$3 tourneys.... good practice?

[snapfc01]

hey... i'm new to playing online mtt's. started playing sngs about two months ago... 10+1 on stars... doing pretty well.. have a lot of live experience and have read about every 2+2 book along with tons of others. however i have a limited bankroll for online(started with 50 and up to about 200 from playing sngs...i have a decent size bank roll offline however i'd like to keep that for live games i regularly play). i'm fine playing 10+1 sngs on a relatively short bank roll b/c i have a high itm % however i know that won't be true for mtt's. so i was thinking about getting practice by playing the really low buy in ($1 or $3 mtt on pokerstars). but after thinking that i was worried about how much if any those will teach me... are they much like a freeroll mtt would be since it is such a low buy in? are they worth playing or just a lot of people using the push/pray method u see in the $5.50 sngs and play money mtt. any input here would be great... even if it is to wait til i have a larger bankroll then play the $10 mtt.

thanks alot
Gerard

[Pepsquad]

Yes. They would good practice. But I play $1-$10 MTT's on U.B. I can honestly say that even though you see poorer play at these limits than at the higher limits, it is not just "push-n-pray". You'll find most of your opponents are at least trying to play correctly.

[Che]

snapfc01-

I learned how to play with the $1-$3 Stars MTT's, and things are going pretty well for me so far. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

(Note: I added $5 sng's after I got comfortable with the MTT's so I went in the opposite direction of what you're doing. I still have never played live.)

I wouldn't recommend jumping directly from the microbuyins to the $200+ buyin tourneys /images/graemlins/wink.gif, but I certainly don't think playing the $1-$3 MTT's is a waste of time. Granted, you will have to deal with push/pray tactics at those levels, but you deal with them at every level online (at least occasionally) so it won't hurt you to learn how to recognize and beat those players.

The most valuable part of the $3 tourneys is that the tourney stages are the same regardless of the buyin: early stages with small blinds, middle stages where lots of people are hitting all-in or fold mode, the bubble, early in the money, and our favorite stage of all - the final table.

Even in a $3 tourney, you can increase your understanding of the different dynamics at each level and begin to adjust your play appropriately.

I believe strongly that the Stars $1-$3 MTT's are the perfect place to start playing tourneys if your bankroll is small, and I will return to them if my bankroll ever gets wiped out and I have to start over.

Later,
Che

[Che]

[ QUOTE ]
You'll find most of your opponents are at least trying to play correctly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly. For example, they may push-and-pray because they think that's what the "good" players do with AK/88/flush draw/whatever. Just because they play poorly doesn't mean they're not playing their best.

Very nice point, Pepsquad.

Later,
Che

[snapfc01]

thanks alot for you thoughts /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[codewarrior]

Article from CardPlayer magazine online on this very subject here (http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_magazine/archives/showarticle.php?a_id=14495&m_id=65554) .

[MicroBob]

I definitely think they are good practice.

Even in the 4000-seat freerolls on Stars you will face a number of players who play reasonably respectably.

The $3-rebuys and re-buy satellites are even better.

Also worthwhile are the FPP-satellites under the EPT tab..and they will certainly have FPP-satellites for the WSOP coming up (after the EPT stretch is completed).



I've played a few $1 and $3 tourneys where I scratched and clawed my way to the 'money' which was usually $1.64 or $4.35 or something.

Usually with a few comments of
"I REALLY want that $1.41!!!!" "this tourney is going to make me rich!!" etc etc.

Great fun.

[beerpongace]

Hey Snap,

You won't remember, but I played a $10 SnG with you tonight on Stars. I saw your AK go down to Q5 when of course that guy made a boat. He went on to finish 3rd; alas, I could manage no better than 4th. Anyways . . .

If you're like me, the $10 SnGs are pretty lucrative. I have also begun playing the 3:15 $10+1 MTT for practice, which has fewer players than the daylight tourneys. I've found that I can money in that tournament one out of every four or five trys, which makes it about an even money proposition, while giving me the experience so that it will become a positive cash flow deal in the future. One trip deep into the final table with this payout structure will make (the even money) practicing at the $10 level well worth it.

beerpongace

[Tom Bayes]

I love the $1/$2/$3 tourneys on Stars. I think it's great practice in MTTs, both in no-limit holdem and lots of other games if you desire.

Of course, you will see a wide variety of styles and skill. While they are not as prevalent as in the freerolls, you will run across the occasional all-in monkey. These boys (and based on chat, they are usually teen-age boys) must get an erection from going all-in with anything. They love to show when everyone folds to their all-in bet in Level 1 and they win $30 in chips with 83. These jokers almost never last very long. They always leave rationalizing that it's "only a buck" and those of us trying to play good poker are stupid.

Most of the players are honestly trying to play well, but aren't very good. You will see a lot of calling stations and basic errors (underbetting, overbetting, folding when obviously incorrect, hopeless bluffs, etc.) If you ever watch the celebrity poker shows, the average player in these micro buy-in tournaments has about the skill of the average celebrity player. You will see some LAGs too-people trying to emulate WPT final table play.

There are a core of moderate to very skilled players that play a lot of these tournaments but don't play higher for whatever reason. I see some of these people over and over everytime I go deep in one of these tourneys. You'll see these people on the TLB board-not at the very top with the "famous" PokerStars players, but in the lower part of the top 100 or 150.

And very occasionally, you will see one of the "famous" players in these tournaments. About a month ago, I made the money in a $3 NLHE tournament and one of the chip leaders was Pete "TheBeat" Giordano, who is known as one of the best tourney players on Stars. He ended up making the final table (and I think he was simultaneously playing very well in a $100 tourney). I have no idea why a MTT pro would be playing a $3 tourney-maybe he had a side bet with someone on who would score higher on the TLB board that week?

[Tosh]

Generally any game in which people are playing to win any money is good practice.