I'm normally a low-to-mid stakes live LHE player (will play anything from 15-30 to 40-80, depending on the game texture). I'm thinking about entering one or more of the WSOP LHE events this year (likely the $1500 event and the $3000 6max).

Anyone have particular insight on how these tournaments play?

Any notable deviations from "normal" live cash game strategy? (whatever it is that you'd consider normal - balanced ranges, LAGTAG, etc.)

Chipstack considerations? (since I obviously can't reload)

My naive assumption would be that the field will be populated by NL players to some degree, giving me an edge in that sense, but perhaps the field's tournament "experience" may swing things back a bit.

Bottom line: worth playing?

I have played the 1500 LHE a few times.

I think the key thing in tournaments generally is the concept that you don't want to settle for a small edge now if you risk not getting to play a better edge later. Last year in the 1500 LHE I called down a large percentage of my stack late in the tournament with a pretty marginal holding. In a cash game I think it would be a pretty standard calldown but in the tournament situation I think I made a clear mistake.

In the early part of a tournament where everyone has plenty of chips and no one is at risk I think you can play basically the same as a cash game.

Later when some people are short, etc. I think you need to make basic adjustments and then adjust to the correct or incorrect adjustments your opponents are making. Medium stacks should be playing tighter to avoid thin edges and continue surviving. Large stacks should be able to take advantage of this situation by loosening up, especially near money bubbles. Everyone should be thinking about money jumps and avoiding marginal all in spots near those jumps.

Overall though, I think if you're a winning midstakes cash player you should have a good chance in a tournament even if you don't adjust from your basic strategy. Most people in these tournaments aren't very good.

Don't go for thin value nearly as much because it's better to save chips for later. You're going to have a small stack in terms of BB's most of the tourney, so find a happy place between playing tighter pf and more aggressive post. Don't do anything stupid for most of day 1 because the pots are smaller and you want to have more chips for later once the blinds go up and you can actually win meaningful pots. Find a spot, for me it's roughly 15 BB's where if you're under you play a tight solid game and if it's over you look for spots to play super Afro and build a stack. Keep an eye out on day for people NL players who are bored or registered for the tourney by mistake. Always remember that everyone is terrible at limit so don't be afraid to mix it up when th TV pros because they're awful and free chips since a lot of them are trying to bust fast to play the next one. You're going to be short stacked most of the tourney so worry about it and just have fun knowing that no matter how well you play you're going to get knocked out when you eventually go on a "downswing" and lose two hands in a row

Couple of very good posts above. I especially agree with not going for thin value. In my experience, the really bad/loose players have busted by the 3rd or 4th level, almost everyone remaining plays extremely nitty and there is absolutely zero open limping and cold calling. Normally the response to this would be to play more LAG, but when you get called, cbetting and firing a second barrel will often be a significant portion of your stack. So you'll have to find some balance between exploiting others tight play while also preserving your chips.

It sounds like you play and enjoy LHE, so I would say yes, it is worth playing.

Disagree that most bad players bust early. I played a day 2 with a guy who still didn't understand what limit was.

Definitely worth playing if you're an above average player. Any monkey can win it

I think tournaments offer a mental game challenge different from a cash game also. In pretty much every tournament I've played and gone deep, regardless of buy in level, I've seen people seemingly lose their mind.

I find tournaments incredibly challenging mentally. They go on for hour after hour, you can't take breaks except for scheduled ones and when you go deep, the money involved can dwarf the normal stakes you're accustomed to playing for. If you get a bad beat or go on tilt, you can't quit the game but have to play through it.

I think for some players, even solid pros, it becomes too much to handle and they are relieved when they finally bust. It's like they want to lose so they don't have to deal with the pressure anymore. Think about some of the epic meltdowns we've seen in televised tournaments. If you can avoid this I think it gives you a big edge.

It's individual how to handle it but I think being aware of the challenge and expecting it helps. For me, I go into a kind of trance late on tournament days where I'm just trying to focus on playing the hand in front of me as well as I can. I know my play tends to drop off around the 12 hour mark and try to tighten up a bit when this happens.

People plunk down $1,500 for a multiday tournament by mistake? LOL!

With the caveat that I've never played in a non-daily tournament, the most fundamental difference is that tournament chips aren't worth the same. Your last chip is worth more than the 101st chip, for instance. And chips gain and lose value over time as people bust out or even your relative stack size changes.

One thing that's certain is that you have to be a good player overall - you have to be able to play TAG when you need to play TAG and LAG when you need to play LAG and TP when you need to play TP and LP when you need to play LP.

And don't be afraid to go

http://i.imgur.com/nyvM7EH.jpg

Maybe I just got a bad table (I hate that excuse)

I've played the 1500 4 times and at least twice had a player at my table who didn't know it was limit. Several others were NL players who didn't realize how slow and boring a limit tourney can be and basically tried to bust or win the tourney the in the first couple hours

Limit tourneys can be very slow. Bad players who run good or play really tight can make it much further than you'd think

Also depends on how you define bad

I've had this happen several times as well. Once the guy tried to run to the cage and un-register, he was late so he capped every hand instead. There's obviously some variance in table selection as I've mostly had some of the softest tables I've ever seen, like last year in the 10k, dandruff was easily the second best player at table (busted day 1) and I was in a 1500 with rodeo that was possibly the softest limit table of any game/format I've ever been involved in.

On the other hand I played the 6 max a few years ago and got seated with a poker stars pro (lol), brian tate, tryptamean and ray henson (not a good spot for my money)

As far as all the good players busting early, here's a hand from day 3 with 2 tables left, button opens bb calls. BB c/r the 884 flop, bets the 8 turn and bets the 2 river. He shows 2-7s and loses to QQ.

i don't have any advice about how to play in a LHE tournament because i'm terrible at tournament poker.

basically, most people that enter the $1500 event are terrible at LHE. i've played the $1500 3 times. the first time was in 2011 when i'd been playing poker for less than a year and never played higher than $4/$8 live or $0.50/$1.00 online. i was easily the best player at my table. fields in this event are pretty soft.

Didn't Jesse blog about the 1500 a few years back and say there weren't any real spots at his table?

Do people just register for whatever and hope to bink a bracelet or something?

You what Rounders has to say about this....

Have you never been to WSOP?

no joke, I had a DEALER one year (in the 3k fr I think) not understand how limit worked. People kept tossing in oversized chips and saying "raise", and she kept saying "raise to <chip denomination>".

That's a pretty tame bad dealer story. I had one who didnt even the basics of the game.

I was short stacked and got it all in on the flop with my second pair v a flopped straight. I stood up and when the dealer saw this he dropped the deck and started to push the pot.

Not only I have never been to WSOP, I've never played in an MTT outside of a Luxor daily in 2003.

Granted, Rounders and all that, but what people told me about WSOP never piqued my interest - someone (I swear it was Jesse but maybe someone else) saying there were no spots at their table in the LHE tourney, people reporting there were tons of cash games but so many good players who traveled there that the games were probably worse than off-season. And these are pros who do the California poker circuit (LAPC, Shooting Star, 40/80+ cash games) so I don't think they're grossly outclassed nor do they fear me so much they'd lie to discourage me.

:shrug:

So many rio dealer stories, the mere mention of them tilt me: here's a few of my favorites

2 years ago, day 2 in main event, board is like J449J and lots of money in middle. Last player shoves, there's a fold and last guy thinking, dealer accidents drop entire deck and exposes entire stub, which is like J449 or something stupid, Player thinking says hmmm, and snap calls with 55 which wins.

Playing like 100-200 at rio and and bell goes off for time. Dealer says time pot next hand. Folds to button who raises and I fold be, dealer takes the time. Player says what are you doing there has to be a flop. Dealer says sorry I didn't know, he then deals a flop and takes time from the button.

Last year I play 1500 horse, start with 4500 in chips, chop the first hand and have 4475 at the start of hand 2.

did you get your 25 back? Shouldn't be hard to find it.

My bad dealer story actually had a little more to it. I'm all in on the flop with K9dd vs QJ on a AdKT flop. I stand as the dealer starts to peel the turn. He got the Td just high enough that three people at the table were able to see it. I saw it but my opponent couldn't. When the dealer saw I stood up, he put the Td back down, dropped the deck, and started to push the pot. Fortunately one of the players who saw the card was a tourney regular the floor man trusted so every thing got fixed

This will likely be my first WSOP event. See you guys there!