Playing speed MTTs

jimbling

not been playing too much poker of late - just a few of the $25 / $50 stts every now and then.... but last night went into the 3000 grt $6 rebuy tourney last night and I was lucky enough to win the $900 top prize.

But don't think this a brag, becuase it is not. This was my first speed MTT (did not realise this was a speed until tourney started). I have always avoided them.

when on the final table last night, I had 140,000 and was in 3rd position. The blinds were 40,000 / 80,000. WTF?? how can people play like that. I just happened to get some decent cards - got AK AA AJ - and won with each - basically game over then.

But since these speed tournaments make up the majority of decent prizepool tournaments on PPP (for reasonable buy ins) I am wondering who is playing them? And do you have a strategy other than - All In - and do you find it possible to finish in the money regularly etc....

JoeyJJ

I played played a couple over xmas and won most of them, but they are a crapshot imho. I played as I was sick of waiting for reg games to start and loads of people were on the turbo and speed games.

I won by creating alot of pre-flop action and which resulted in stealing some nice blinds and getting the right action when I actually had a hand.

jimbling

JoeyJJ wrote:

I played played a couple over xmas and won most of them, but they are a crapshot imho. I played as I was sick of waiting for reg games to start and loads of people were on the turbo and speed games.

I won by creating alot of pre-flop action and which resulted in stealing some nice blinds and getting the right action when I actually had a hand.

hmm.. it sounds like your talking about the stts rather than the mtts.


And that is a general poker strategy, which is effective in any game, if one is good enough to pull it off. But this is much harder to implement in the speed games. (ie .. if you are not getting cards you will be crushed very quickly)


I don't really know why I put up this post, its very likely that most here don't play these. But since a lot of people here play on ppp i thought Id try and find out a bit about it.

Culchie

It's interesting that the Turbo and Speed STT tables (at all buy in levels) seem to fill up quicker than the standard STT's.

Shows the 'gamble' comes out in more people than not.

Amaru

jimbling wrote:

I don't really know why I put up this post, its very likely that most here don't play these. But since a lot of people here play on ppp i thought Id try and find out a bit about it.

The reason people don't play them is because the blind levels on Tribeca are already acknowledged as being very quick. The speed and turbo tournaments eliminate a lot of the skill and strategy involved, and force players to resign their fate to a series of coin flips. I'd assume the reason that they fill up so quickly is exactly because of this, due to the high number of gamblers(literally) that seem to play on the site.

JoeyJJ

Apologies yeah stt not mtt...

Played 1/2 of them too finished bubble position and low on the cash.

jimbling

Culchie wrote:

It's interesting that the Turbo and Speed STT tables (at all buy in levels) seem to fill up quicker than the standard STT's.

Shows the 'gamble' comes out in more people than not.

Amaru wrote:

The reason people don't play them is because the blind levels on Tribeca are already acknowledged as being very quick. The speed and turbo tournaments eliminate a lot of the skill and strategy involved, and force players to resign their fate to a series of coin flips. I'd assume the reason that they fill up so quickly is exactly because of this, due to the high number of gamblers(literally) that seem to play on the site.

Ya, Thats what I was interested in... why is it that most of the players on PPP prefer the Speed games. Is it just becuase the majority of PPP players are poor players....... Or is there in fact people out there that prefer speed for a particular reason.. or think that they can use the structure to their advantage - and manage to finish in the money often enough to make it worthwhile.

I havent played much cash games on PPP, but if they are made up of the same players that play in these speed tourneys, ie the "gamblers" your speaking of..... it should be a goldmine, although the varience could be tough.


So. Is there anyone on boards that actually likes and succeeds at the speed strategy?

Drakar

I play speed (turbo) on Pokerstars as there are alot of people who seem to like to gamble when playing. This does mean if you have anything better than top pair (like two pair or trips) after the flop and go all in, you quite often get called by all sorts of trash. The rake at certain levels is quite good, and for 45 mins from start to finish it's a reasonable use of ones time. I do think that cash games are probably better return on your investment though.

hotspur

jimbling wrote:

Ya, Thats what I was interested in... why is it that most of the players on PPP prefer the Speed games.

It's partly due to the lunatics taking over the aslyum. Tribeca doesn't have that many players who are serious about their game for a variety of reasons, and the messers and gambling site blowins prefer short periods of gambling action than long grinding sill based poker. This creates a knock-on effect where you may not have a choice about which type of game you want to play since the speed and turbos are the one that are getting the players. I have been mesing around on Tribeca for a couple of weeks and have played more speed and turbo STT and MTT in that time than I have in the previous couple of years combined because they're what fills up.
Mtt speed tournies are a joke, and turbos are worse than a joke where you can be chip leader and then be a low stack 2-3 mins later without playing a hand.
As for the cash games I haven't played for proper money on Tribeca and I won't but the buy ins seem crazy to me, they let you buy in for 10% of the max. I've messed about on .50/1 short handed and half the table would have less than $10-$20 and the rest might have $100 and more, which of course means that the shortstacks are all in every other time they see an Ace or something that looks like one. I don't think a player starting out would learn too much about poker by playing on Tribeca. Although about 1 in 10 1v1 sit n go's are free money cause the other player is disconnected
I'd be interested in comparing the pot sizes of Tribeca's lowish stake tables to those of other networks. I imagine they max their rake more often at these stakes than many others.

El Stuntman

you knocked me out in 4th Jim when I pushed my AK (and equally big stack into your BB) only for you to flip aces! Well done on the win - particlularly as you were berating the monkeys who were stalling around trying to make the money (worst thing about these tourneys).
I play these quite a bit and am up 4 figures from the nightly 6$ 3,000 guaranteed speed event in the last couple of weeks. Strategy is very simple - if you haven't at least quadrupled your buy-in by the end of the add-on period, you have zero chance becuase of the insane blinds structure so swallow all known poker principles and push anything that looks tasty in the first few orbits...once you get to this stage (or blow out), then you can think about playing poker.

mewso

It's true that there may be more players on the speed/turbo tables because there are more gambling types but I think it also has alot to do with the general greed of the tribecca setup. Reg. fees on rebuys and addons plus the rake on the speed/turbo must be massive with the turnover. It seems to be a general policy to maximise the rake.

Drakar

Actually I had a few games on Party recently, and although they don't have turbo, you only get 800 chips at the lower levels (instead of 1500 on PS turbos). This means that it's just as quick as the PS ones, and I've definately found the play to be far worse.