I want to get more imput on strategy for the 1st hour of Stars 180 man sngs. I've been running cold in these lately and struggling the most with hour 1. Usually I can always go deep if I get myself a decent stack 4k or better but been really struggling getting through hour 1 let alone with a decent stack.

What do you do to succesfully and consistently build a decent stack size by the 1st break?

Have you checked out the strategy guide stickied at the top? Not sure if you're asking for advice or clarification on the stuff that's been brought up in that thread.


Strategy Guide

Yeah I've read and posted in that thread numerous times.

I was hoping to get more insight and focus of strategy geared towards the early stages of this tourney from a variety of members opposed to the infomation I have already read in the pinned thread.

Very early play opposite the table...TAG if they are loose or agg, LAG if they are tight or passive. By the third level I revert to TAG unless I have a huge stack. Value bet liberally, you'll get called by a lot of bad hands.

You only need a stack of 3500 to be ok after an hour, 5000 is very solid shape.

If you are playing TAG for the first hour of these and your stack is not going up, it is often just bad luck. I find it's not uncommon to go through 4 or 5 of these in a row where I'll be lucky to reach 2K in the first hour. (You should also be getting 4 or 5 in a row where the first-hour double-up is effortless.) If you are missing the double up more often than that, you need to reassess your play. With the small starting stacks in these things, you basically get either one or two hands to get a win; if you lose two, it's push or fold time. So you need to make the most of the opportunities that you have and get full value from them.

How do you do that? I've started doing something that seems to make a big difference: make a decision on the flop. Are you ahead or behind at that point? If you are ahead, decide what cards on the turn and river could convince you that you are no longer ahead, or what pattern of bets by your opponent could convince you. Think ahead. Make that decision. Then live with it. Play the hand as if you are 100% sure you are correct. That means if your opponent makes a small raise, re-raise. If your opponent checks, make a pot-sized bet. If you get it wrong, another tournament starts soon. If you get those wrong A LOT, you need to work on your game. If you get one or two correct in the first hour, you will be in good shape for the second hour.

One of the biggest things that was holding me back was that I didn't want to risk my tournament on a single hand, no matter how sure I was that I was ahead. Once I removed that block, my results improved dramatically.

Besides that, don't be afraid to take small pots in position. Your chips aren't doing you any good sitting in a stack -- throw them around and win some pots. Be smart about it, of course, but once you win a hand or two, use those chips as "bonus chips" that are only good for winning pots you don't deserve. If you don't win, you are only back to where you started, and that's not too bad. If you don't keep growing, you're going to need a suckout double-up eventually anyway. So take risks to grow now, and if that knocks you back to needing a quick double-up, well, that was probably on the way anyway, and you saved yourself an hour of staring at a screen waiting for death.

Thanks this is exactly the response I want.

Anybody else who does well in the 180s got any imput for the 1st hour play.

This (as usual from copernicus) is the best advice. Just pick your spots and don't be afraid to lay a hand down, you can almost always find a sucker willing to toss it all in with only Top pair.

bump

cmon I know there are more 180s players out there...

Honestly, there isn't a concrete way of playing these that will consistantly bring the same results. That's obvious, I know.

I think it is best to keep in mind that 90% of players will play the exact same way throughout the tourney. It is these players that you need to assess and find weaknesses in their play that you can exploit. Preflop raises are not usually respected, and Gap Theory means nothing.

People tend to be pretty transparent when they have draws, and even when they hit them. This, ofcourse, is dependent on the type of players you are against, but it applies to most.

One situation that I would like to address, is when there are anywhere from 3-6 limpers, and you wake up w/ a decent hand, such at JJ+, AQ+.... how do you proceed usually???

say blinds are 15/30 and stacks are all around 1500...If you have AQ+, 99+ then i would make it 5x + number of limpers. So if its 4 limpers I usually make it 270. This is just my general rule of thumb.