Looking for advice

[madjek]

Live tournament I play in as much as possible seems to have same type of field each time. I'm just curious what everyone thinks is best way to approach this kind of player. A lot of the players like to see flops in early rounds, raises 3,4,or even 5 times blind often see 3,,4 or even 5 callers. Then they become calling stations if they hit anything. Problem is blinds go up pretty fast, starting stack is pretty low (7500). By 4th level, starting stack would only have 15 blinds and antes, so if you played a few hands and lost, your SS'ed hour and half in. At first I was thinking I should get in often, since you can often limp and see flop, hoping to hit top pair and value bet calling stations, and also raise with bigger starting hands, problem is if it doesn't hit, can't even get bottom pair to fold. This strategy usually gets me SS'd early unless I get lucky. There are a few reg. who always seem to have a good stack 2 hrs in, so I'm thinking there must be a sound strategy. Should my opening range be wider or tighter? Play more aggressive post flop? Just play position, though these players seem to like to try and trap.

[beanfacekilla]

I would say play position, with very well timed agression. If it is going to be live, watch them when the flop comes out. Search on youtube for "poker tells". But tourneys are high variance anyways... Peace.

[Poker Orifice]

I can defnitely relate to live tourneys such as this that you've described... 'ugh'.(although the ones in my area actually have a great structure for the first 2hrs. but then WHAM.. it goes nuts & the avg. stack is ~10bb's... and they're still limping, min-raising & call, call, call, call.. "we wanna see the flops!!"

Arnold Snyder's "THe Poker Tournament Formula" is a book that is written for playing this type of tournament structure (Live donkaments with fast structure & lots of loose calling fish).

What I'd suggest.... raise BIG in position & to do so with a wider range. Yes they'll also be 'trappy' & will be check/calling postflop on wetboards, not protecting overpairs or TPTK type hands, etc. They'll also be fit/fold players too...and alot of your postflop position bets will take down pots when they've wiffed (but then again, you get the players who are 100% calling 2 barrels even if they only have overcards..> "But I got the AK! ... it's a good hand isn't it?"
Raise in position, along with 'don't be afraid to ship it over a few limpers on a 12-20bb stack'. Ideally, we want to be raise/isolating in position & as Snyder suggests, 'do this with a wider range than you'd typically consider' (ie. raise otb over a couple limpers with something like QTs).

[madjek]

Opening with big raises is what I thought would work at first, but if you get called by 3 or 4 people and don't hit, what then, cont. bet and get called. You can only do that 3 or 4 times and you're ss'd. After reading your post and thinking about it on my own, my thinking is I hve 2 choices. If I want to open with big raise when I get into a pot, I have to only play really big hands, and if it gets beat so be it. Or I can play more hands cheaper and value bet when I do hit. I think first way is sounder and give me best chance to go deeper and make money, with occasional getting knocked out early, where 2nd way would get me close to bubble more often, but not in good shape. Just my thoughts, looking forward to trying out your suggestion (raise big, just don't agree with widening range with this strategy)

[beanfacekilla]

I agree with you Madjek. I would play very tight, and when you enter the pot, be agressive. Raise your big hands. Don't be afraid to make the calling stations pay... But in reality, you would never be able to win every tourney you play, and it might just not be your day. It sucks, but sometimes you just can't last until the pay. Good luck and all that... Peace.

[Dan Abnormal]

Im in a big MTT tonight and going to try out the advice here and see if I get deep with an actual stack or go home early, Ill just play tight and if I get the cards Ill play it fast.

Hey Beanface, I checked out some of the you tube videos and I seem to be telling on myself somewhat, probably more than I know, are there any stand out ones I should take a look at, if so post the youtube link or just PM me with it. I went through Mike Caros tells and read and some older videos with moneymaker and such.

[beanfacekilla]

I think the Mike Caro one is a good one. There is one guy, a former FBI agant, he has good videos. It is all about the limbic brain, and reactions that people can't hide. I think the guys name is Joe Nevarro? Maybe? I don't know. People won't always exhibit tells, but you should know what to look for. Very good info in the Mike Caro videos though. I have a post on this forum about poker tells. I don't know how to find it and post a link on here... Just click "search" on forum menu bar, and search for beanfacekilla. It will bring up all my posts and you can find it. Peace.

[Assistanc3]

I have a post on this forum about poker tells..

Poker tells (live)

[beanfacekilla]

Thanx Assistanc3.

[Dan Abnormal]

If it not for the odd hand I described on my MTT pocket Aces would of knokced my out of the tourny

REad a lot of YOu tubes videos before I played and dont know if it made a difference, I made sure my chips were messy as hell so It looked like I was loose