deadlydaveLDN's Tournament Guide

[deadlydaveLDN]

[deadlydaveLDN]

Re: deadlydaveLDN's Tournament Guide Part 1 - Preparation Bankroll Management I’m sure someone can do the math and work out what everyone’s bankroll for MTTs should be based on ROI etc, but that person won’t be me. As a basic rule I think it would be fair to say that in low stakes ($50 or less) you don’t want to risk more than 1% of your bankroll (and the majority of tournaments you play should be risking less than 1%). As the buy-ins increase above this I’d probably want 200 buy-ins. Some may see this as conservative and others aggressive, but as long as you’re happy to move down during downswings and up during upswings these levels should be ok. Tournament Selection Just because you’re a NLHE tournament specialist and a tournament is within your bankroll it doesn’t mean you should necessarily be playing it. For example, I hate rush, or superstacks without antes from the start. However, I find that rebuys and 6-max tournaments are huge value for me. Figure out where your edge is and concentrate on that. Unless you’re Shaun Deeb you will burnout from playing too many tournaments, so play slightly less and play better. Preparing For A Tournament Don’t play if your mind is not purely going to be on poker, or if there is a chance you’re going to be distracted. Make a list of tournaments that you wish to play before you start play and do not add to this during the session, regardless of how the others are going. If one of these is starting and you’re playing your maximum number of tables just drop it from the schedule. Always check the structure of a tournament as it starts, and have some idea of how long it will last. Next I’ll concentrate on how I approach playing the tournament itself.

[deadlydaveLDN]

[morlspin]

Re: deadlydaveLDN's Tournament Guide Dave, this is great mate Thank you for the time and effort!:clap:clap

[goater14]

Re: deadlydaveLDN's Tournament Guide

Dave, this is great mate Thank you for the time and effort!:clap:clap

+1 will be following with interest:ok

[The Quiet Man]

Re: deadlydaveLDN's Tournament Guide

Over the last week or so I’ve really struggled with tournaments. I go through stages which go something like this. Stage 1 : Have a good cash Stage 2 : Play sensibly for a few weeks, multitabling tournaments, taking the occasional shot, getting good results Stage 3 : Go on a bad run and then start taking too many shots. Mess up from a good situation through bad play. Tilt some of my roll playing cash games Stage 4 : Try to play sensibly again, but my confidence is gone and I struggle to concentrate. Don’t really want to be playing but do it anyway, further damaging my roll. In the meantime I’ve decided to set out the way I go about tournaments when my head is in the right place. Hopefully it will be useful to others, but mainly I want something to refer to before each session I play. Most of this will be obvious, but much of it is forgotten by many players.

Hi Dave......I guess the 4 stages could be identified by most of us but stage 4 is the one I'm currently at and seem to be there too regularly!:cry:cry I'm looking forward to seeing your thoughts when you're at that particular stage and it'll be interesting to see how you overcome your lack of confidence in betting out, raising, etc when you've hit a bad run....it's easy to say 'carry on as normal' but it's difficult to actually physically press the 'raise' button when you're losing every time...:( Best of luck in your quest!:hope:hope:hope TQM

[Haichan]

Re: deadlydaveLDN's Tournament Guide

Part 2 HUD Lots of people don’t like using a HUD in tournaments. But I’d say it’s essential. There’s no need to overload it with stats, but have VPIP/PFR/3-bet just so you have some idea of how tight/loose a particular player is. It really helps when shortstacked for figuring out when you should be 3-bet shoving.

Dave, Good strategy piece. You'v had some pretty good results so I don't think theirs any thing wrong with your basic game. Your analysis is very sound. Your problem seems to be copping with the massive variance in tournements. Listened to a very good podcast on http://www.deucescracked.com/podcasts with a top cash player who is a winning player at $20/$40 cash but doen't play tournments because of the variance. The discipline needed after a series of badbeats is probably the hardest part of tournement play. I don't use Hud but do a lot of after game analysis via Holdem Manager which I find very good for highlighting my leaks. Although I have been running good the last couple of months and getting deep in most tournements I am not closing out enough wins. When your running well you seem to have got the push fold strategy right for late tournment play. Thats still something I struggle with

[Rivrd]

Re: deadlydaveLDN's Tournament Guide

Over the last week or so I’ve really struggled with tournaments. I go through stages which go something like this. Stage 1 : Have a good cash Stage 2 : Play sensibly for a few weeks, multitabling tournaments, taking the occasional shot, getting good results Stage 3 : Go on a bad run and then start taking too many shots. Mess up from a good situation through bad play. Tilt some of my roll playing cash games Stage 4 : Try to play sensibly again, but my confidence is gone and I struggle to concentrate. Don’t really want to be playing but do it anyway, further damaging my roll. I don’t want to be constantly going through this process anymore.

Must be something in the air, this month has been my worst case of variance smacking me in the face and getting near to the position of where do i turn. :( my confidence is at an all time low. I dont even think that i have played that bad in games or tilted in anyway, but for the love of money just cant get any where, so you have some great pointers in this thread. My trouble is i hate not playing but should i really take a break ? or just grind away at some low stake SnGs to get through the variance. Am really interested in the fact that you use a Huds display, do you think this can improve my game - to be honest i have tried in the past and just seems to teccy and confusing for me so some help in this area would be appreciated.

[Nade]

Re: deadlydaveLDN's Tournament Guide This is really good and thanks for the pointers so far, i've been interested in how to approach tournaments for the last couple of weeks and this'll help :ok