4 replies to this topic

[jmbreslin]

I'm thinking of trying my first $4.40, 180 this week and I was just wondering if the post by therinn in the strategy resources section works well for the $4.40's (I noticed it's posted about the $20 tourneys).
Thanks,
Jonathan

[BeaverStyle]

They play pretty much the same, except you need to be prepared for the extreme donkishness you will see in $4.40's. Ruins lives.

Good luck!

[The Phoenix]

Yes, it works well. It's a good strategy for any tournament, but especially with 1500 starting chips. Playing incredibly snug the first hour is important. So is playing your big hands fast as he encourages. In $4.40's playing hands like AJ,AQ and other medium strength hands is very difficult because your raises are going to be called by by multiple opponents so you are going to have to hit flops to win pots with those hands. If you miss the flop with those hands c-betting is pretty much just spew.

$4.40s were very helpful to me because before I played them I was too afraid to experiment. I decided that at those stakes I could experiment and that's where I found my tournament style and ramped up my aggession big time, but only in good spots. They are also good for improving your endgame tournament play, which is imperative because in tournaments it is so top 3 pay heavy. In most low buy-in tournaments you don't get near the final 3 tables a large percentage of the time. In 180's you should be ITM (FINAL 2 TABLES) 10% of the time (more if you are a good player).

[HighwayStar]

$4.40's are fantastic..

Main thing is to play for the win, nothing else. It's all about converting. Recently, I cash ~20% of the time, convert ~80% into FT's and about 25% of those FT's into wins.
The play in the last 3 tables is very useful for developing your bubble/deep tournament strategy. Better than playing an $11 MTT getting to the last 100, getting sucked out on and having to play another 4 hours of solid poker to get there again. Playing $4.40's has improved my deep MTT strategy no end.

I would recommend playing like that guide says. I tend to gamble/experiment a lot early to get a big stack since I know I can chip up very easily in the 2nd hour as the play there is very easy to manipulate with practice and aggression. Also, make sure you identify the serial limpers, you can often pick up easy chips from the people who limp every other hand with any old rags by raising with position preflop. Wouldn't recommend doing this until the 2nd hour though.
If you do get short stacked you can easily find a spot to double back, often people will call with any Ace.
I don't tend to stick around long being short, hate playing shove or fold poker.

You WILL get sucked out on a lot by terrible play, just ride through it and you'll start making easy money.

[jmbreslin]

Good stuff, thanks.

I don't normally have the time to play MTTs but the wife is going out of town Friday nght so I'll have a bigger chunk of time than usual. And since there aren't usually MTTs at my buy-in level running at the time I'll be playing, I figure I'll take a shot at a $4.40.