I've been a cash game player for many years now but have stayed away from tournaments. In the past 10 years I've played in only 2. I'm successful in cash games playing a general TAG/nittish style making 6bb per hour over the last 12 months. There is a tournament series coming up at my local casino and I'm thinking about entering in a $400 20k GTD event. But with limited experience I'm looking for any advice in regards to how tournaments play differently than cash. I included the structure below. This is a quad stack event with 40k in starting chips. Rebuys up to level 6 and 30 minute levels. With the 40k in chips and 30 minute levels it doesn't seem like this will play like a turbo but I could be wrong. Any strategy advice is appreciated. Anyone who has found success in both tournys and cash games, how do you adjust your play?


BB Ant SB BB
1 100 100 100
2 200 100 200
3 300 200 300
4 400 200 400
15 Min Break
5 600 300 600
6 800 400 800
End of Registration - Not a Break
7 1,200 600 1,200
8 1,600 800 1,600
15 Min Break
9 2,000 1,000 2,000
10 2,500 1,500 2,500
11 3,000 2,000 3,000
12 4,000 2,000 4,000
45 Min Break / Color up 100 Chips
13 5,000 2,500 5,000
14 6,000 3,000 6,000
15 8,000 4,000 8,000
16 12,000 6,000 12,000
15 Min Break / Color up 500 Chips
17 16,000 8,000 16,000
18 20,000 10,000 20,000
19 25,000 15,000 25,000
20 30,000 20,000 30,000
15 Min Break / Color up 1,000 Chips

Hi mate

Antes make a big difference.

Subscribe to GTOWiz or similar to get some preflop charts, and note SB flatting and BB defend ranges in particular. Very different to cash.

3bet ranges are still clustered around suited broadway, suited Ax, a sprinkle of SCs etc so that’s not too different. Preflop aggression and isolation are profitable strat.

Early stages will play much like cash, but icm and short stack play varies significantly from cash. There are books written on each. Check short stack preflop charts and Google ‘bubble factor’.

gl!

In a small buy-in tournament like this, the biggest thing that you need to learn/understand is playing when stacks are short. What hands will you be shoving when you have 14BB from UTG and what hands will you shove on the Button with 14BB? Also to be mindful of situations where you have a decent stack but there are a lot of 10 - 15BB stacks on the table. (Eg. you don't want to get into spots where you raise and then face a 10BB shove and now you are getting too good a price to fold your marginal hand).