paradise poker N.L. tournaments

Played in about ten of these 1 table tournaments in the last couple weeks and even though i cashed about 70% of the time these seem like crap.


Yeah there is some strategy, I play real tight in the begining allowing others to bust out. My goal is to just double my stack by the time its down to five players.


My problems is when it gets down to four or five players the blinds go up so high so fast it just makes it a craps shoot.


Does anybody else have any opinions on these tournaments? Are they crap?


Thanks in advance,


Ryan

So what if it is ?


If you can achieve your goal of having an average stack with 5 players left every time, you will make a clear profit. Double your money (less the rake).


In any case, there is plenty of scope for mistakes when the blinds are high.


Suppose we are five-handed, equal chips, 1 good player, 3 average players and 1 poor player. The good player might win 25% of the time, the average players 20% each, the poor player 15%. Now it's a question of semantics. You might say it's a "crap shoot" because the best player won't win 75% of the time. However to imply that the outcome is totally determined by luck is wrong.


Andy.

Ryan,


I've gotten hooked on the Paradise $10 NL tournaments. I had unbelievable success at first cashing in 14 of my first 20 tourneys, and every bustout was with a better hand pre-flop. I am convinced I was better than 80% of the players in those tourneys. Then while the WSOP contest was running I played 15 tournaments and didn't cash once. THe difference...better players. My head was swimming watching some of this. No one chased my good hands, and I became the fish.


There is no doubt that luck becomes a bigger factor when you get to the last few players, but the players with better hand selection and short handed skills will win more than their share...just the same as any poker tournament.

Once it becomes 4-5 people you have to shift gears, if your second in chips you could wait for pretty much premium starting hands. If you have a large stack attack as much as possible. This is the part of the tourney were stealing becomes very important, move you chips in and deliberately steal even with trash hands, VERY aggressive is the key to success once the blinds have increased. Limping is now out of the question, raising about 3 x the BB opens for more than 1/3 of your stack so just move in if your going to play.


-MJ