Does this structure favor luck too much????

[Toe-Knee]

Hey guys I'm new here, been playin religiously for about a year so really i'm still a begginer. But anyway I'm thinking about playin in a live sng tourney I found at a charity casino near my house, and I want your opinions on it. It's structured kinda funny, $30 buy in (can't afford much more), 12 people at the table. You get 1000 in chips, but the blinds start at 25 and 50 and go up every 10 minutes!!! Now from what little experince I have that sounds like your really gonna have to get lucky to take one of these down. I mean that's only 20x the big blind, not really enough chips to push around. So really my question for you guys is if you think it's worth it? Do you think theres a strategy I could bring to this? From watching previous ones the play isn't the greatest, I watched many a people call allin's with ace-rag and similar hands for no apparant reason, I think it's mostly small stakes players trying to win big. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

Toe-Knee

[Mr_J]

That doesn't sound too bad. Party only has 800 chips and blinds go up faster, although blinds start at 10/15 and 10 players.

[OrcaDK]

Blinds go up pretty fast with 12 people at the table in a live game, and only 10 min levels. I'd say it's worse than Party, have fun.

[Mr_J]

"Blinds go up pretty fast with 12 people at the table"

??? Blinds go up faster when there's less people at a table...

"and only 10 min levels."

Party is definately quicker than that, prob around 8 minutes for earlier levels.

Anyway, what are the blind levels? There might be blind levels in between the normal party ones like 30/60 and 75/150.

I remember playing sngs at party that had 30/60 or 75/150. Do they cut out some blind levels from $33 on?

[nuclear500]

Blinds will appear to move faster due simply to the fact you are out of the blinds for a longer period of time so by the time it gets back around to you on one orbit, the blinds could have gone up. 12 hands, 1 hand a minute (thats maybe pushing it) and you're at the next level already.

[syphlix]

that sounds like the WPT qualifiers i was playing at foxwoods last year... $1000 stack to start... blinds start at 25/25 and go to 25/50 and up every 10/15 minutes (can't remember)... they were basically going up very fast and you had a small stack... sucked...

[Phil Van Sexton]

[ QUOTE ]
12 hands, 1 hand a minute (thats maybe pushing it) and you're at the next level already.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's more like 1 hand per 2 minutes in a live game. In a charity event with non-pro dealers and complete novices for players, I would say it would be closer to 3 minutes per hand. The blinds will be going up every 4 hands which makes party look really, really slow by comparison.

[OrcaDK]

[ QUOTE ]

??? Blinds go up faster when there's less people at a table...


[/ QUOTE ]

No they don't, not when it's based on a time limit. If you had only 5 people playing, you'd be able to play a lot more hands before the 10 mins were up, with 12 people, 5-6 hands in 10 minutes is probably max.

[swarm]

Those are super fast, I play at some local tourney's at casino's with similar structures from time to time and the games go slow and the blind times tick, tick, ticking away in your head.

You have a small period of time to build up a stack before it becomes all in time. But since people know that they are going to chase all-in with flush or straight draws and call with any piece of the flop.

The thinking being is that you have to luck out early to get a big stack to be able to play any resemblence of poker after the blind increases. It's very rare for any hands to not reach all in status or fold status after the flop.

You can't blame casino's though as they make much less money with tournaments taking up their tables. They want it to end fast and get the early outs on the table playing raked games.

[snapfc01]

you have to take into account the difference between playing live and playing on line. on line you get to play hands much faster then live games. 10 minutes is really short in my experience

[ColdestCall]

What is the payout structure? If three places are played you can probably get into the money fairly frequently by doubling up once on a 60/40 type hand and then watching everyone blow each other apart while waiting for a decent hand to try doubling up again.

You are going to have to get lucky to win this, as the blinds start high and go up super-fast. However, you can maximize your value by playing your less than 10 BB stack well. Specifically, you have to push or fold pre-flop with less than 10BB, and your pushing standards have to be loosened considerably to maximize fold equity and to captialize on the times when your A-J EP push is going to be called by A-8 in the BB. You can also loosen up your all-in calling standards a bit, but you are much better off being first in the pot.


BTW, why bother playing this? - there are better games going on all the time online.

[Mr_J]

Yep I didn't think live games would be that slow, but of course they would be since everything is physical.

It sounds like fun though, I've done very well with 700-1000 chips and 8+ left at 50/100 and higher.

Also, what are the blinds levels? If there anything between 25/50 and 50/100, or 50/100 and 100/200?

[willie24]

[ QUOTE ]
From watching previous ones the play isn't the greatest, I watched many a people call allin's with ace-rag and similar hands for no apparant reason, I think it's mostly small stakes players trying to win big.

[/ QUOTE ]

this sounds like a really good game. should be easier to beat than a typical online game.

[ QUOTE ]
You get 1000 in chips, but the blinds start at 25 and 50 and go up every 10 minutes!!! ... Do you think theres a strategy I could bring to this?

[/ QUOTE ]

of course, that's not that bad. Play TAG round 1, and extra aggressive round 2. this game is going to be played preflop. be the raiser, not the caller and you'll be fine.

[willie24]

You got to remember that the super-fast blind structure is the same for everyone. most players won't adapt properly and will play worse than they normally would. if you can adapt you will have a significant edge in this tourney.