small tournaments one table

[sweeneyagonistes]

so, i recently started playing with a groupd of guys at school. we play tournies with usually a 5 or 10 dollar buy in, winner take all to keep it at a friendly nature. we each start with like 25 equally valued chips. ive been doing well but im wondering if any of you have suggestions on how to alter my play in this situation. i would say the games are shorthanded and typically loose passive with one maniac. thanks

[LetsRock]

Not to be rude, but it's kind of hard to offer suggestiona on how to alter your play when we have no clue as to what your regular play is.

How about: Play differently.
Or would you prefer: Play Better.
Or maybe: Hit more sets.

[sweeneyagonistes]

well, to be fair, i think that was a little rude, but perhaps i deserved it.

I usually play with dollar chips against tighter opponents, and i would call myself tight but neither particularly aggressive nor passive. I guess my main question is should i tighten or loosen up and how should this situation change how i value my chips.

[LetsRock]

Well, it's still hard to give any real advice or opinions.

It's a general rule that one should loosen up a little vs. very tight opponents to take advantage of steal opportunities. One shouldn't get too carried away with looseness, but in general, one should be able to bluff tight players away from marginal hands.

One needs to have a real good feel for when the tight players has a real hand so one could get away from one's hand if they're playing marginal hands themselves.

I'm not sure what you mean by "how I value my chips".

Tourney type play in particular (more so than a ring game) requires constant adjustment to the table situations; the chips never change value, but the amount of them can change the way you play. If you have a short stack, you have to be careful of what you get into and be prepared to risk the whole stack on any given hand. If you're a dominant stack, you can intimidate your opponents with lots of big bets, but you need to be careful not to give your chips away ny getting carried away with this play.

Don't know if this gives you some things to think about or not, but this is the best I can do with a generic situation.

You might find you'll get more help if you post specific hands that gave you problems or you think could have been played differently. So long as you provide lot's of detail (reads on players involved, stack sizes, blind sizes, how many players still left etc) you'll usually get plenty of opinions to guide you to stonger play.

[MicroBob]

not that i'm a strong enough player to offer anyu worthwhile advice but you definately need to post more details on the game.

i'm assuming it's hold-em. i'm also assumuming it's NL.
i wouldn' make any assumptions about what kind of blind structure and/or blind increases you use in the tourney.

if you are playing limit, crazy-pineapple and the blinds are 12-24 (of your initial 25 chips) then you're strategy may be a teensy-bit different then NLHE with no blinds at all.