Tournament Advice please

[LadyLuck]

Hello everyone, this is my first post though I have 'lurked' for a little while now. I've just recently begun playing online Poker - before this my experience was limited to playing against family and friends so I'm really a newbie. I have found that in roughly 3/4 tournaments (the baby ones) I'm able to be placed either 2nd or 3rd, which is good because it means I at least get my money back, but I was wondering if anyone had any strategies or advice for getting a better placing. What tends to happen is that I'll bet conservatively - and often get whittled down by blind bets and bad hands but win enough to stay in, though when it gets close I'm easily bullied by those with a lot of chips so that I'm forced eventually to go all in on a not so good hand. I suppose it really just comes down to experience and learning to read others better, but I just wondered if anyone had any advice, as from what I've read so far you all seem to know what you're talking about :) Cheers

[BillyHills]

Re: Tournament Advice please Hi LadyLuck, welcome on board, in answer to your question which is a very familiar one and one many of us have sought a solution at some time, is simply by playing more and more and watching and learning from your mistakes and noticing why the players against you are more successful? Its quite common in a STT that most players play as you do, begin playing very tight in hope to get to the 'cash' stages, unfortunately the usual scenario is that after getting there you have few chips in which to play aggressively to actually go on and win the thing. The solution is obviously to be more aggressive earlier on, you need to play more marginal hands when there is 5/6 players left and try to turn the situation on its head so you become the aggressor, especially against the small chips. Yes sure your taking a chance of going out earlier and not reaching the prize money but you dont win any tournaments without risk! I had problems when playing 'heads up', i found it very difficult for a while and was getting overrun by aggressive play. You have to realise a marginal hand with 9 opponents becomes a very good hand with only one opponent, and with the blinds so big, calling is usually a poor play. Its only experience that teaches you this. Jezz wrote a superb reply to Northern Red about something similar in Multi's, take a look at that. I'm no expert and i'm sure someone will add to this thread, but glad you made it to our forum and please keep posting. You may even like to enter our tournament. Cheers BH.

[Jezza]

Re: Tournament Advice please Hi Ladyluck and welcome to the forum :) I used to play these tournaments a lot as well, they are great value for money and as billy says (and im sure you have found out yourself) you can learn a lot from playing in them and get good value for your money. In the early stages (the first two or three levels of blinds) you are quite correct to play tight and wait for good holdings - theres no point in being a bluffer or a preflop raiser unless you hold something good. However when you DO get a good holding - say you hold 88 and the flop is AK8 - you must not be conservative with it you must be very aggressive. I would suggest in such a case betting/raising around the size of the pot on each round. Believe me you will be called more often than you think (dont be scared about people folding either - if that happens its just bad luck but in the above example anyone holding an A - a common card to play - will pay you off 9/10). Hoepfully this should allow you to accumulate a few chips before the blinds get large. Now when the blinds get large you must be in there raising a lot when you get anything decent dealt to you. If people have limped in before you maybe ease off on doing this unless you have a good hand but in general if it is folded round to you - put the pressure on the blinds. Try and raise peoples blinds where they are struggling (IE Getting low on chips - you can take a chance to take them out without risking TOO many chips or they will fold a large blind to you). A great time to do this almost every round is when there are 4 of you left and there are 3 places paid. They will all be desperate to get in the money so take advantage of that and make them fold the blinds to you preflop. Also take a read at this thread LL as it might help you when you are heads up at the end http://www.punterslounge.com/showthread.php?t=9639 Jez

[LadyLuck]

Re: Tournament Advice please Thank you both for being so welcoming and helpful :) Thinking about it your advice makes a lot of sense and I have definitely lacked the right amount of aggression at the right time, I'll go away and work on what you've both said and hope I get some nice cards :-) As for taking part in your tourny BH I'm quite sure I'd get a good :spank (what a kinky little smilie). But it sounds like it would still be good fun :) Thank you for the thread link Jezza and sorry for not noticing it before, you must get a little :eyes with people like me asking similar questions though I'm very grateful for your advice :) Anyway, I'm off to go practice now! will let you know how I get on.

[waynemcke]

Re: Tournament Advice please Welcome Ladyluck. Newbie or not you should still take part in the PL tourney. One because it's the best place to learn, two because it's fun and three because ya never know! I consider myself fairly good at the game and have had some decent wins but I learnt a couple of things from the last PL tourney - mainly how aggressive Jezza is! :tongue2 Good luck mate. :ok