have a reasonable hand preflop. I also play a lot more marginal hands and bet big if I hit on the flop. I find that at this stage a lot of players are watching their stacks and the number of players left and just waiting for the money before committing themselves to hands, you can steal a lot of blinds at this stage if you play it properly. Blind levels are normally quite high at this stage and stealing a few hands of blinds can dramatically improve your chances of making the final table. I'm not afraid to throw a raise in preflop and if called throw a significant amount of chips at the flop before it even comes down. I'm happy to take the losses that will come from some of these hands against the folding equity when nobody calls as well as the profit when I finish up ahead after the cards come down. Again because it's getting close to the money people generally believe you have a good hand if you bet it pre and post flop, they are less likely to call at this point than they would have been an hour earlier. The fear of going out before the money has caught them.

On the final table of any tournament, I think you have to start to take chances. Unless you are a chip leader and significantly ahead, you need to start playing more 50-50 hands in the hope of doubling or tripling through allowing you to compete for 1st place in the tournament. Again I think at this stage a lot of players are happy to sit tight and sneak an extra place up the ladder because someone else has gambled and busted out. I want to win every tournament I play and I'm willing to take gambles and chances for that, I'm not saying be silly and call when you're massively behind, but take a chance for gods sake you want to win don't you?

anyway, they're some of my thoughts on tournament strategy I'm very open to suggestions on improvement or massive errors contained within.

DISCLAIMER: If you're foolish enough to read what I say and apply it to your tournaments don't blame me if it doesn't work

JuliusFranco

good post Iago!

Lafortezza

Iago wrote:

In a freezeout tournament I tend to play a lot tighter and passively than I would in a rebuy tournament, no surprise there. I'm willing to slow play strong hands preflop in the hope of catching someone out when the cards come out. Key to this is being able to throw away your KK or QQ for example, if the board warrants it.

I play much tighter and much more aggressive in a freezeout. I don't slowplay ever unless I flop an absolute monster. If I have a chance to get all the money in preflop with AA or KK(when I think my opponent doesn't have AA!) then I will, even if it leads to people folding to me reraise. Better to win and small pot than lose a big one and all that...

On the flop if I have a good draw I'll raise it, if I have say mid pair and a draw I might reraise someone I think is having a stab at the pot. If I flop something half decent and there's plenty of action ahead of me I'll drop it.
My strategy boils down to "Get the maximum amount of chips in while I'm ahead (or think I'm ahead)" or get out." Factors might change this include if I'm big stack or I'm getting really really goot pot odds to draw.

I agree mostly with everything else you've said. Strange.

Davey Devil

All I can say is Ten Times The BB. That's all I'm focused on in a tournament. If I drop below 10 times the BB, I'm going to find any way possible to get back above it. If I'm over 20 times the BB, I'm only getting involved with premium hands.

I see far too many players getting blinded away until they are making there last stand with 2 times the BB. If you stay above ten bb's your raises are plently enough to push players off what might be a better hand.

Hectorjelly

I play whatever style the rest of the table will let me get away with, if they are going to let me run over the table then Ill do it, if as per usual its a table of bad players who play too loose, then Ill try and show down a real hand and bust their scrawny asses.

Davey Devil

I think you'll find most players have very big asses.

careca

Iago wrote:

In a rebuy tournament I've already decided what I'm willing to pay before I start the tournament

Good post. Could I ask do you stick to the above rigidly ? For example if you are playing the 20 in and you decide to spend 60 and it goes fairly quickly do you walk away ? I know I could never do that. If theres another rebuy available I'll generally take it. Alright one night in the freeroll I rebought once and just got sick of it and joined a cash game but thats about the only time I could do it.

Iago

careca wrote:

Good post. Could I ask do you stick to the above rigidly ? For example if you are playing the 20 in and you decide to spend 60 and it goes fairly quickly do you walk away ?

Always, if I bust out after hands then so be it, if I'm the first player to take the walk of shame so be it. For me it's about discipline, I have to be disciplined enough to stick to what I've decided before the tournament started if I lose that then there's no point in me playing anymore. It's almost like going on tilt "just one more buyin and I'll definitely reach the final table" the problem here is that you've overextended yourself.

If you decide pre-tournament that you're going to take a maximum of two buyins and half way through you bust out for the 3rd time you have to walk away. Failure to do so means that you're almost playing against yourself, by taking the extra buyin you're not focusing on the game, instead you're mind starts wandering to thoughts of whether it was the right thing or not, and you justify it by saying "well if I win then I'll make 10 times as much back" but now you really need to win money and this affects your game, for me anyway. YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO WALK AWAY!

One of the benefits for me, and one of the things that works against me at the same time, is that the money doesn't really matter to me. I want to win for the pleasure of winning and if I make some money along the way then better again. I don't really care one way or the other though. This means that I can play more freely which can be either a good or bad thing, depending on my mood at the time! but overextending myself would change that and I'm not willing to go down that route.

DeVore

Changing gears, and (more importantly) knowing when its time to change gears is probably the single most important tournament skill imho. I see soooo many people who allow the blinds go from 50/100 to 200/400 (which is only one intermediate level sometimes) without altering their style. The increase in blinds means their stacks just got *quartered* and as Davey says, 10 times the BB is really the time when you need to start to take some chances.

A HJ says, I'll adopt the style I'm most comfortable with that suits the table. That even changes with the mix of people in the hand. For example the other night I had Joe, Vivion, Paddy O'Neil and Paddy Hicks on one side of me with Rita, Ettie, Austin and Irene on the other. I'm sitting in seat 5 looking at the dealer and singing "rocks to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with youuuuu".
My point being that in a hand with Paddy and Joe I might play very differently then if I'm in a hand with Rita and Ettie.

I now prefer to discipline myself to not have rebuys but I allow myself calls that I might not make in a freezeout (like nut flush draws where I'm just about priced in but I have to commit all my chips) during the rebuy period. I've noticed that the nights I do best are also the nights I am in for the minimum...

I've said it before but the only thing standing between Vernon and a string of WSOP bracelets is the inability to rapidly and drastically change gears! If he ever learns that, we're all f*cked.


DeV.

DapperGent

I don't mind rebuying to the max in the €20 game in the Fitz as they actually up your stack everytime you rebuy which can usually leave you in a reasonable position with just your rebuy chips.

I've found with online that they don't increase you're chips with each rebuy so I'm starting to reckon there's no point. If you're rebuying even early enough on it seems you're making it deadish money as you're actually buying in for far less than the average stack. So I tend not to bother as there's another tourney starting in a minute anyway and I'll save my buyin for that where I'll be spending money to give myself an even chance.

Though I tend to apply this rule more to a $27 rebuy than a $3 one, because $3 is so cheap it's practically free.

bohsman

I tend to mix it about early in a freezeout playing practically anything in position to try and get some chips then tighten up when others start getting low and going all in

Jaden

Very good post Iago, major Kudos due.

In Tournament play, either online or in real life (TM), I try to keep it low key for the first 3 or 4 blind levels. Play only the highest premium hands, but play agressively. AA, KK, QQ or AK, suited are good here. The idea behind starting slow is threefold.

1. If you are not playing hands, it gives you a chance to really analyze the play of others at your table.

2. It helps your table image as a rock. You'd want to be sitting on a monster if you call an all-in from a guy who hasn't played a hand in the first hour.

3. It gives all the muppets a chance to take one another out. Nothing is worse than being put out by a bad call from a guy who went all in with K,10, or A,rag, and busted your Queens. Let the inexperienced and over agressive players run all over one another. What you end up with is one or two of these guys with biggish stacks, instead of 4 or 5 of them on average stacks. A far more manageable situation, as a fool and his big stack are soon parted. Tourney play is all about survival.

The 10xBB is a guideline everyone should live by. I know I do.

Hitman Actual

Jaden wrote:

Tourney play is all about survival.

Controversial??? Definately one of the statements that gets people riled up on this board

I think I'm in a transitional period in my play. I'm slowly but surely moving away from the survival style of play, because I reckon this has cost me some decent finishes in tournaments last year. In a lot of situations, I went out in 5th/6th, for a very small return. I know now that I should have taken a lot more risks at different stages in the tournie to try and build a decent stack, putting me in better shape for the final table. My thinking now is that one win would cover ten 6th-place finishes.

Jaden

This depends on why you play poker at all.

If you play primarily for the money, then by all means try to win all the time.

I play primarily for the fun of it. The longer I play, the more fun I have. There is an element of reward, but it ain't the main reason I'm there.

If you belong to group two, then you have some advantages over group one type players in tournaments. The main one is that you have less fear. If I can survive to the last 5 or 10% of a tournament them I'm in good shape. While people who are trying to win are afraid of going out on the bubble, I'm happily stealing their blinds, because they're afraid to play. For me, the best part of a tourney is after the first hour, and before the final 2 tables. Like good sex, this bit is all about staying in. Keep it cool here and remember, if at the last two tables your opponent is twice your stack, then your only one good all-in call from being square. Just like long distance athletes, save the sprint for the final lap.

bohsman

The ones that want to win are stealing blinds close to the bubble, its the ones that want to limp into the money that curl up get blinded away and then go all in with any ace once they make the money whereas the the people that want to win outright will steal away pre bubble then look to pick away short stacks with big hands once in the money

DeVore

From the very start of second last table my game changes subtly but thoroughly. Steal the blinds of players who are neither small stacked (too likely they will gamble) not big stacked (they might take you on because its little cost to them. Also, play people off the flop or turn. I love to use scare cards and little bets against good players who will notice such things. They congratulate themselves for seeing "my little game" and think they are getting away from a slow played monster and I get their chips! We're both happy! See, poker is about spreading the love...

DeV.

Jaden

DeVore wrote:

See, poker is about spreading the love...

DeV.

Don't spread your love near me.....