I play at these local low buy in ($40-$135) MTT's at the bicycle casino and the commerce casino every other weekend. . They have decent guarantees with top heavy payouts but the structures are horrible. I'm just wondering what's the best way to approach these type of live tournaments.

ex. the bicycle casino has a mtt were the first 4 levels are 55min long and you start off with 100bb's (200bb's if you decide to add-on from the start). the levels are long since they want people to use up their 1rebuy or 1add-on. you can also re-enter the mtt during the 3rd or 4th levels if you got knocked out in the first 2 levels. after the first 4 levels of play, the blinds start going up every 20min instead of 55minutes. by the time you are getting close to the money, the blinds to chipstack ratio is pretty bad. most of the field is playing with 3-19bb's...and a few big stacks have 20+bb's.

ex2. the commerce recently had the facebook $65 tournament with 20min. levels right from the start. the structure was horrible and after the first 6 levels of play, the blinds caught up with the original starting stacks. throughout the whole tournament it felt like you had to manage a 5-20bb stack...which is horrible since it's takes most of the skill out of the game and it becomes a shove-fest. i ended up getting lucky and getting 2nd place money after we chopped. it had a field of 900+players =)





what would be the correct strategy when you go deep in these type of tournaments? with a 15-19bb stack..would be good to push all-in with all pairs, AJs+..maybe even KQs, A10s? it feels like open raising and folding with good/decent hands is a horrible move. the blinds and antes are soo big that just taking down the pot preflop is great for your stack.

do you start open limping with some hands? do you automatically push with any two cards when it's folded to you on the button or SB and you have a chipstack <7-8bb? do yo shove any two cards with <5bb and it gets folded to you in mid position?

3betting all-in is a must in these type of tournaments since you gain a ton of chips when you sense a weak raise. i tend to shove all-in pretty light in these mtt's since you really can't survive without it. you tend to have fold equity in live mtt's even with a 7-10BB stack....which is pretty crazy.

i know playing online, it would almost be an automatic shove with any two cards when you have less than 10bbs and it gets folded to you in the SB, but it seems like you can't apply some of the short-stack online strategy to live poker mtt's. everyone seems to play pretty tight, even when they are holding on to a 4-7bb stack. it's totally different than online poker.



what would be the best approach for these type of live mtt's once you are deep and the most of the field is short stacked?



thanks,



teneight

would we just apply super-turbo mtt online strategy once it gets this deep? if so, anyone have any good links to read up on some of this strategy?

I'm in a similar spot myself. I have a super turbo (live) with THE WORST players ever, like online playmoney bad, no worse than that. They are just AWFUL. As the blinds get more and more out of control they actually raise less often and tighten up. Some play tight passive and some play loose passive and they get tighter and more passive the higher the blinds get but I'm having a super tough time exploiting it. I've asked for help with some concepts on here too and I'm not getting much. I've played this tourney (45-55 players, usually pays 5 spots) 4 times and I've final tabled it twice and cashed once. I feel like I should be killing this game but I'm not.

I think the fundamental problem for me is that shrinking M's should cause you to play more LAG but the passive players make me feel like I should TAG it up.
I've spent a lot of time and brain power on this problem and this is what I've come up with;

Limp more with speculative hands that you normally would with your stack size (everyone is short so it's OK to take some flops and try to keep the pots manageable. Remember, you aren't losing and desperate because you have a low M, everyone has a low M.)

Make a relatively high number of steals after chain limps. I've been having some success with shoving a bit light after a ton of limpers come in. (I might shove with a small pair after three or four limps. Mostly I steal the blinds, sometimes I'm in a coin flip with a bunch of dead money in the center, not that bad a spot!)

Try to build a tight image in the lower levels. I really try to come across as a squeeker in the first couple levels so I can steal the blinds needed for survival later on when they get big.

That's about all I've got right now. I'm playing one tomorrow so maybe I'll figure something out.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this OP, and anyone elses.

In these types of live tournaments the decision making gets easy because it's almost always a preflop shove or fold type of situation, but the varience is HUGE because your results are almost always going to be determined by how you run in 55-45, 60-40, or 70-30 showdowns. Plays these types of tournaments for entertainment, not profit,

Donovan! I am playing these type of live mtt as well, and in my oppinion your strategy is vėry good... i am using one as well, only i shove almost with any two after many limpers, if i am quite sure 1.th will fold.

I agree with a lot of what you said. stealing limped pots (2-4players) by going all in for 8-15bb's is a very profitable play that I sometimes myself making this play with ATC, but you have to do it against the right players.


what hands are you stealing with when the blinds are high? it sucks when players play back at you and shove all in when you raise late in position and you have to fold your hand..and you only had 15-16bb's to start with.


i know these MTT's aren't that profitable but sooo many of the players are just that bad and the payouts are pretty damn big for a $40-$70 buy-in. First place takes home anywhere from $4.5k-$8k..can't be that for a live low buy-in mtt that takes place every weekend friday-sunday.

Just standard pushfold, use SNGwiz to figure out what your ranges should be.

You can get a chart someone else made, but a chart is going to teach you what hands you should be shoving against a variety of players in a variety of situations.

Also keep in mind you can do things against terrible players you can't do online. Its perfectly reasonable to resteal with shallower stacks than you would online, even though some players might be raising larger.

You should certainly be shoving any two with 10BBs in the small blind.
I've had guys fold ATss face up for 8 BBs and had some guy get super frustrated with me in a WSOP STT HU and call me "light" for 10BBs with K8ss.