gazeebo

i definitely agree with this. if he hit that well you have to pay him off. so often this will be a strong queen thinking that theyre good.

what to open with when all depends on a ton of things going on around you. the speed of the game, your table image, and your goal in opening are all extremely important. i didnt see the specific hand in question with the 5T utg raise, but chances are the guy was simply playing the hand to make a play based off his table image and pick up a small pot on the flop. risky play but with a tight image, good players will see the raise as a sign of strength and fold their hands to a good continuation bet on the flop. the question of if you should only play the top 15 (or whatever) hands really depends

well... even with a field of 20+ id say start with at least 3500+ chips, but your tournament setup is up to you guys. id play the first 3-4 levels pretty tight and hope to pick up a few big hand-over-hand pots. if that happens and your stacks 1.5-2 times starting after an hour, speed up and start picking up pots. dont completely open up tho, but loosen up a little. with that structure, you need to play fast. what it really comes down to is position. playing against a ton of calling stations all you can really do is play straight-forward and outplay them. good luck man