So, the good news is, you seem to be self-aware enough to have a fairly accurate diagnosis of what you need to improve. I would start by studying GTO opening ranges at various stack depths and positions; your cash experience will serve you well on the whole, but it's also geared toward deeper stacks, and in tournaments you're going to spend most of your time playing shorter stacks. And the shorter you get the more important each chip is and the more important it is to have those ranges down.
Similarly, in a cash game your SPR going to the flop heads-up is going to usually be at least 15. So you may want to do a little tinkering and learning about what hands are strong enough to stack off at lower SPRs. (If you min-open off 25BB and the BB defends, you're looking at less than 5 SPR; obviously that gets even lower for shorter stacks.) I do think people (including me, and it's something I've been working on) tend to overestimate how strong a hand you need to have get it in profitably postflop at those shorter SPRs.
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Originally Posted by Brussels Sprout
What typically happens is I play pretty tight early on.
With your cash experience and success, I'd be playing looser early on. Deep stacks are where you have the most experience and probably the biggest edge; put it to use. Obviously you don't want to play badly, or spew, or bleed chips, but you may want to play more hands in position, get yourself in more spots where you can win a big pot, etc.
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Originally Posted by Brussels Sprout
I suppose what it comes down to is that I can go away and memorise GTO opening and calling/3betting ranges for various stack sizes but I think that that probably wouldn't be optimal since the opponents deviate so much from optimal ranges and bet sizes themselves.
You should do it anyway, to solidify your foundation, but of course then adjust your play to the players you're playing to maximize your profitability. I've told people on here before who think studying GTO lines is a waste of time in their games-- "If you don't know what the theoretically optimal play is, how do you know how to deviate from it? Or
if you're deviating from it?"
Weird raise sizes happen a lot live. Obviously you should play tighter ranges against bigger ones, I think that's evident. I guess in that specific situation you describe it depends on what I think of CO. Like if that size means something really specific, like 88+/AQ+, I'd just fold. If he's opening hands like KTo and J9s that big, though, then I play, maybe even jam over them. Obviously that's tough to know until you see some showdowns.
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Originally Posted by Brussels Sprout
The flip side then is I wasn't sure how much I was meant to be opening? In one hand it folded to me on the BTN. I opened with Q8o for 2.2bb. BB flats and then check-jams a 853 2-tone flop for 4x PSB. I'd seen this particular guy do crazy shoves before so I called it off and he showed 63o and caught a 6 on the turn to knock me out. He defended this "questionable" play by say he would have folded preflop if I had opened for a "proper" size. I realise that that's just variance and that I probably do actually want him calling with 63o (rather than folding it if I opened larger) but should I be opening larger if everyone else is?
I wouldn't change my raise sizing on the basic level-- don't let other players' mistakes lead you to make your own. I might start adjusting and raising bigger in spots where the theoretically optimal or standard raise size isn't achieving what I want it to achieve. (And this isn't even a small-buyin thing; I've seen some of the high-stakes tournaments, early on when stacks are still deep, where players will just bomb with a massive 3-bet out of the blinds, like 6x or more, because they want folds since they're OOP and they want to lower the SPR so they can stack off profitably more often.) If a standard 3-bet isn't thinning the field or getting the SPR where you want it, change your size so it does.
How deep were you on the Q8o hand? You played it fine, although once I get above 60BB I tend to open larger from the button because my range will be wider, and it serves the purpose of discouraging action, but also building a bigger pot where I'm in position if I do get action.
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Originally Posted by Brussels Sprout
My biggest question is around limpers, especially when we have a stack of around 30-60 BBs. In a cash game, with 100bb+ stacks I'll typically use a formula of 3BB + 1 BB per limper + 1BB if I'm in the blinds - something along those lines. With shorter stacks though I'm unsure what the best strategy is. Say, for example I have a 40BB stack and there are 4 limpers (not uncommon in this game) and I'm in the SB with AJo. What should I be raising to here? If I were to go with the formula above that'd be 8bb, which would be 20% of my stack - is that the right play? I really don't know.
Your formula for limpers isn't too far off. (You can generally open smaller in tournaments, but the gist of it is correct, at least when you're deep-- when stacks get shorter your raise sizes should get smaller.) In spots like that, if you think 8BB will get folds or get it heads-up, make it 8BB. If you don't think it will but you're confident you have the best hand and their ranges are wide, there's nothing wrong with shoving. It might look unusual and be a lot to risk, but this is where the confidence in your reads and the players at the table comes in. You can add 15% to your stack that way, and that's a decent pot. And if your reads are correct you shouldn't be getting called, at least not by a better hand.
So I think that's about the sum of it. Definitely learn the preflop ranges at various stack depths, because that will probably come up for you more than anything. Other than that, get your theoretical play down, but don't be afraid to adjust to whatever actually works against your table, even if the sizing seems absurd. But don't do it because everyone else is doing it. Do it with your goals in mind. Much like you might bet smaller on the river if you're targeting second or third pair calls vs. bigger if you want to put top pair to a tough decision, decide what your goal with the bet is and what size you need to achieve it.