11 replies to this topic

[TruePoker]

I am attending my first ever tournament soon, it's only £30 buy-in but I am just starting to play poker and any help ( no rude comments ) would be appreciated. Any way to practice rather than just playing? (any specific diets? )Anyways, also some tips perhaps on changing gears and starting bets, e.g. (3x blind for AKs) or something along these lines, e.g. the kind of bet im putting out if i want some people to call or if i just want to steal blinds.Danny please help!RegardsTruePoker

[AUBrandon]

only thing i can think of besides playing is reading a good poker book.... I'd recommend Supersystem 1 or 2, or almost any Sklansky book...

[TruePoker]

Are these books actually any good? I find there are so many articles readily available online that I am not sure if a book would be a good investment (from a student point of view). What is your view on this?

[allinbluff35]

harrington on holdem for a good tournament book

[custom36]

allinbluff35 said:

harrington on holdem for a good tournament book

That is an absolute must if you want to do well in a tournament. Go out and buy it.

[JimmyWellington]

TruePoker said:

I am attending my first ever tournament soon, it's only £30 buy-in but I am just starting to play poker and any help ( no rude comments ) would be appreciated. Any way to practice rather than just playing? (any specific diets?   )Anyways, also some tips perhaps on changing gears and starting bets, e.g. (3x blind for AKs) or something along these lines, e.g. the kind of bet im putting out if i want some people to call or if i just want to steal blinds.Danny please help!RegardsTruePoker

Need some more information about the tournament. How fast do the blinds go up, what do they start at, how many chips do you start with, how many players are there going to be (approx.) are there rebuys? If so, what are the details on that? Are you playing to win, or are you comfortable just trying to finish in the money?

[TylerBeal]

Truepoker,If you want some non-book advice, here it is.I just played my first live tournament march 9th.88 entries ponied up a whopping 200+40 entry fee Unlimited rebuys and 1 add-on.well I rebought once and added-on. Half away through the tournament I was a healthy stack (chip leader for a while actually).THATS when I made the biggest mistake ever. And it cost me alot of money.I got too comfortable with my stack. I tried sitting back and letting people pull stupid shit out of there arsenal and get caught. needless to say I go blinded down and crippled. Out in 14th place. Top 10 get paid.Get those blinds. When you have position and no one has made a move at it. Make a strong bet. If someone comes over the top all in you can fold if you were on a steal. My first tournament. My first real tournament lesson that I taught myself.I hope it helps you. Good luck my friend keep me/us updated

[Shaffer]

Words to live by, TylerBeal. I found that as one of my big mistakes the first few times I found myself overly healthy in online tournaments. All right, now I can sit back and be safe for a while! Big mistake! The blinds start hitting you, others start catching you, and before long you realize you're dwindling down to not have breathing room. Suddenly you feel the need to call that all-in with KTos, you lose a race, and you're back with the little fish. More blinding, blinding, blinding, and suddenly you find yourself at 6x the bb and those pocket 4's start to look awfully appealing. All-in, and the guy calls to your left with pocket 8's, sending your sorry tail to the rail. It's happened to me an embarrassing number of times.Early, I play tight, waiting for a nice break, a chance to win a big pot with a monster (set, 2 pair, a nice flush, whatever). Avoid big bluffs early - they will generally only get you in trouble. It takes a very fast schedule, or a very unlucky night, not to hit at least one premium hand. Sometimes you'll catch a bad beat, other times you'll run into a bigger monster, sometimes you'll just never get any action, but those are the reasons you never sit down with your whole bankroll in front of you.But if things go right, and you find yourself in a healthy spot, push! But push smart, and don't do anything stupid. Hit the middle-to-high pocket pairs, the A-9 suited, the KQo, just a little harder. Don't be deluded into thinking these are premium hands, and be very wary of the re-raisers whose backs are up against the wall, but understand that all but the best of the shorter stacks will be scared of your chip stack, and will give you a lot of free blinds with their own middle hands. Try the occasional steal with rags when the situation warrants it - it can pay off, but don't try it too often, and don't play back. Be aggressive but don't do anything stupid.That's how I play, at least. There's no "right" way, but I've found much better results when I pick up my aggression level as the tournament wears on.As you approach the bubble, don't tighten up and hope to limp into the money! That's what everyone else is thinking, and now is your chance to pick up their chips! On the bubble, the players are divided very evenly between foxes and sheep - the foxes will beat up on the sheep until the sheep are backed into a corner, at which point they start charging, and become dangerous. Pick on the players who are just over the bubble, who think they might have a chance to blind their way into the first money spot. They will not play in medium-sized pots unless they have an absolute monster! Position yourself well on the bubble and you'll generally be able to make a run for the final table.Once the bubble hits, I generally tighten up. You can almost feel the release of tension, and suddenly the tight-wads will lose their minds, when they realize they're going to need to double up 4 times if they want to have any chance to make the final table. It's almost like starting the tournament anew. Stick to the premium hands or the golden opportunities, but hit them hard as hell when you get them.And when you hit a final table, even at the low $5 buy in tournaments, 9 out of 10 players will be well above average (it seems a fish always manages to sneak in after delivering 3 consecutive bad beats). There is no "right" way to play against good players, just observe their tendencies, hope for good hands, push when you've got the best of it, protect it when you don't. Final tables are always fun, and mistakes are always very costly on them.I was lucky enough to make the final table in my third ever multi-table tournament (didn't deserve it, as it was on lucky beats and a ton of won races), and it took me about 15 tries to make it back, but now it happens on a decent percentage of the time. It won't happen for you every tournament, but when it happens, it's pretty sweet.It took me almost 20 final tables to get my first victory - way below average, but it always seemed to be a bad beat somewhere. When it happens, it's pretty sweet. Best of luck to you.

[TruePoker]

Wow guys thanks for the advice, just wondering if there is a website that could give me some of the preflop possibilities, e.g. top pair against two undercards etc.

[bobbytheo3]

cardplayer.com has an odds calculator where you can put in different hands against each other with different amounts of players...great for gettin a feel for odds. play around with it. and save yourself time by realizing 9-8 suited is the same odds against pocket 3's as J-T suited is, and situations like that. you might want to just memorize the basic hands. i.e. 2 over cards vs. a smaller pocket pair, 1 overcard vs. a pocket pair, pocket pair vs. lower pocket pair, etc.

[Shaffer]

Here's the basic odds:Pair vs. no pair (top duplicated) - AA v AK - 89/11Pair vs. no pair (both below pair) - AA v KQ - 85/15Pair vs. Pair - AA v KK - 81/19No pair (bottom matches top) - AK v KQ - 74/26No pair (bottoms match) - AQ v KQ - 74/26No pair (tops match) - AK v AQ - 74/26Pair vs. no pair (over-under) - KK v AQ - 71/29Pair vs. no pair (over-match) - KK v AK - 69/31No pair (12 v 34) - AK v QJ - 64/36No pair (13 v 24) - AQ v KJ - 62/38No pair (14 v 23) - AJ v KQ - 59/41Pair vs. overcards - QQ v AK - 53/47This is a good place to understand all-in odds, i.e., both players all-in before the flop.Being suited adds a minimal amount to your chances of winning the hand, less than you'd think. Ditto with being connected.This is stuff every player should know, but can be a little misleading. In a heads-up situation, 22 is a favorite over AK, but this does not make 22 a better overall hand than AK. There's a lot more to factor in (particularly when up against multiple opponents). Neither I, nor anyone else on this board, is likely to take the time to do that here in a post that will be swallowed up in a matter of days. A good place to start is reading a poker book geared for beginner's.

[Jubba]

allinbluff35 said:

harrington on holdem for a good tournament book

The single best tournament book for NLHE. Buy it, read it, love it, sleep with it under your pillow if you must, but it is a must buy. It will dramatically improve your game. I actually bought the book for my nephew because he was getting into playing online tournaments, and (along with my help of course) he has been doing very well in his tournament play.