Tournament question?

Thehitpack

Say i am in a tournament with 30k starting stack and blinds every 20 mins starting at 100/100 and moving up.

If i win a pot for 12k how coveted are my chips? do i play abc poker with good hands
or do i focus on moving upwith the levels.?

how does accumulation of chips work in terms of when i raise pre or call pre but don't hit and i attempt floats and bluffs etc.

i know its player dependant
and stack to pot ratios etc. Im asking based on i do ok when i can hit a hand and get paid off or bluff a weaker reg. I can get to like say 60k no problem but then in a couple hands im drawing and hit nothing or get rivered etc and lose 20k.

I only seem to really move up when i shove all in when the blinds force me too.

This is a game played in my local casino by the way just wanted some insight for people please.

TheGameKat

Another factor which your strategy depends on is the details of the blind levels. That may seem pedantic, but it matters a lot how long (how many hands) it takes before the average stack dips into the push-fold range around 15bb. If this is a typical daily with no more than ~150 entrants, my preference is to play pretty tight early on, develop that image of the guy who doesn't play many pots, then start to look for 3-bet shove opportunities around 25bb effective. Or when things go well, make a big hand early and stack someone overplaying theirs, then use the big stack as a weapon.

Fox's MTT course towards the end of CORE is an excellent resource.

Thehitpack

so what if i have 80bb and im wanting to slowly accumulate chips to stay ahead.

What i'm asking s how common is it for players to lose the chips they accumulated.

I find that at first break no matter how i have played i find myself sitting on a starting stack.

TheGameKat

I think the general principle is that, if you play tight early loose late like I do, you'll necessarily find yourself sitting on a starting stack at first break fairly regularly, simply because you're somewhat at the mercy of the cards.

The psychological trick is to not worry about your stack dropping, provided it does so within certain bounds. For example, you start on 100bb, win a pot early and chip up to 120bb. Then you get involved in a hand that you play well but lose, and get knocked down to 80bb. That's fine and is inevitable much of the time. The point is a 120bb and an 80bb stack really aren't that different in terms of utility.

Thehitpack

So basically the win rate is going to be variable at the early stages.

I have final tabled at this game run by my local casino and i can manage to get in there no problem with 100k stack from a 30k starting stack.

TheGameKat

Thehitpack wrote: »

So basically the win rate is going to be variable at the early stages.

I have final tabled at this game run by my local casino and i can manage to get in there no problem with 100k stack from a 30k starting stack.

Nearly all aspects of MTT play have high variance. My approach is, rather than worrying about whether my stack is going up or down, thinking about how its current size determines my options and ranges.

elvida

The thing about tournaments is you have to be able to skillfully play all stack sizes. You can't wait around like in cash games and the blinds and antes will shave down your stack if you run dead. The idea that you can "steadily build your stack" is IMHO a pipe dream that if you are going to play tournaments (or poker for that matter) you need to disabuse yourself of. Concentrate on playing the individual hands well and maximizing the amount you acquire for each hand. Each time you lose a pot and your stack goes down, don't focus on where your stack was or what kind of hole you are in, see it as a stack depth that you are at and it has to be played a certain way to be profitable. The more often that you play hands optimally the more often you will be successful in the tournament.

Most importantly for your mental health, just know that the game of poker doesn't tolerate hubris. Just when you think you have it all figured out, your Aces get cracked by the guy in the corner cleaning his ears out with a golf pencil. On the very next hand, you and your 5BB stack have to watch him punt it off to some other player. Resist the urge to grind your teeth. Dental bills are expensive.

Thehitpack

Probably the best post i have read so far