Played my 1st Tournament - question

Played my very 1st tourney and thought it was GREAT. I was the 3th guy booted but in 36 hands I only had one hand above a (class? level?) 5 and it was a KK where I was in level one and in the small blind and everybody folded ahead of me! RATS.


If you don't get the cards ya arn't going to win.


ANYWAY - is there some place I can get some insight to playing that is different to playing a REGULAR game?


Any general tips I can gleen?


Thanks alot.

It must have been strange tournament if the blinds ate up your stack in just 3 or 4 rounds. Or did you play some hands other than the KK? My guess is that you did because you felt like you had to play.


If you don't get the cards aren't going to win is not really true. If you don't get the cards and still play the hands you get, you aren't going to win. You have to either make CORRECT plays for the blinds or at least wait for the cards to come to you.

When the blinds are relatively small compared to your stack like at the beginning of a tournament, you can afford to play conservatively, i.e. like you would do in a regular cash ring game. So you limp, fold or raise like you would usually do.


If you build your stack, you can continue playing this way for a while longer. If you find yourself with a shorter stack, say 10x the BB (or less), then you are in the raise or fold play, you must find a hand to go with and hope you win. Do not wait until the blinds are eating your stack away, pick a hand and push it. This usually means lossening up your standards.


When the blinds are getting bigger, you have to be more aggressive preflop. You have to raise more often in effort to pick up the blinds. Just picking the blinds is often a substantial gain and it must be done if you want to have success. You simply can't wait for a premium hand in the later stages. When the blinds are big, don't slowplay, raise early and hope you make it through.


More importantly, post as many hands as you can here, this will be worth a fortune.


Good luck!


Nicolas Fradet (The Prince)

Round one I played A8s, 55 and 65s - won the A8s


Round 2 KK and 54s Won the KK


Round 3 I started to get worried about the blinds and went with Q9o, 65s, T8o. Not great hands to play but I was getting slightly worried. The 65 hearts sucked out some cash because the flop was 3,4,7 all of hearts so I had a st8 flush going but didn't hit.


Round 4 were rag hands and I busted out with K9o. I gambled on that hand knowing it was about my last chance. I knew I was probebly 2nd best but . . . .


thanks

none were very strong. The SLIGHTLY playable hands came in the 3 round.


The KK was the last hand I would actually play at a REAL table. I'm a tight player but the cards made me look even tighter until I HAD to come out and gamble.

>>>


If you only had one hand that was above a level 5 hand then you likely should have only played one hand. This was my point. You do not and can not be in a rush to win hands ESPECIALLY early on when people are likely to call you down. I am assuming it was a limit tournament. If it was no-limit you have to be even more patient until you get a lot more experience. You will see some people winning big pots and getting big stacks but you have to wait for good hands instead of gambling.

so I think I was doing OK. I played the 55 and folded and the 65s and folded. Round 3 (yes limit) I lost a couple. So I was doing fine until the BB was 1/8th my bankroll.

If you don't get good cards you have zero shot of winning, period. You can get far in the tournament, true, but with crappy hands, you're not going to make it to the final table, no matter how many blinds you steal. There will come many times where you will be stealing blinds and be re-raised, and if you don't have the goods on any of these to scoop that large pot, you'll be eaten alive. I was stealing blinds left and right last night, but didn't get a pair above 6s and didn't get a hand stronger than A10s (no joke) after about 1.5 hours into the tournament. I finished 12th (paid 9), but I knew that realistically I had no shot to make it to the final table. When the blinds got up to 700-700 (total chips in the tournament about 100,000), there was a raise from either the cutoff or button every single time -- we saw about one flop a round. At this stage in the tournament, you need to get cards so you can re-raise and stand a call if you want to be healthy at all going to the final table.


Max