Okay, so here goes.

I play and occasionally deal for the guy who runs www.thepokertour.net. He is running his bi-annual winner's tournament. The structure for the semi-finals was as follows. Every night for six months, at each bar, the winner gets a certificate worth 1500 chips at the finals, with each win over 3 worth 100 chips. Each night a random person is selected as the bounty. If you knock this person out of the nightly tournament, then you get an additional 750 chips, capped at three.

I entered the semi's with 5 wins and 2 bounties, for a starting stack of 6200 chips, with an average of 2000.

There were 4 days of semi finals, with the top 25 players advancing to the finals, October 1.

I am entering this final tournament with 30,500 chips, around fifth place. The chip leader is going in with 67,000 chips. Average starting stack is 15,400, with about fifty players with less than 8,000. Lots and lots of short stacks.

I'm wondering what a good strategy would be going into this final tournament. Prizes will be awarded to the final table, but the top two spots get a 10K buyin to the Bellagio 5 diamond classic.

Should I play aggressively and make the small stacks play for all of their chips preflop? Should I limp with middle holdings and push to a short stack re-raise? Or are these players hoping I limp with my big stack? Are they hoping to play a pot with me so they can double up? These are free bar poker players, but since this is the finals there aren't a huge amount of complete idiots.

Should I play very tight, only playing top ten hands and trying to see cheap flops? Should I play conservative preflop and then turn on the heat if I hit the flop? Should I fold the vast majority of hands when most players will have about 10,000 chips or less?

I have an idea of how I would like to play, but I know there are much more skilled players here who I could benefit from.

Thoughts?

Whats the ante/blind structure like compared to the short stacks?

My first reaction is to avoid the big stacks like the plague without a monster and try and vacuum up some small stacks if they are very shallow. Hopefully you dont draw a table with the CL or a similar very large stack, or are to their left most of the time.

If the stacks are fairly deep even for the short stacks try and see some cheap flops and trap the small ones. If the stacks are shallow for them aggressive stealing/PF raising.

I'd go motorboating with Jennifer Connelly

If you are 5th in chips out of 100 people=10 tables, chances are you will be CL at your table. I would be putting those chips to use with so many short stacks because they will probably be waiting for premium hands to just push all-in. It should be fairly easy to push these short stacks around for a while because when they show any interest in the hand at all, you can fold and you're losing a minimal amount of chips. I'm not saying raise pf every hand just because, but big stacks should play aggressive.

I dont know the significance of motorboating, but there isnt anything I wouldnt do with JC unless it involved a long prison sentence (short might be worth it) or loss of a limb.

Never limp while playing a big stack.

Watch "Wedding Crashers" immediately.

Wrong

Thanks for the reply. Now I know what the noobs over in general feel like every time their threads get hijacked. I didn't find another bar poker final tournament thread, so I asked.

The blinds will start at 200-400, no antes, with 30 minute levels.

These are players who like to limp and see a cheap flop. These are also the people who call gutshots all the way down and stay with any ace. Most are just not very good players.

How do you approach a situation with Tourists who can't fold A rag offsuit in late position to a EP raise?

You play TAG. Play solid holdings, play them aggressively, and your opponents will make mistakes.

Also, the lack of antes puts less emphasis on the need to steal preflop.

Agreed. And the fairly high blinds compared to the short stacks is going to put pressure on them to tighten up over their usual play.

This is a very big prize and a reasonable size field to get through. Even the Tourists will have gone out and bought a poker book or two to try and improve their chances, so dont expect them to play as loosely as the usually do...underrating them can be fatal.

One thing that reading will not have done for them is help the overcome the psychology of not wanting to bust out. Identify the players that fold to aggression on the flop, and the limit players who have a natural tendency to see the turn card and fold to the "more expensive" bet.

Pop open a cold one and let the chips roll in!!! Even the most basic tournament strategy should take care of players like this.

UPDATE:

I arrived at the local bar right at 9:00 as I wanted to enjoy some brunch. I randomly drew table 5, seat 5.

The tournament started promptly at eleven. The structure was as follows.

Blinds raised every half hour.
200-400
300-600
500-1000
1000-2000
2000-4000
3000-6000
5000-10000
10000-20000
20000-40000
40000-80000
50000-100000
100000-200000
500000-1000000

A little absurd I think. There were 100 people in the tournament. There were four semi-final tournaments with the top 25 from each round advancing to the final. There were almost 1.5 million chips in play, with the average stack at 15,400. I started with 30,500, a comfortable number.

My table seemed weak tight, with only one other person under 30. I had never played with anyone at my table, but nearly half the players were regulars and knew each others' names.

S1 - 3000
S2 - 2500
S3 - 9000
S4 - 4500
S5 - 30500
S6 - 6500
S7 - 3500
S8 - 6000
S9 - 16000
S10 - 14000

The other two big stacks were very weak/tight. I read therinn's post on 180 person SNGs, and I think there were a lot of ideas that I took into consideration.

I didn't get into too many confrontations at first. Lots of minraises and scary boards. I was raising seats 8 9 and 10 whenever they were in the blinds, and I was making a fair amount of money. I was up to 68800 in chips when it was my big blind, at 300-600. Seat 9 had won a couple of nice pots with top pair, and was up to 38000 or so. Folded to him, he raised to 2400, folded around, I looked down at two black kings, and pop him to 7500. He pushed and I insta-called, he showed ace jack offsuit. Flop and turn were low and uncoordinated, but the ace came on the river.

--Tell me, did I push too hard preflop? Should I have smooth called and saw a flop? I thought he would probably get away from an ace on the flop, so I wanted him to put as much money in the pot as possible. I don't think I can get away from kings in that position against such a weak and short stacked table. Should I have slowed down since he was the only stack at the table who could do any damage to me? Should I be pissed that he called off all of his chips to the chip leader at the table with ace jack off?

I took a minute to cool myself off after that hand, but got right back into it, raising lots of pots. I was sitting right at 25000, when the following hand came up. Blinds 300-600, button seat ten. I raise in EP to 2100 with two red aces. UTG calls. Flop is 2 3 A . He pushes, I call. Turn 5 River 2 . I win.

Down to the final two tables, I'm sitting at 125000, slightly above average. blinds 5K/10K, I'm sitting on the big blind and get dealt A Q . LP raises to 25K, I call. Flop Q Q 2 I bet 25K, she raises all in and has me covered, I call, she shows K K, turn blank, river K and IGHN.

Fun tourney, weak players, but the blind structure was too fast.

My man, you shouldn't be calling other players weak when you are asking if you should've slowed down with KK pf. You got the money in as a 70% favorite. Unless you're psychic and know with absolute certainty when your opponent's holding an ace, you should always play KK hard pf. You got outdrawn on. It happens.

Nice run though, and good job controlling your tilt so you could get back in it.

I guess I was questioning whether to play for most of my stack against the one person at the table who had enough chips to do damage to me, or concentrate on taking out the smaller stacks without risking a big hit.

You shouldn't question that either. When you tangle with big stacks then you generally want big hands. KK pf is a huge hand. Would you be thinking that you should've folded aces pf if pocket jacks sucked out against you? Because you didn't want to risk a big hit?

You played the hand fine, and you know it. Results are distorting your perception. No one's good enough to pass up the edge given here.

yeh he is right, you cant act like him having an ace makes it a bad play(that play with AJ is just brain dead pure and simple), he just sucked out. getting him to commit preflop when you had a made hand is the best move.

by reading this post that tournament was chock full of fish, did you say if you won or not?

The guy who runs this pub poker tour isn't a huge poker player. A hundred players with 1.5 million chips in play, and this guy wanted to have the tourney over in five hours. The blind structure got obscene in the later levels. The hand I busted with would have put me far above average and probably top five with 14 players, but I went out in 12 or 13, right on the final table bubble.