Wednesday at the Fitz?

azzeretti

Hey,
I play in the Double chance every Tuesday but couldn't make it last night so I am gonna give this one a bash!
Does anyone know what the turnout for this is usually like? Standard any good? Might the match take away players??

Ta.

Dub13

The match will take away alot of the younger players but I have been in the Fitz while big games were on (if you can call a game without Liverpool a big game) and they still get a big turn out.

As for standard,its the next setp up from the freerolls so take your pills before you go in.

Davey Devil

The standard of play is poor, loads of Ax merchants. After the break the levels are only 15 mins and they also skip out one or two levels along the way. Turns into a crapshoot very quickly.

azzeretti

ROIGHT!!!
I think I can remember hearing something about small/big/big format, is that on Wednesday?
Not sure about this now

Davey Devil

They removed the three blind structure.

ionapaul

I do have a feeling there will be an especially small field tonight, no only because of the match, but because of the two big nights that will be Thursday and Friday (and hopefully Saturday afternoon for some of us ). That said, I could be wrong, as I often am

Iago

ionapaul wrote:

I do have a feeling there will be an especially small field tonight, no only because of the match, but because of the two big nights that will be Thursday and Friday (and hopefully Saturday afternoon for some of us ). That said, I could be wrong, as I often am

Potentially less fish...that's bad

but potentially tighter play and less bad beats...that's good

but that leads to less money spent and a lower prize pool...that's bad

but that means it'll be over earlier...that's good

but the potential return on investment is reduced...that's bad

but less bad beats means lower investment required...that's good

don't know what to do now

roryc

im going anyway

azzeretti

Ah go on Golly, gimme a chance to take some cash from you!

BigDragon

Iago wrote:

don't know what to do now

Play 5 card Draw on a Tuesday.

DeVore

The blinds are 20 minutes all the way Davey.

While I wouldnt say this was my favourite tournie, its been exceptionally kind to me over the last year. There are three rebuys (or two and a topup) and I mark one of them as "Crazy Rebuy", that is, I'll play loose for the initial stack and the first rebuy trying to build a stack.

My advice would be to limp into ANY pot where you can be fairly sure of seeing a flop for the price of the blinds with even half a hand. This normally wouldnt be good advice at all, but 56o can double your stack if it hits as top pair top kicker is more then enough for an all-in in that tournie so you're implied odds on the drawing hands are excellent!

Once the rebuy period is over, the temptation is to tighten up and you should for a while, trying to trap the gamblers who are now operating without a safety net. Once you've lost a tables or twos worth (depending on the starting numbers) and the blinds get to 2/400 (or definitely by 3/600) you should start to steal and bully (preflop) or aggressively bet after the flop with half a hand. Most decent players are still hanging about and they dont want to hurt themselves while they still have a decent stack and can be pushed off of pots with serious aggression in the right spots, but you need to pick your targets and your spots. By 4/800 or 5/1K tighten up again until you make last 2 tables if you can. On last two you need to decide what your table image is and how to use it. You're on your own from there but personally I get very jiggy when it hits 5-6 people on each table and use a rock image to steal or a loose image to trap. Its in the lap of the gods really from this point on, you're skill makes a difference of course but the big stacks start to collide and most of the action takes place preflop. My theory is that the players know their hand odds preflop but arent so confident post flop and so take any decision away from themselves preflop and de-skill the game down to what they are comfortable with.

Anyone agree or disagree with that? I'm curious about others tournie strategies, particularly for that 20 game...

DeV.

BigDragon

DeV

You should really consider writing about poker for a living. Give it a go.

kinaldo

DeVore wrote:

My theory is that the players know their hand odds preflop but arent so confident post flop and so take any decision away from themselves preflop and de-skill the game down to what they are comfortable with.

What, like going all in preflop with JJ?? I'll be damned if i'm gonna let some crackpot call me for anything less than full price with their crappy AQ or any old ace type play.

DeVore

I'm more thinking about AJ , KQ etc... JJ is almost an all-in for me any time I see them!

Obviously some times its the right play, particularly with high blinds and not many multiples of them in your stack. I still think people get all-in happy because they dont feel comfortable playing after the flop but its just a theory

DeV.

roryc

just got back from the game there. Had an unbelievable collection of bad beats. AA beaten by AK, KK beaten by 27o, QQ beaten by 10 J, full house beaten by a poker (2nd time this week!) then to top it off last hand of the night had 10 10 beaten by 9 9 just to name a FEW.

Im on such an unlucky run lately and the more I seem to talk about it the worse it gets. Ive never had so many bad beats in the same night as tonight. Unbelievable.

Im gonna stop moaning about it now cos it seems like im annoying the poker gods. Jesus I cant wait for this unlucky streak to be over. Hopefully this is the last time ill be moaning about horrible beats. I can't even remember the last time I was on the good side of a bad beat.

I know all about the odds of AA getting cracked and so on but it really does my head in when all the minor percentages seem to pop up. And all in the one night. I was ahead going into every race tonight and lost every one of them.

Doc Farrell

roryc wrote:

just got back from the game there. Had an unbelievable collection of bad beats. AA beaten by AK, KK beaten by 27o, QQ beaten by 10 J, full house beaten by a poker (2nd time this week!) then to top it off last hand of the night had 10 10 beaten by 9 9 just to name a FEW.

I was ahead going into every race tonight and lost every one of them.

thats because u used up all ur luck in the freerolls Rory!

u gotta develop some humility in order to get back ur magic!

otherwise u'll turn into the phil hellmuth of the freerolls!

i'm kiddin of course, the big money is just around the corner, just be careful about the expenditure, especially this weekend!

Iago

I decided to drop in and play this last night, now it's been about 6 months since I was in the fitz on a Wednesday night, and last night reminded me why...

I played the sum total of three hands before the break, I can't remember a single pot that wasn't raised before the flop, 6-8*BB raises with such monsters as K8s and A6o were very common. In one hand there was a big raise preflop, flop came down
6h 8d 4d and the initial raiser went all in, he was called by a player with QQ, he had 7d 9d, so an up and down straight draw and a flush draw

Turn was a 7, River a 9 and he won with two pair...it was going to be one of those nights. First hand I tried to play, I had KQo and it was raised to 300 with the blinds at 25-50, considering every hand was being raised I figured I probably wasn't in that bad a position and called. Flop AAJ and an all-in before me and I fold.

With 450 left and the blinds at 50-100 I go all in with 22 preflop, might as well with what was going on! I was called by AJo but the mighty ducks held up and I was back to 1100, 100 more than where I started from. With the last three hands for rebuys I decided that if I got any sort of a semi decent hand I was going all-in (practically a free gamble after all) as it turned out I was dealt 84o, 94o and 95o and didn't play any of them.

The break came and went and I had 3.6K when we started the freezeout, lots of patience and folding got me down to the last two tables and then down to 10 players, it was actually 11 but we thought it was 10 and this hand happened.

Smallest stack on the table was on the SB, blinds were at 500-1000 and UTG raised to 3K. Player on the button re-raised to 6K and the SB and BB folded.

Flop was K 8 K, both players checked
Turn was 9, both players checked
River was T, and UTG raised 5K, the button pushed and UTG called.

Button had 88 for the full house
UTG had JT for two pair?? why call for all your chips in this position? He was in a great position to make the final table. Anyway the other interesting point about this hand is that the SB folded AKs thinking that there were only 10 left and he might make the final table if he sat out the hand. Anybody agree with this move? Personally with only 3*BBs left I'd of felt obligated to push here, but that was his theory.

As it turns out there were actually 11 left and he went out in 10th anyway when he called my all-in and my KJ hit two pair to beat his 99. When the final table started I was second short stack with around 12.5K and the blinds at 1000-2000 but I started to hit some cards at last, built it up to around 20k and then UTG I'm dealt AQo, raise to 10K and the next player to act goes all-in for 22K, all fold to me and I call (more because I commited myself then thinking I'm ahead) he had KK and I hit my A to outdraw him. So now I've 40K and we're down to 5 players, I get it up to 60K we go down to 4 players and my luck turned around.

First JJ against TT with my opp all-in for 19K and a T lands on the flop. Then my raise to 12K is raised all-in to 18K by the other small stack and I call with AKo against 88 and don't improve. Suddenly with a few blinds taken I'm down to 14K with the blinds at 4000-8000. Go all-in from the SB with A2o called by K6o and the A holds up to bring me to 28K, next hand UTG folds and I've KJs so I push and the BB has me covered and is holding KK and out I go.

Suppose I can't complain as I was lucky to get to 4th with a couple of outdraws on other players, but that was repaid in full once we got down to 4 players. The bad play didn't end after the rebuy, the guy who went out 5th raised all-in from the BB after the SB had raised 10K on blinds of 1000-2000. SB had KK BB had A6o??

It really becomes a crapshoot very fast, when we were down to 4 I had 60K, chip leader had 80K and the two small stacks had around 20K each and the blinds were 3000-6000 and about to go up to 4000-8000! Chip leader just about had 10BBs and with 12K being offered up in blinds every 4 hands it took a lot of skill out of the game.

Still an enjoyable enough night, if a bit frustrating at the end!

Corben Dallas

Its in the lap of the gods really from this point on, you're skill makes a difference of course but the big stacks start to collide and most of the action takes place preflop. My theory is that the players know their hand odds preflop but arent so confident post flop and so take any decision away from themselves preflop and de-skill the game down to what they are comfortable with.

Anyone agree or disagree with that? I'm curious about others tournie strategies, particularly for that 20 game...
Correct but.....

Much like all other? fitz touranments final table play means ppl dont get to see many flops, with all teh action happening pre flop. Is this much different at teh 100 or 50/50 game? my theory is that u have to either steal blinds with an all in pre flop or bet big (or all in) with a strong hand so u have a chance to double up, reason for this is that if u see a flop and u dont hit with AT AQ AJ or have a small pair, players (particularly big stacks) will then push making it an all in decesion to call.
I have rarely seen a hand checked to teh river on the final table.
my 2c