12 replies to this topic

[HoldemPokerPlyr]

In a tournament, I'm usually fine once I have a decent amount of chips. I'm able to bluff, raise, play and win pots. However, it's getting there which is the trouble for me. I have a problem gaining chips at the beginning of the tournament. I tried to play conservatively, that didn't work. I then tried to play loose preflop and conservative on the flop, that didn't work. Does anybody have any good suggestions?

-HoldemPokerPlyr

[mikeysong]

I then tried to play loose preflop and conservative on the flop, that didn't work. Does anybody have any good suggestions?

-HoldemPokerPlyr

try playing aggressive. You can't just assume you'll run over the table. but if you sense passiveness n such and aren't against people who just wanna gamble with anything, run the table over and play aggressive.


Remember, you don't want to bust out, and neither do they

[trystero]

try playing aggressive. You can't just assume you'll run over the table. but if you sense passiveness n such and aren't against people who just wanna gamble with anything, run the table over and play aggressive.
Remember, you don't want to bust out, and neither do they

I think what he's saying is that, early on with the blinds so low, he'll call with marginal hands hoping to hit the flop hard in multiway pots, and when he doesn't he gives up.

That's a viable strategy if your table's passive when the level is low. But sometimes you just don't hit the flop hard. That happens. If your table's more aggressive you can get into a preflop push fest with big hands. And sometimes you don't get those.

Honestly, unless you're playing a huge tournament with a very slow structure, you need to get pretty lucky to hoard chips, like picking up AA against KK or flopping a set against TPTK.

[Actuary]

with no specific hands to review no one can help you from the info you give.

you may be getting cold decked
you may be folding to many winners
you may not be betting enoug to price out the draws
you may suck
you may slow play too much, when players are willing to call off their whole stack with TPgK.
we don't know

[HoldemPokerPlyr]

Well basically, I am having a little bad luck, but I think I could do more.

I played with the family the other night in a 12 person tournament. We broke up into 2 tables of 6 and the other 2 players who actually knew what they were doing (besides me) were at my table. I was knocked out in 11th place in the tournament. 11th? The rest of the people barely knew how to play that well, they were just playing for fun. I remember winning two big pots, however, both of them were split. So that didn't help me at all. Nobody was being agressive at all really. The other 2 players great players at the table and me didn't really get into it at all. We were barely in each other's pots. Both of those players played heads up at the end. One of them got really low in the beginning but then started to pick up hands. The other one was doing pretty well the whole tournament. When they'd bet, people would fold to them all the time, however when I bet, I had plenty of callers. I thought about my betting, was I betting too little? I don't think so, I was betting as much as they would be betting as well.

My cash game skills are improving, but I haven't played tournament play alot recently, so that could be the problem. I always knew though that I needed to get lucky to pick up chips in a tournament situation. However, I still think there is something I could do better. Out of a 12 person tournament and only 3 people know what they're doing including myself, I'd have to finish alot better than that.

I use to play conservative and wait for decent hands because the blinds are so low, it's not worth risking my chip stack. However, that doesn't work that well if I'm not getting cards.

P.S I'm not whinning or anything, I just want to see if there is something I should be doing that I'm not.

-HoldemPokerPlyr

[Actuary]

P.S I'm not whinning or anything, I just want to see if there is something I should be doing that I'm not.

-HoldemPokerPlyr

a little.

Play 100 SnG's
Post some hands.

No way we can figure out how to help you just from your crying and little info

If you play 1 per week, it could take a long time before simple variance would be less of a factor than actual skill

[HoldemPokerPlyr]

Thanks for that. That's why posting on forums are a waste sometimes, because of people's sarcastic comments. I wasn't complaining, I just came here to ask how other people play early in the tournament. I don't want everybody to rate my play, I'm just looking to find out different strategies players use early in a tournament.

-HoldemPokerPlyr

[Actuary]

Thanks for that. That's why posting on forums are a waste sometimes, because of people's sarcastic comments.
-HoldemPokerPlyr

lol
that was nothing.
you want help with general strategies?

read Harrington On Holdem
have you done that?
Have you read SSHE?

have you posted on other threads to see where you might be disagreeing with others?

are you always this lazy about improving?

What you take as sarcasm is an honest answer to trying to help
Read these forums enough and you'll know that no one will try to help you more than me

grow up.

[fckthis]

play lots of hands, and then TP/MM.

At least that what Gavin Smith did/does.

[mikeysong]

what is tp/mm?


Look, if you want to build up early, read your table. Isolate the scared players. Re-raise preflop with POSITION and bet the pot hard. You're forcing them to hit the flop, if they don't, they have to pitch it.

Try playing some short handed cash games. I learned a lot about aggression there.

[timwakefield]

what is tp/mm?

Turn Pro/Make Millions. Usually used sarcastically.

[copernicus]

Turn Pro/Make Millions. Usually used sarcastically.

I think the best way to learn is to play very tight in the early stages and build up your observational skills.

Playing loose aggressive requires two things...large stack to blind ratios and excellent post flop play. There arent many low buy in deep stack tourneys, so getting enough experience to improve post flop skills isnt easy. A decent compromise is something like a $20/180. The stacks arent all that deep, but you also dont tend to get a lot of preflop raising, so you can experiment with small ball reasonably well.

Limp or min-raise suited connectors in early/middle position, raise some smaller pairs from late position and try to outplay a dry board etc.

[HoldemPokerPlyr]

Thank you for your suggestions.

-HoldemPokerPlyr