Keep giving me more advices, guys

lol donkaments

This thread needs SEABEAST, If you read his blog you'll know why.

The main thing for me is either play a bunch at the same time or don't play at all. Geting knocked out after a couple of hours of play is just too hard to take for me otherwise.
Sounds stupid but it is like it is, getting knocked out of MTTs that I have invested lots of time in tilts me like nothing else if I don't play many.

gobboboy broke even last year in MTTs. Don't feel so bad

don't think i'll ever be good at mtt's if it means playing 500 sng's

Read the Harrington on Hold 'em Tourney books.

So he'll teach me to run like a god?

HOH isn't really all that great for competent players.

What do you guys think about tells?

I got Caro's book and video and Navarro's book.

Are they helpful or is it better just to follow betting patterns because spotting tells takes a lot of practice? I don't want to incorporate elements that will hurt my game initially, since Vegas is very close.

HOH1, HOH2, and TPFAP are the ones you essentially need to read.

for WSOP type tournaments, i generally play nittier than i would a cash game until i figure out people's tendencies because people are lol bad.

but really, if you're a successful NLHE cash player, all you need to do is run real good.

i found out it's pretty helpful to build your stack up in early stage cuz ppl are so nitty and you can just play early stage like you play 6m game, open a lot of pots in hj, co and button and play post flop. After early stage, your stack should be large enough for you to hold back a little bit and observe how table plays shorter stacks..meanwhile, keep opening pots in late position w/ 2.5x or 2.25x and play postflop cuz they suck at postflop. 1/2 pot cbet works just as well as 3/4 pot cbet in cash game. If your stack unfortunately dwindles to around 20bb...start reshoving against light opener. Then you should be fine. oh btw, pray for running like god is also important. flipping in late stage is inevitable and you really need to win so many of them to reach FT.

Hey Bwd

Nice thread. As you know I also mainly play cash, and I seem to suffer from the same problems as you when playing tourneys. When the stacks start getting shorter, I am making mistakes reading peoples opening and 3-betting ranges, and I am often unsure of what level of aggression is appropriate.

Regarding playing the WSOP ME, I think it will be even more crucial to get a read on the other players than usual, since the difference in their abilities will probably be much bigger than at an average NL1000 cashgame.

I played it last year, and half the people at my staring table ranged from competent to really great, (I was unhappy to see Patrik Antonius on my immediate left). The other half however was WAY WAY worse than I expected, considering the 10k buyin.

I lost most of my chips like this:

I raise 55, 1 call in position, flop 258 rags.

I pot my set, he calls.
turn T, I pot again, he calls
river 4, no flush. I bet 2/3 pot, he minraises, I call.

He shows down A3o for a rivered gutshot, and I have lost 60k of my 80k chips.

Another guy stacked of with top pair on a four straight board!

Apart from me still whining, the point is this: Some of the players will probably be so bad that I would suggest staying away from coinflips and marginal situations with the betters players in the first levels. Finding the weak spots and betting for value should do if your starting table is anything like mine was.

Good luck (sucks I cant come this year.)

Jens :-)

Have you read the updated TPFAP?
If yes, is the addition worth buying a new book? Cause i already got the old.

Btw, do you honestly feel that your ME FT was more due to running good, skill or both?

Maybe i have run bad, but whenever i try to force things and build a big stack early by making moves, i end up with 1/2 the average stack when the blinds are getting bigger. Perhaps i chose to float/bluff raise the ppl who can't fold or perhaps it's just unlucky they have it every time or i don't know what.

What you said makes tons of sense, unfortunately i was almost never able to actually achieve it.

i haven't read the updated, it probably isn't worth it. i sucked out big once, but mainly running good is having all your big hands hold up. a lot of the "skill" is just paying attention to all the players (especially stack sizes) and seeing which ones you can run over.

Tournaments are a lot more about spots in cash games I will never fold T9s on the button and almost never raise something like 82o on the button. In tournaments my opening frequency maybe similar, but it will be a lot more dynamic where I will always raise top x% and y% of the time raise (x+z)%. Against a lot of players I will raise a lot tighter if I have raised the past two buttons than if I have folded the buttons, obviously this seem principle applies to three betting.

Another thing is there are spots where guy will either shove or fold and never call so it means you have two hands hands you can stack off with and hands you can't stack off with. If you have a hand you can't stack off with they are all the same, but some people will be shamed into not raising j4o, but raise 98s in spots where they are more or less the same hand.

"Kill everyone" is a pretty good book, I'd say the best on tournaments that I've read.

read the second hoh book

Have ordered it like 2 weeks ago. Amazon can be so slow sometimes...

I read all HoHs, still think "Kill Everyone" is way better
Edit: but maybe only because I had read the HoHs before.
Edit2: "FTP tourney book" is decent, too if you don't have it. "Poker Tournament Formula" is a pretty meh book but has an interesting discussion about structures and how they should affect your play.