New NL tourny player needs help (very long, sorry)

[Bat Cape]

Hello all. I read this forum regularly never post, but I am in need of help, and I simply cannot think of a better place to seek assistance. I am a very solid low limit ring player (5-10 or lower). Ninety nice percent of the time, I feel I know the right decision. As we all know, tournaments are very different. While I don't play in them very often, I generally feel pretty good about my game (I've played in 10-12 online tournies with 100 or more players and have come in the money 3 times), except when it comes to NL. I just made the decision to give the bigger NL tournies a real shot. I just finished UB $50 tourny. While I am pleased with my finish (5th), I find myself saying (waaay too often) not knowing what to do in a particular situation. For example, when I was 15th out of 30, in the LB with 66, I folded to a double blind raise by the huge chip leader with 3 players in...of course the 6 came. I still don't know if I did the right thing. I entered the final table #10 and finished 5th, but while I know I got incredibly lucky (other players knocking each other out), I think I made good decisions. Then again, maybe not..and I just got lucky. For example, 2 away from the blind (when I was going to be all in) I called a raise and went all in with a 78s...the raiser of course had the better hand to start, but I got lucky and hit a pair. Again, I have no idea if I made the right decision on that particular hand. I know I screwed up on my AI hand, but than again, maybe not. I was BB with A2o, all folded but the LB who called. I am almost tied with the next player, and 1-3 had a considerable lead. The flop comes 257o, LB bets a relatively small amount, and I said WTF and raised all in my my 22 ace kicker thinking LB wasn't playing something that hit that flop. He had J7o and I was done. Perhaps I should ahve raised PF??? I was thinking he'd fold with my ai raise, but of course he didn't having the top pair. Again, I find this happening (? my decisions) too often the few times I play NL tourniers. I realize you have to say WTF at times in NL tournies, but I would like to improve my ability to make statistically sound decisions. I recently perchased Skls book for starters, but I would appreciate any advice you guys could provide. Thanks in advance.

[lorinda]

Hi,

Great to see a new poster /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

I'm not trying to fob you off here, but you might have much better success if you re-post this to the tournament forum, those guys can discuss hands until they are blue in the face.

Personally, I don't like suited connectors in NL because it is often just toooooo expensive to see the turn and/or river and even if you connect with the flop, you often find yourself folding.

66 is not a calling hand for big action late in the tourney, in fact, not much is a calling hand at all, which is why you don't see many flops in the late stages.
(Of course, you should ALWAYS call with any pair if you are going to flop a set /forums/images/icons/smile.gif )

You only EVER go out of a tournament if the flop is dealt (okay, Ive seen people go out on chip races, but you get my point) so, raise or fold, unless you are so short you are calling for a necessary double, or someone goes all in and you are very sure you have the best hand.

No-limit tourneys are a big balancing act between staying alive, and trying to double through. Only with time will you get a feel for when your stack is critical enough to "need" to gamble, and when you can wait for a better shot.

It's brief because I personally don't believe in giving strategy advice in what is already a competetive environment, but I hope it helps a little.

If in doubt, fold.

Lori

[lorinda]

Some non-strategy advice, for what it is worth.

Invest some time in freerolls and $1 tourneys, sure the early stages are nuts, but you will come through those and get to the late (important) stages more regularly and build your confidence and experience.

Keep records seperately of how many buyins you have won, even in the $1 level so you have to play just as hard as normal.

Watch what the idiots do in these tourneys, and work out why they are idiots.

Play some $5.5 sit and goes, these sharpen your final table skills.

WATCH the last two tables of the $200 at stars and any WSOP promo's that are going, see what the chip leader's strategy is, see what the short stacks are doing.

Pick a player who does well in tourneys, and watch them play a whole tourney from start to finish, especially if they double through early.

Lori

[crazy canuck]

Read books, and check out archives/old posts from the NL/PL
forum.