newbe with some questions

sumoward

A little back history:

I became interested in poker about 2 years ago and went through an 8 month phase of playing a fair bit online and in a number of live Tournaments in places like the Merrion. I got a new job and stopped playing live games.

Recently I have started playing tournaments again and have tried the Friday night and Saturday night tournaments in the Sporting Emporium. I have found both of these enjoyable, making the final table twice and bubbling spectacularly.

I hope you can give me a hand with these 3 querys.

1. I am looking for recommendations for tournaments to play.

The criteria I measure things these things by are as follows:

A pleasant environment (both location and people).
Friendly banter
A decent number of runners
A buyin of no greater than €150

I would be grateful is you could recommend tournaments that would be worth trying out.

2. My next query. I have been thinking of the trying the monthly tournament in the Emporium on a Saturday evening. I find the format interesting but I am concerned that I may be out of my depth. Has anyone any advice or comments on this particular tournament.


3. Finally, I tend to play tight. This allows me to last in tournaments but I find I tend to get short stacked. If you were to give one tip on how to improve on this shortcoming what would it be.

Ste05

Don't know about 1 and 2, but for 3, if I could only say 1 thing, it would be never let yourself get below 8-10BB's, if you find yourself in that position and it's folded to you in latish position, push with a very wide range, suited connectors, all pairs, etc. decent A's good K's.... even random garbage if you think the BB is tight.

CaptainNemo

sumoward wrote:

3. Finally, I tend to play tight. This allows me to last in tournaments but I find I tend to get short stacked. If you were to give one tip on how to improve on this shortcoming what would it be.

Play looser. You will bust earlier in many tournaments and in others you will build a big stack and have a very good chance at making the top places.

Some people take this to extremes and play like complete maniacs in the early stages. They're the ones you see either walking away after 5 minutes or sitting at the final table behind a mountain of chips and terrorizing the rest of the field. I don't play that loose, but there's something to be said for it in tournaments. I mean, eventually you have to win all the chips anyway, and you will need a great deal of luck.

My general guideline would be that if only the top places matter to you, play much looser or even maniacal. If just getting into the money will make a difference to you (e.g. if you won a ticket to the WSOP main event) then play as tight as you like.

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

sumoward

LuckyLloyd wrote:

The field for the monthly game in the emporium attracts some of the better Dublin regulars. But at the same time it also includes some of the bad regular players that frequent all of the SE tournaments. Every table will have a couple of tough players - and a couple of very bad players. It will be softer than usual this week due to some players being away in Vegas.

I would strongly reccomend it to you. If you are playing the game primarily for fun it is a great game - the structure is fantastic for that level of buy - in. You get time to ease in to a table and find some hands - and the fact that you have deeper stacks and more time on the clock mean that you will get into situations that are much more complex and interesting than you will find on a Friday or Saturday night. Playing tournaments like this and then analysing your play afterwards is a certain way to improve and gain experience.

I will be giving it a shot myself this week. While it is €70 above your max budget - I would suggest that it is very good value.

Thats sound advice, Thanks, I think I may indulge myself and give it ago. If it doesnt work out then I need not try it again.

Theresalwaysone

Jackpot Mondays 10euro re-buys. Not exactly the creme de la creme of tournaments but a great laugh nonetheless.

Just don't take ot too seriously. Please.

El Stuntman

sumoward wrote:

Thats sound advice, Thanks, I think I may indulge myself and give it ago. If it doesnt work out then I need not try it again.

I recommend you wait and play next month when a lot of the pros will be back from Vegas

while this may sound like strange advice, you will easily learn €200 of poker lessons just from watching these guys (if you are observant)

I'll be playing this Saturday and you sure as hell won't learn anything from me!

sumoward

El Stuntman wrote:

I recommend you wait and play next month when a lot of the pros will be back from Vegas

while this may sound like strange advice, you will easily learn €200 of poker lessons just from watching these guys (if you are observant)

I'll be playing this Saturday and you sure as hell won't learn anything from me!

If I dont turn out to be a the biggest fish in the room, I would probably turn up the following month too.

A very good point you make about being observant, I enjoy sitting at live tables far more than online as their is a lot more to factor in when your watching hands your not playing.

El Stuntman

sumoward wrote:

If I dont turn out to be a the biggest fish in the room, I would probably turn up the following month too.

I can guarantee you will not be the biggest fish in the room. In fact, if you can spell your own name, you are probably in the top 50% already....

kebabfest

Well if €150 is your limit. Play the €100 double chance twice monthly on Thursday in SE. I cant remember if there is 1 this week or not.
When starting it is an excellent idea to set limits on what you're prepared to spend. If you continue to produce decent results you'll be able to move up to the €250 with no problems.
Although the EOM game is a great game if it is out of your price range then dont bother with it.
In terms of ending up on the final table with few chips. Get GAMBLING in siutations where you can get a lot of chips.
As the man says get busy trying or get busy dying.

Glowingmind

El Stuntman wrote:

I can guarantee you will not be the biggest fish in the room. In fact, if you can spell your own name, you are probably in the top 50% already....

DeVore

I dont know you, or how you play but I can absolutely guarantee you you will not be the worst player in the SE tournies

As for playing tight, be prepared to make RADICAL shifts in gears. Play your tight game by all means but if you see a raise and one or two calls, consider shifting your whole stack in (if its a reasonable amount of chips to bet). You will find players afraid of your reputation if they are paying attention. Obviously dont do this with people who can't fold or who dont pay attention to betting frequency.
Secondly, call more often. Players will tend to be betting with worse then you are holding because you are tight. If you dont want to get aggressive then at least start to call rather then being over run...

DeV.

sumoward

DeVore wrote:

I dont know you, or how you play but I can absolutely guarantee you you will not be the worst player in the SE tournies

As for playing tight, be prepared to make RADICAL shifts in gears. Play your tight game by all means but if you see a raise and one or two calls, consider shifting your whole stack in (if its a reasonable amount of chips to bet). You will find players afraid of your reputation if they are paying attention. Obviously dont do this with people who can't fold or who dont pay attention to betting frequency.
Secondly, call more often. Players will tend to be betting with worse then you are holding because you are tight. If you dont want to get aggressive then at least start to call rather then being over run...

DeV.

Thanks for the advice. I have been trying to move out of my comfort zone by playing a lot looser in some games online just to get a feel for what I can get away with.(Sometimes with Hilarious results) It is taking some time to perfect but it gives me a whole lot of insight in some of the folds I have made to certain betting paterns in the past.

sumoward

kebabfest wrote:

Well if €150 is your limit. Play the €100 double chance twice monthly on Thursday in SE. I cant remember if there is 1 this week or not.
When starting it is an excellent idea to set limits on what you're prepared to spend. If you continue to produce decent results you'll be able to move up to the €250 with no problems.
Although the EOM game is a great game if it is out of your price range then dont bother with it.
In terms of ending up on the final table with few chips. Get GAMBLING in siutations where you can get a lot of chips.
As the man says get busy trying or get busy dying.

While it wasnt the €100 double chance in the Emporium, I did go in. I went out in about 14th or so place when we were down to 2 Tables and I was very short stacked. My play earlier in the tournament was appalling and I made the most elementary of errors to near cripple myself at the break with 1300 chips. After the break I got some cards, a bit of luck and played well for a period and was able to get this back up to about 7500.

After that my stack went up and down, until I made a raise of 4 times the big blind from and early postion hoping to take down the blinds and got and all in from the Big Blind for another 2000 or so. I went in with KJo and he had 99 which held up leaving me back down at 5000 chips.

I moved tables then and managed to very luckily double up when I was caught stealing by the Small Blind and my QTs caught a Q to beat the Small blinds pocket Nines and I doubled up.

I fritered away my chips and was very shortstacked on the button. The player to my right called and I went All in for 5500 with KJ of Spades. The Big Blind called(Blinds were 1200 at the time I believe) and the Player to my right called as well. The flop was all Diamonds and the player to my right made a minimum bet(yes he had the Nut flush) and the BB folded, exit me.

Thanks for the suggestion of this tournament, I dont usually play mid week and it was enjoyable and probably a higher standard of poker than the weekend stuff. I will hopefully get to play the deeper stack version.

I have a question someone may be able to answer for me in regards to these double Chance games.

Should I take my extra chips early or save my extra chips for a screw up on my part or a bad Beat? At the moment I save them for emergencies.

LuckyLloyd

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sumoward

LuckyLloyd wrote:

Take them immediately. They are worth more when the blinds are low.

Thanks I will do this the next tournament Double Chance I play.
Can you give me a brief overview of the logic behind it.

Lazare

I like to get my dc chips straight after the first hand. My main reason is, if a favourable opportunity comes up where I manage to get all my chips over the line with a strong hand, I want all my chips in there, not half of them.

ollyk1

sumoward wrote:

Thanks I will do this the next tournament Doublke Chance I play.
Can you give me a brief overview of the logic behind it.

If you are an above average player you expect to make better decisions on average and play better +EV spots the deeper you are against your opponents. Therefore the higher the effective stacks the better for our above averge player.

If you are a donkey.... I'm not sure..... Hanging on for longer might give you more experience but hanging around just for the sake of it isn't a good idea.

I generally pick up my DC as soon as one or two players have more than the starting stack. If a bad players wins a pot I immediately shout for chips.

sumoward

sumoward wrote:

If I dont turn out to be a the biggest fish in the room, I would probably turn up the following month too.

A very good point you make about being observant, I enjoy sitting at live tables far more than online as their is a lot more to factor in when your watching hands your not playing.

Well I went to SE for this tournament and wasn't the biggest fish in the room.

Eventually I went out 19th after playing A9s poorly.

All in all it was a great experience. The type of play was far superior to the shorter stack tournaments. Thanks to those who suggested I try it. I haven't enjoyed a nights poker as much in a while.

Now for some feedback if possible. I was doing fine till the 2nd break, with a decent stack from tight play. However since I have never played with Ante's before I found it difficult to figure who to work out whether I was being priced into pots. I wonder does anyone have a link to anything that might give me a greater understanding of the impact of the Ante.

I also still need to work on looser play in later stages, although I did think I got dealt a lot of muck especially in the blinds and I find it incredibly hard to raise with absolutely nothing.

I met a few people who post on the boards, Ozpoker? Rounders123 and another gentleman whose name escapes me. and I have to say i was sitting at a very pleasant table, so thanks to all there.

LuckyLloyd

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Macspower

LuckyLloyd wrote:

It is hard to break the mental block of raising the cut - off when folded to you with literally any two cards - or finding an Ace in the Big blind in the face of another raise from a guy who is butchering you and just jamming over the top of his stupid raise. But I am afraid that it is essential and you just need to suck it up and do it.

Some great points here Lloyd... I find to get over this block I sometimes raise without looking at my cards at all if it's the right move in the right place.... ( if i look at the muck I've been dealt I often chicken out!

My tournament record speaks for itself!! :eek: