Strategy for a unusual no limit tourney?

[BUD]

I play quite a bit of ring and sh limit live and online, but my wife who wants me to break the guys she works with signed me up for this strange no limit tournament for tonight.

I am sure it will be a lot of inexperienced guys, a dealer told me they are hoping for 75 players. The buy in is $50. The weird thing is that everyone starts with $50 in chips and then instead of blinds everyone antes $1.

I am hoping you 2+2er's can rally around a member and help me develop a statregy. No limit and tourney's just are not my strength, and then this ante thing throws a curve to how it should go. Any input is greatly appreciated.
thanx
bud

[sloth469]

Well without blinds you can wait for a monster, although the antes seem kinda steep as you only have 5 orbits to get something going. I'd play sparingly the first orbit or 2 and then open up. If they are not normal players I wouldn't be surprised to see 1/3 the field out within 2 or 3 orbits concidering. Sit tight and when you play, play hard and fast.

-sloth

[gumpzilla]

I'm not entirely sure about the merit of that advice. Every pot is going to be at least 1/5th of your stack to start with! This is pretty significant. You have a pretty short stack to start this tournament with this format, so I'm not sure how long you can afford to wait. Waiting an orbit and a half for a monster has already drained your stack by 30%; this is not a valid comparison at all, but to have your stack drained by a similar amount even with antes with a conventional MTT structure after that many hands requires that your stack have been 10 BBs. That would be a really short starting stack. Under such conditions, you really don't have time to wait.

In addition, this format is going to encourage serious limping. Thinning the field is probably going to require appreciable chunks of your stack. I agree with the previous poster's enthusiasm for playing hard and fast when you do decide to play, because almost any pot you get involved in is likely to be large and tough to get away from.

[Potowame]

Look at it this way , there is no differance in this than if you had a SB for 3.33 and a BB for 6.66, basically it is a trny that starts out wild blinds over 10% of your stack. Its going to be a crap shoot, and luck is going to be the determining factor who ends up with all the chips.

Play your best Short Stack Poker , and hope to survive or become a big stack.

[uppopsthedevil]

this is a very unusual setup. i agree with the previous poster about not waiting to long for a monster as it will eat up your stack. it would be a big advantage to accumulate chips early and then you can wait for your premium hands. you'll know pretty quick how tight your table is playing. so unless you get a monster, i would try to do some stealing, especially in late position after several limpers. your going to have to push, otherwise you'll be sitting there being antied out. suited connectors, pairs, etc, and dont be afraid to go all in to build your stack, then you can play. but if others are going all in at your table, be patient for a round and pick your spot to double up. this almost has a feel of a speed tourney. good luck let us know how it went. later

[gumpzilla]

[ QUOTE ]
Look at it this way , there is no differance in this than if you had a SB for 3.33 and a BB for 6.66, basically it is a trny that starts out wild blinds over 10% of your stack. Its going to be a crap shoot, and luck is going to be the determining factor who ends up with all the chips.

[/ QUOTE ]

Some important differences between the two scenarios:

-without the barrier of the blinds, it will be much, much easier for people to limp in.

-the button will get to act last preflop as well as postflop

-unless somebody has already bet, there aren't players behind you that are getting better odds than anybody else, so there aren't situations where you think "Well, the BB will be getting good odds to call me."

[RiverDood]

Let's start with what's likely to be true . . . and then how to capitalize on it.

1. If everyone antes, position becomes much less important. You can "check" in first position and get back in the hand if someone bets and the action circles back to you. Conversely, if you're 2nd-to-last to act, and there are no raises, you're not playing heads up against the final guy. All the previous "check" folks are still in the hand. So, you need to be more flexible about what's an OK starting hand. Use early position "checks" to stay alive with 67s, etc. Meanwhile, don't assume that being first to act in late position lets you steal anything.

2. If it's a bunch of newbies, they will limp too much, and they will call other people's all-ins too much. The limping helps you play suited connectors and small pairs from any position. If you hit, lots of folks will pay you. The all-in stuff is more problematic. You'll have to accept the fact that your pushes are likely to be called -- you won't have as much folding equity as usual.

2a. Newbies also will take too long to figure out that their premium hand has collapsed. The guy with AA will bet forever, even on a board with 4 to a straight/flush. If he wants to give you all his chips, let him.

3. All the pots will start out too "rich" for the size of the min bet. So people will be tempted to pay a little to see the flop with almost anything. If you've got top-pair top-kicker, some goofball may have stumbled into two pair. Bet your favorable flops, but widen your range of what you think a caller/re-raiser after the flop might possibly have. Reading players becomes very important.

4. There will be cautious folks there who just don't want to bust out early. Look for ways to intimidate them off their cards. They won't fold a set, but they may well lay down a pair to a flush-capable board, regardless of what you've got. Talk to them! There will also be total calling stations who won't lay down anything to anyone. Once again, reads become crucial.

5. Hope that you get a winning hand in the first two orbits. Once you're ahead, it's so much easier to squeeze chips out of newbies who are nervous and lost. If you aren't ahead after two orbits, hunker down and look for a chance to double up on a monster. You don't want to be bleeding off chips trying to exploit small edges when if you're patient, there may be a giant edge ahead.

And in general, give the other players enough time to make mistakes. The longer you're at the table, the more chance you've got of having someone dump all their chips straight at you.

Good luck!

[BUD]

THANX. Now I am being told that ONLY the top 3 stacks will move on after the first hr. My guess is that they will not get off more than 20 hands in that time w/ rookie dealers. How about that for adding pressure. I am sure the other players will be pushing hard just b/c they are weak players. So, i can't imagine bullying them w/out a hand. What would you do besides hope you get cards?
thanx
bud

[Potowame]

WTF? /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

are dueces wild too ?

[BUD]

Thankful my wife bought the seat, and i have'nt used up some of my own b&m bankroll. And like I said earlier I am not a tourney expert, just small stakes limit. So you think it is a total crap shoot?
thanx
bud

[sloth469]

Do not play, buy $50 worth of scratch offs. You will probably lose but not the whole $50 as you most certainly will in this format "tourney."

And after further reflection I agree with the criticism of my earlier response.

-sloth

[Potowame]

crap shoot has better odds, I think I would say this is a lottery that you have to hit ten numbers between 1-200.

[LethalRose]

id play this just because itd be fun and something different.

[Potowame]

/images/graemlins/grin.gif, true

LAGGY ON FULL TILT STYLE

[CardSharpCook]

Ok, this really isn't as bad as a craps shoot. We are poker players and we can figure out how to beat any system, right? At least we have an edge over everyone else. We know how valuable each and every pot is here. We also know that one must play fast and loose to be in the top 3 after the first hour (top 3 at table or in tourney?). While other players will be playing like us because they don't know any better - we know that we have to play this way and can do so smartly.

There will be a good number of players, perhaps half, who are str8 up dead money. They have no grasp of the notion that only wild success will pay off, so they will play a small game and be happy with winning a few pots here and there, and they will be thinking that they are doing well. DEAD MONEY. True, we are throwing the dice a couple dozen times with the ones who understand that fast and loose is the ONLY way to win, but with so much dead money, if you were to play this tourney a 1000 times, I think you do exceedingly well.

Still, this will not be a satisfying tourney to play (much like those stupid speed tourneys), but a smart player who understands the effects of the wrenchs thrown into the works should be able to do quite well.

CSC

[BUD]

I played one hand to the river in the 1st hr, and that was enuff to build up my stack to third at the first table. Then moved on to the next table , moved all in with aces to double up. And caught two pair on the flop w a rag to build up enuff to sit back. Then i had a tuff time getting out of my defensive shell to finish off when it went shorthanded. These guys would go all in at any time w/ anything. Thanx again.
bud