Tournament Strategy - Game Selection

[deadlydaveLDN]

Game Selection Most people only think about Game Selection when playing cash games, and don't give it any thought when playing tournaments. 1) Most obvious game selection is that if you want to be a tournament specialist stick to tournaments only and don't go anywhere near cash games. There are a few players in the world that have mastered both, but these are rare cases, and many tournament stars are cash game fish and vice versa. 2) On weekdays I would recommend not starting any tournaments before 6pm (UK time) or playing any tournaments starting after 11pm. This is due to the much larger concentration of fish/recreational players during these hours. Weekends you can be more flexible since the fish won't be at work. With US players now gone anything starting too late is likely to be pro-heavy now. 3) Rebuys are your friend. Yes it's frustrating when you keep getting it in good and outdrawn in the 1st hour but just look at all the reckless play and dead money in the field. There's more value in rebuys than just about any other tournament. Not only that but you only pay rake on your 1st buy-in, not on any rebuys/add-ons. 4) Turbos/deepstacks. Good players do have an edge in turbos but for me the edge is too small and the variance too high to make them worth bothering with. Deepstacks (like the marathons on Pokerstars) may give the good player a huge edge, but you will waste 14hrs playing and probably hate poker by the end of them. There's a reason why most tournaments have a "regular" structure - because that's the best structure. 5) Stick to one game. For most people this is NLHE. But if you're a PLO specialist who sucks at NLHE don't waste your cash playing NLHE. 6) Play Guaranteed tournaments only - most of these clear the guarantees, so you're not getting any added value, but they do attract swarms of fish. Likewise, any tournament which has satellite entries into it (eg Sundy Million) is going to be hugely profitable. Anyway, I think most of that is pretty obvious, but it's amazing how many people will just jump into any tournament at any time (I did until recently), so hopefully someone finds something useful. I'll make more posts whenever I think of anything interesting.

[Rivrd]

Re: Tournament Strategy - Game Selection :clap some great pointers there for players. Think it is also worth mentioning games with late registration especially on fo tournaments, sometimes it's best to join in late as normally for the first half hour the fish are shoving all in with crap in the hope of that double up, yes you can exploit these players but there is nothing worse than paying your money and getting sucked out On early doors. Also worth entering late on rebuy games with add ons as normally by the break you can buy in/rebuy and add on and be above average chips.

[deadlydaveLDN]

Re: Tournament Strategy - Game Selection

Think it is also worth mentioning games with late registration especially on fo tournaments, sometimes it's best to join in late as normally for the first half hour the fish are shoving all in with crap in the hope of that double up, yes you can exploit these players but there is nothing worse than paying your money and getting sucked out On early doors. Also worth entering late on rebuy games with add ons as normally by the break you can buy in/rebuy and add on and be above average chips.

I'd totally disagree with this I'm afraid. Bad players tend to be eliminated (on average) earlier than good players. Therefore you want to be playing from the start to play with the bad players for longer. Yes it's annoying to be sucked out on, but it's also a great time to build a stack, and in the long term you are losing lots of $$$ by regging late.

[Rivrd]

Re: Tournament Strategy - Game Selection Probably agree with you as regards to freezeout tournaments but think it is well worth considering in rebuy tournaments

[GaF]

Re: Tournament Strategy - Game Selection

Think it is also worth mentioning games with late registration especially on fo tournaments, sometimes it's best to join in late as normally for the first half hour the fish are shoving all in with crap in the hope of that double up, yes you can exploit these players but there is nothing worse than paying your money and getting sucked out On early doors.

Where to you see your value/profit coming from then? The good players? :unsure

[Rivrd]

Re: Tournament Strategy - Game Selection

Where to you see your value/profit coming from then? The good players? :unsure

I find that theres still enough fish still in from registering late to make profit from.

[ajaxAgain]

Re: Tournament Strategy - Game Selection Musy say I've never considered registering late, far too much value from the fish and no shows. I prefer the room to just play premium hands early, catching the fish who are playing a wide range. I then hopefully have enough of a stack to actually play some poker against the better players later on. Registering late surely turns it in to a bit of a shoot out where you cant make your edge as a better player count.