Small Quick Tournement Strategy

[mreffle 0]

I have started to play hold em for about a year now, at a local community centre once a week. It is well run and has about 60-100 people show up each week. It goes for about 12 weeks (each week a winner etc.) then based on your ranking over the 12 weeks a main tournament with the amount of chips given to you based on your rank..

 

Anyway, each week starts off with 2500 chips (costs about $20), it takes about 3 hours before there is a winner. Blinds start at 5-10 and increase every 10 minutes (5-10, 10-20, 15-30, 25-50, 75-150, 100-200 etc).

 

Based on this type of weekly play, how do you suggest to play this game, as it is much different from a longer tournament with a bigger chip count to start. I seem to get beat out after one hour. I try to play a lot of hands especially in the beginning, maybe that isn't good.

 

Need help.

 

Also, what book do you recommend to read based on this type of play. I have Doyle's and Daniel's book, but may be too advanced for this type of play.

[KingJames 11]

Yeah, typically in these turbos I think the strat is to nit it up and play tight and when the blinds get higher you will loosen up and hopefully steal some blinds and run good in all-ins

 

The counter to that is that if you don't build a stack early you will need to win a flip or whatever after an hour, so you should play some hands early to try and build a stack.

 

With a community center type game I'd go the tight route. I'd expect to get paid on any good holdings early, so I'd sit back and wait for good hands and then value bet very largely. Then when the blinds get big just start loosening up, try to steal blinds and win those flips.

 

 

And I suck at tournaments, as a disclaimer.

[Mercury69 3]

Shove or be shoved upon

[CorvairShaggy 5]

I generally play these types online. Do decently, but still working on it. My general strategy in the early levels is to only play connectors, KQ, A10+, pocket pairs, etc. I always c-bet flops, but don't try to get too much chips involved early unless I flop a monster or just making moves on certain players. In the later stages, I'll drop the connectors, but will open up Ax hands a bit more based on position. Usually open 3x, then adjust later on. I have been watching recently seeeing people do alot of open min-raising later on with about 15-20bb and they will fold out to certain player shoves, but it seems that they actually pickup some dead money and that will help them get a little deeper. Started playing with that recently and having some success. BUT, you will inevitably will have to win a few flips to make it to the end. I would suggest to try to find some 90-180 man turbo training videos online and that may help out some. Do a search for post by KingJames (above). He always post good info on whats on training sites. I understand that you are playing live so there will need to be some adjustments from watching online videos, but should give you a few ideas to try.

[TrueAce13 18]

really just learn how to pushbot very well and you should be fine

[answer20 5]

Since you are basically playing these with the same players each week you should be able to pick up on your table dynamic right away. Very important to play position and bet a little bit higher with above average holdings. I agree it is generally better to play tighter in the first 3 or 4 levels and then go to work when ever you hit 40bb or less since you basically need to double up each level after level 4 or 5 to stay 'even'.

 

Knowing who likes to steal is very important since even an average hand will beat most stealers ... If this is a re-buy and you don't want to spend a bullet or 2, then tight play is important since quite a few players will try to double up in marginal spots knowing they will re-buy anyway.

 

If it's not your night, shove from position and hope for the folds ... or go play cash for next weeks entry!!

[MIddLES 0]

don't open hands from spots where you are very likely to get jammed on with hands your not calling with... open small with hands you want to get jammed on or from very strong looking positions as steals and in later position be aware that you should be jamming the lower end of your value range if you don't want to induce shoves from other players... play tight early and take advantage of good opportunities to let people punt a stack to you seeing a flop with hands that can hit really big i.e. pairs some suited connectors etc... you'll be fine and the more work you put into your shoving/calling ranges in these turbos the better off you'll be glgl

[Acekob 0]

If you're new to this I would say; play tight early, when you get close to 10 bbs, start shoving a large part of your range from later positions. You will get called from time to time and forced to win some flips, but you'll be raking in a ton of blinds if the players aren't calling as wide as they should. Are there any antes in this thing?