Playing in my first live MTT tomorrow, suggestions?

Soaring Eagle Thanksgiving tournament. Buy in is $100 + $10 seat fee. I bought in with money won after a good night at the 3/6 table, so essentially it's free.

Being a small stakes limit player, I'm no expert on MTT's but I'm no beginner either. I've placed in the money (top 18) in an Absolute freeroll with 2000 people, and moved on (top 27) in a Hubble's satellite on stars (5000+ people).

I have an above average understanding of tournament strategy, having read HOH1 and through playing experience. One downside to this tourney is the blind structure. Each person gets 4000 chips to start and blinds start at 25/50. They double every 20 minutes. This seems normal for an online tourney, but isn't it extremely fast for a live one?

I'm looking for any tips or suggestions on how to play with the fast paced blinds. Should I even play any differently than normal?

Thanks in advance for the replies.

[Lloyd]

It's a misconception that online tournaments have faster structures then live tournaments. It all depends. When the blinds start picking up speed you have to be more willing to gamble anytime you have the smallest of edges.

Beyond that, there are two big mistakes that online players make when transitioning live. First, they screw up the betting. Most tournaments have a single chip rule so if the blinds are 50/100 and you toss in a single 500 chip, you just called unless you say raise prior to doing so or announce the amount of the raise. A good rule is to just say how much you plan on betting everytime and you won't get into trouble here.

Second, online players are used to always having their cards visible. It can be a pretty major tell if you have to take a peak at your cards at the wrong time (like with a flush draw on the board). So make sure you remember your cards the first time you look at them. You also might not want to look at your cards pre-flop until the action is on you so you don't give off any tells. Of course, when you do look your eyes can't jump out when you've got Aces. But too often players look at their cards, and either become uninterested with a bad hand or overly interested with a good one.

Good luck.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, I'll keep them in mind.

Anyone else?

[mlagoo]

be nice to your tablemates. be self-deprecating. it will do a number of things, including making your image looser and making people want to be involved in pots with you (which is good, because you want to take their chips).

also, dont be nervous. its $100. just have fun. try to flop set over set sometime in the first hour. and pick up AA when an opponent has KK.

[A_Junglen]

Read the B&M FAQ

Lots of good info in there

[ QUOTE ]
Read the B&M FAQ

Lots of good info in there

[/ QUOTE ]

I've played live many times before. Like I said, I won my buy-in playing 3/6 at Soaring Eagle. I doubt the B&M FAQ will help me in any way, or am I mistaken?

[mlagoo]

sorry, i think i was misled by the thread topic into answering the wrong question.

i do think that is a fairly quick blind structure. 20 minutes is not long -- maybe an orbit, give or take a few hands -- live.

i would think that this should change your strategy in that you should be more willing to take a couple risks early -- if you think you are going to be on a favorable side of a coinflip, etc., you may want to take it, because you'll otherwise soon find yourself relegated to push/fold poker.

so i guess that'd be my tip. don't pass on small edges early. try to accumulate, which will ultimately heighten variance at the beginning of the tournament to (hopefully) lessen it later.