Tournament Play

[StuR]

i've read a lot of books ahd very little expereince - but arranged a poker night with some of my mates

the table was VERY loose passive and i AM better than any of the players - but i lost.

The style was a 6 player tournament - should i be annoyed at this? i didnt get very many good hands - but i hate usuing this as an excuse.

Im annoyed at poker, but don't want to be, i feel i can become a half decent player as im am young-ish.

Any advice - consoling me or not, will be greatly received - do tourneys rely more on the cards in hand? can any fish win a six way tourney?

Thanks in advance

Stu

[Stew]

[ QUOTE ]
i've read a lot of books ahd very little expereince - but arranged a poker night with some of my mates

the table was VERY loose passive and i AM better than any of the players - but i lost.

The style was a 6 player tournament - should i be annoyed at this? i didnt get very many good hands - but i hate usuing this as an excuse.

Im annoyed at poker, but don't want to be, i feel i can become a half decent player as im am young-ish.

Any advice - consoling me or not, will be greatly received - do tourneys rely more on the cards in hand? can any fish win a six way tourney?

Thanks in advance

Stu

[/ QUOTE ]

The thing you have to remember about tourney's is this, the short-term luck factor is HUGE. why do you think TJ Cloutier has never the big one?

Anyway, the other big thing to remember about tourney play (I assume this is no-limit) is you play the man not the cards. You start keeping a book on your opponents, what do they play and when, how do they play it.

Final piece of advice, never call big bets with marginal hands...meaning if the board is 2,7,Q,10,8 with no flush possibility and you are facing a big bet with QJ, muck it without thought...you are beat..whoever is betting has a straight or a set or two pair or you're outkicked...again unless you are facing a habitual bluffer...but the problem is he beat you to the punch, and you have to fold unless you are positive he is stone cold bluffing. Which leads me to my final point..hand reading skills are crucially important and that goes back to my first point of keeping a book on your opponents.

[JimandAnne]

This is very helpful advice for me. I also notice that a small/medium bet is often used when someone has a premium hand to sucker a player into the pot and the larger bets are used for bluffing. Therefore, it becomes more difficult to ever call with marginal hands. Therefore, is the advice really, don't call with marginal hands.

This all becomes even more complicated because the strategy at the beginning of the tournament is very, very diffeerent that in later stages.

Thanks for any advice.

[LetsRock]

Tournaments don't always reward the best player. I've had a couple home tournaments. The first one was won by a genrerally good (not great) player who just couldn't miss a hand. If he had cards in his hand, the board hit him. It was incredible.

The second was won by someone who probably never even played holdem before. It was one of the most disgusting displays of awful play being rewarded that I've ever seen.

It's just the way it goes sometimes.

The more you play and the more tourneys you play, you'll get the feel of a few little things you can do to protect yourself a little, but sometimes it's a matter of destiny.

[Stew]

[ QUOTE ]
Tournaments don't always reward the best player. I've had a couple home tournaments. The first one was won by a genrerally good (not great) player who just couldn't miss a hand. If he had cards in his hand, the board hit him. It was incredible.

The second was won by someone who probably never even played holdem before. It was one of the most disgusting displays of awful play being rewarded that I've ever seen.

It's just the way it goes sometimes.

The more you play and the more tourneys you play, you'll get the feel of a few little things you can do to protect yourself a little, but sometimes it's a matter of destiny.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is certainly true...to an extent. However, keep in mind, there's a reason TJ, Phil and Johnny have 9 WSOP bracelets and that is over the long run the better tournament players will fare well...In the short run, it's also the reason TJ hasn't won the big one.

Additionally, the better you become at tournament play, the more you will get a feel for what to do and when. When to bluff, when not to, when to slow-play, when not-to, etc. Like any other form of poker, tournament play takes practice and experience.