I play a lot of small to medium buy in live tourn. ranging from $200-400. I do well for the most part. I will be playing in a 5k ME with a ton of notable pros next month "in as bounties'. I have played in a few ME before, and cashed also. I want to play with the same aggression as I always do, but need help getting over mental block of whats on the line, and sitting with better players. any advice

Play your game. Try not to be intimidated into changing too much up ... I remember the first time I ever played with a big name pro he was talking circles around the table and I got caught up in his verbal gymnastics. In one hand, I played it totally differently than I normally would and he owned me in a big pot. If I would have just stuck to my usual strategy I would have lost a lot less...

If you have determined the tournament is +EV for you to play, and you are rolled properly, you have nothing to worry about. Get in there and focus and play your A game and do what you do.

take $5k and light it on fire, sit back and watch it burn. then when you go play the tourney you will already know what feeling is going to come.

Thanks for the first comment... I satellited into the event, it cost me 300.. so I will not be lighting 5k on fire.. thanks buddy.. I'm basically free rolling... I would say that is a solid strategy for a noob though.. Not me.

You got this dude!! It's only money!! You can literally walk down the street and find money on the ground so technically you're rolled. Pregame thoughts, Make sure you put an extendo-b together, not just your average extendo.....trust me you will thank me after you (maybe) bust when the b-side of the track is still waiting for ya...And remember, if things are looking grim, never fear, the sugar house bird has infinite flights all week!

don't bluff
post your blinds and antes before being asked

Sit down; look @ hole cards when it is your turn to do so; remember position; fold/open/raise some; see a flop; play poker.

EZ game.

Run good
Cooler some ppl ship the $$$
Ez game

play your game... use your image to your advantage. if you're tight early you can make some moves on people who perceive you to be incapable of bluffing.

don't be scared $$, enjoy the experience. if you want to guarantee some sort of return you could even sell say 25% of your action to a gambling friend for $1250 and really have no regrets even if you bust without making it into the money.


and most of all have fun..also if the buyin and bounty are equivalent on these pros u should go hard for them in good spots

flip a coin

watch sunday million final table highlight, watch more AK vs QQ in the highlights

flip some more coin

There's no substitute for experience.

I agree with the experience factor.
It's my 3rd WPT ME, so I will use those experiences. Not that 3 is a lot but its enough to learn from. Should be fun, and like I said it cost me next to nothing..

I'll be sure to post my winnings for all the haters.

forget experience. you don't have it and you can win without it.

play however you want until you get to 20BB - tight, loose, nit...whatever floats your boat or in response to table dynamic (open up against rocks, nit up against crazies).

if you never get to 20BB well gl to you. but assuming you do at some point...

start 3! jamming 20BB over every suspected loose (e.g. late pos, high PFR/VPIP) open whenever you have a semi-decent hand. situation selection is more important than hand selection and K7s might be a perfect or terrible 3! jam depending on who opened, from what position, their stack size (it's best against medium stacks where you risk at least 1/3 of their stack, preferably 1/2) and what happened in the 3 orbits prior.

if you're first to open, you can have a raise/fold range down to 15BB but open shove <15BB. do you have jennifear's charts? it's useful for this bit.

by setting 20BB as your 'prepared to go broke' benchmark and 3! jamming over suspected wide opening ranges, you negate much/most of the advantage of more experienced players. they can't force you off the hand. same for having no r/f range below 15BB. just jam them in there. if you want to work on anything, buy some shades and work on a Navarro perch.

for the same reason, put extra value on any hand decision that may reduce your stack and subsequently your stack utility below 20BB. there is a big difference in fold equity between jamming 20, 15, 10, 5BB. this is a very important consideration for anyone wanting to open up ranges early.

finally, nit up at bubble unless you're prepared to put all your chips into the pot before someone else does. sit on your hands and say fold otherwise.

now go watch some Super Tuesday replays.

gl

Please don't listen to this guy telling you not to bluff. The game is called POKER not sit back and wait for the nuts. Just Play your best possible game of poker that you know how to play.

Try to set a goal! Try not to be result orientated, but goal orientated i.e how well did you play out of 10? Don't get tilted and if you do, recognize it before you loose your marbles. Good luck!

Don't assume everyone's good. You'll be amazed how many people suck in the early stages. When you're involved in a pot with a bunch of fish, just play your normal game.

When you're involved in a HU or 3-way pot with a good player (or someone who might be good), then, well, I guess it depends on how accustomed you are to playing a balanced (rather than exploitative game). If you're well used to it, then just play your normal game.

If not, then just play your normal game with some very modest adjustments (assuming you're deep enough for any of this to matter):

1) Choose a few hands, like top set (or some other very nutty hand) + a few combos of your nuttiest draws to play passively in any given spot. This is the easiest way to protect your checking and flatting ranges without taking a whole crash course on it and playing way outside of yourself in any but a few hands you're involved in.

2) Tend toward more standard bet sizes, especially bets that you feel comfortable making with your entire range.

3) Be much less inclined to merge your ranges, especially on the turn/river. Eg: don't go bloating the **** out of your turn b/f ranges by barreling ATo on KT7 4dd unless you are actually betting for value.

4) Tend a bit (just a bit) toward a more centrist game.

a) If you consider yourself a bit spewy, then forgo your craziest schemes against good players.

b) If you consider yourself a bit nitty, then don't make your craziest hero folds, especially when you close the action on the river and/or you have the top of your range and/or you hold a hand that villain would never in a million years have expect you to have in that spot (eg: you l/rr 44 and end up with a straight).

c) If you consider yourself a bit stationy, then forgo some of your loosest calls, especially on early streets when you can easily have a lot of much better hands.

d) This does not mean play completely ABC, but just try to put a bit of duct tape on your most gaping leaks in a few hands against a few players. Or don't. This one is probably the least important of all the points.

Again, this is only in HU and 3-way pots with players that you have good reason to think are good where starting stacks are like 40bbs+. For the most part, just play your game.

Good stuff coming in here late! thanks for all the feedback. I know my bet sizing needs some work, I tend to go to big on 3 bets which I have worked on. I consider myself pretty nitty especially in larger tournaments, but as of late I have started to play a lot more agro and seen pretty good results. I've worked a lot on stack sizing and picking spots. Honestly I'm feeling great going into it, just hoping to stay away from any coolers early on. FL has some really awful poker players with unlimited money down here. They Regs have no prob. reloading on 5k's so I plan to take advantage of that early on.

I don't consider myself spewy so that's a plus, but not letting myself tilt will take some mental concentration.

Again, thanks for the tips I'm new here so its cool that ppl actually take the time to give advice.
J

Final piece of advice - run hotter than the sun!

GL & take it down!

Don't get star struck by seeing faces you've seen on TV. Players tend to want to "outplay" these players, and do fancy things. Play your 2 cards, play your position, play your stack size, play your image, and play off of their image, nothing else.

It's ok to not have the perfect betsizing 3 bets, or to 3 bet shove with 20BB when you should've waited til you had 18 BB. What you should really try not to do is make the big mistakes, because your more experienced players at the table will be able to exploit it. So in other words, no loose calls in EP with A8o, don't get too cute with your big hands, etc... Focus on minimizing the big mistakes, and good luck.

Most importantly, have fun. I played in a 5K tournament where I was completely dead money. My table was Esfandiari, Sam Trickett, Jon Roberd Bellande, James Dempsey, Dominik Nitsche, a couple other pros, and me. I had a blast, played my game, played What does Lodden think with Esfandiari, learned a ton, and did not ship the tourny ldo.

Today is the day!

Had another shot at a MEGA sat. last night for two bullets which would have been pretty perfect, but couldn't get it going.

RUNGOOD

Gogogogogo

update?

lmfao. pretty much

UPDATE:

Well it was a fun event hah:

My table draw was pretty insane

Anthony Zinno
Barry Hutter
Ben Tarzia

I struggled to catch any cards, never made it over my starting stack.. It was brutal in that sense.. Tried to pick spots and only picked up pots with position moves, and bluffs. I made better than a pair only once in the entire day. I Button shoved all in with 9 BB before dinner break and Hutter had AQ to my KQ.. Naturally I didn't make a pair and A High took it. It played out like just another tournament, just completely card dead so it was not much fun. I love how I ran so bad in this event, but the next one I enter I run pure as gold. ($240) with $50 bounties.. smh

I did manage to ship this event which saved my series.

It was fun, until the summer when it rolls around again!!

TY everyone

Always the way. take shots or bink satty's. Run like Stephen Hawking!