10 replies to this topic

[braminc]

heres my deal, i play a lot of no limit tourneys online. lots of multi tables, lots of single tables and a few 3 tables, etc. in this post i want to give a detailed description of my single table strategy (since its so much simpler than multis) and see if im making any mistakes. i play on party poker, started on the 5 dollars, move up to 10, and now im on the 20 dollar tables. my making the money percentage is about 45% which does mean im turning a profit, but its smaller than id like it to be (isnt it always that way, lol). also i need a much bigger sample of tourneys before i know how accurate my win rate is. anyways, heres the strategy:first 25-30 hands, play extremely tight. no bluffing whatsoever (since they will call anything) and bet a little less aggressively with big cards (except aces, and kings in the hole). the style i play for these first few rounds is closest to tight passive. i just feel that theres too much gambling going on in these rounds, and tournaments arent won by who gets the most chips early. anywasstage 2: blinds are up to about 50/100 now. now i open up my game a bit. the amount i open up depends on how many players are left. if its still 9 or 10 handed, ill remail tight, but become my normal aggressive self. steal blinds when im in good position (with decent hands). make strong bets at flops that i think my opponent has missed. and bet very hard when i hit the flop as well. one of my previously bigger pitfalls in this stage of the tournament was to loosen up a bit too much and get greedy for chips. ive learned that its still a bit too early to go loose aggressive for more than just a couple hands. stage 3: blinds are 100/200: i guess this is really the last stage before heads up. since on party poker players drop so damn fast. this stage is similar to stage 2, but im a bit looser (usually because theyre are fewer players, we're shorthanded now) and still very aggressive. if im the big stack here, ill stay tight and let the other guys take each other out. if im a medium or short stack, my favorite thing to do is go almost hyper aggressive, at just the right time, and win a lot of blinds in a row and become the big stack. (like i said, dont know if this is the best strategy, thats why im posting this, to get feedback, and mayble possibly it will help someone else out there)final stage: heads up: it seems like in heads up everyone know you basically have to be loose aggressive. what ive found tho, is that people online take this way to far and practically push all their chips in every other hand at this stage just waiting for some big game ending hand to come up. if im playing against one of these types, ill tighten up, pick a spot, and attack. these guys are tough to beat though because those blinds can eat you up fast, you dont have much time to wait for a hand, ace high or a pocket pair USUALLY does the trick. if im playing a better player who THINKS before he acts. ill be much more on the loose aggressive side without pushing all in every hand. then if i get a big hand, ill sometimes try to trap, or make a huge bet that looks like a bluff. so this is an example of a strategy id use. does it sound good? bad? ok? some is right some is wrong? would love some input on this, cause these single tables are a unique challenge.

[braminc]

no replies???no help???no different strategies during any stages??come on guys

[braminc]

for example, has anyone had any success playing loose in the early rounds, possible capitalizing on the fact that the worst players at the table are still there (As opposed to later in the tournament, when theyve already gone broke, and i missed out on their chips cause i was playing super tight)

[braminc]

this is kinda funny, btw, having a whole thread to myself, lol. i think im gonna start my own forum, where im the only member, lol

[Hardrocker]

Nothing wrong at all with this strategy, especially if it works for you.I sometimes play a little looser in the first 2 rounds if everyone seems content to limp: suited connectors and one-holer especially. Nothing like catching a nut straight with a 5-7 suited from mid/late position.Otherwise playing tight seems to give a more favorable table image when it comes time to steal blinds. This can also work both ways if you play loose the first couple of rounds and then tighten up. People with think you are trying to steal with cheese, and you will get looser calls when you are holding premium hands.

[mrstealth]

Hi Hard,It sounds like your strategy is right on - the problem is the fact that with only a 45% "in the money" record over time you are not going to accumulate a lot of money at $20 and lower - mainly because the rake is 10% on the $10 & $20 & 20% on the $5 table - placing 3rd you are actually loosing money at 45%.I think if you are a disciplened enough player (as it seems you are) you'd be better off playing "heads up" tourneys on UB or Full Tilt.

[seli]

i think your absolutely right, in the early rounds its important to play tight, only putting your money in with the best hand is the only way i play sit'n gos in the early rounds, you gotta toss those small pocketpairs and suited connectors early on and then be aggressive when it gets shorthanded. al spath wrote a few good articles on this subject just a few weeks ago on www.pokerpages.com and i found them to be very helpfulfor what its worthseli

[MetalSkin]

braminc said:

if im the big stack here, ill stay tight and let the other guys take each other out.  

This is the only argument I have with your stratedgy, as the rest mirrors my own. When you're the big stack at this stage you have to keep pressure on the other players. Particularly the small stacks. A good thing to do is to make sure almost no hand is played for the cost of the BB. If you can keep small stacks from playing their blinds, they get ground down. Yes, you risk your standing, but what happens if you don't is the smaller stacks begin trading chips around and you soon have parity. That's where everyone has pretty much evened up in chips. Even if you're still leading, there now aren't any really small stacks to bully. This not only makes the game drag, but puts your chances of winning at risk, since whoever does emerge from this situation will have a stack that can really challenge you. If you keep small stacks from playing, and chip counts uneven, you increase the chances of maintaining a meaningful lead.M

[Kevin Garceau]

and dont ever bluff at a dry pot when someone is all in and you have two people going against that person.Man that drives me insane. They bluff the winner out who has a piece of the board only to lose to the all in person who hangs around longer.I play very tight early, I mean very tight. At the lower buy in games, up to 25 many times I will start the tourney and go make something to eat...lolcome back and your barely missed anything and down to 5 people. Well that is an exaggeration, but I dont get involved much at the lower limits, they do a good job of knocking each other around so its entertaining at least.I played 6 STT's last night placed in money all 6. I agree with big stack you have to keep pressure on, but you dont want to be a calling station with it either. That will leak chips and give ammo to someone else.

[KsItLoLnEeR]

I basicly play them straight forward. No bluffing, unless there is the rare event of getting a tight player, then I will try to exploit him as much as possible.Other than that I just play straight forward. One thing I will add, I think its important to play at a site with a good structure. I dont like the structures at Party or Bodog. The best ones I have found are at FTP, UB and Stars, although I dont play at stars anymore.One other thing that I dont think was mentioned is that I like to try to identify players that have a willingness to call off all of their chips with less than premium hands. Sometimes if you have a few players like this at the table you can try for the "homerun play" where you raise much more than normal with big hands and get them to call for most if not all of their chips. For example if I have a player at my table with a larger stack who has called 1/3 or half his stack with a K6s, then if I get a big hand I will consider moving all in or raising an obcene ammount pre flop.

[daddypoker23]

i use to play at PP sit and go tournaments 10-1,20-2 and use to make a disent profit... play super tight early rounds loosen up when the blinds are 50-100 and let everything go out the window when the blinds are 100-200 depending on my chip stack tho... either way i now play at Ub sit ang goes and love it.. u get to play a lof more hands that you would normally fold at PP like 5-4 suited.. because you start with 1,000 in chips rather then 800 and the blinds increase much slower then at PP... i've been playing at Ub 4 two months and yesterday played a 10-1 at PP and hated it because it seems like you have to be a all in specialist yes the game can still be beat.. but i rather play at UB since it seems like there is more skilled involved then PP.. joel