When should I get creative

[James Boston]

8-man tournament last night. This was a game I had never played in. I didn't really like the structure. 100 chips, 2-4 blinds, and the blinds increase after a man gets eliminated. Two extremely loose-aggressive players went out almost immediately, thus moving the blinds to 4-8. So, there I am with approx. 80-90 chips, a 6 man orbit, and 4-8 blinds.

I was getting terrible cards. Now, I promise this is not me complaining. I literally was on a run of the coldest cards I had ever seen. With the blinds chipping away at me so quickly, I was a little lost. How creative should I have gotten with my terrible cards? I didn't want to make huge gambles with near certainty that a call meant I was screwed. Any advice?

[Tosh]

You need to be able to see these situations yourself.

[tommy2]

I play in a home tournament with a similar structure to this one. What I have noticed is that the earlier you can get a leg up, the better. That being said, if the cards are cold, they're cold. The only thing you might be able to do is steal some blinds from late position. This structure both rewards and penalizes the loose-aggressive players. Individually, they go out faster, but one lucky SOB seems to double or triple up pretty fast. Then, every time you try to make a move on that player he comes back over the top. This is why you have to stay pretty tight.

I try to remind myself that the next two cards might be strong and I want to have as many chips as possible to take advantage of them. It is hard to fold A7o from early position, though, when you see two maniacs showdown with J4o and Q6o.

Once you go--go very strong. Push out as many marginal hands as you can and try to isolate one LAG player if possible. In the last tourny I played like this, I was in the BB with AQs. The maniac in SB had stolen my blinds a few times and was the chip leader at our table. He was consistently betting with nothing. After everyone else folded, he raised me twice the BB. I figured I had the better hand with AQs and went all in. He immediatly cried "call" and turned over J4o. I was thrilled. Until his 4 hit on the turn. I was knocked out, but had the best of it with all my chips in.

Good luck.