Tournament vs. regular cash games

[gamblore99]

I play a lot of limit hold'em but have no tournament experience and am thinking of entering a tournament at a casino near me. Can anyone tell me the differences in how I should play for a tournament as opposed to regular. thanx

[La Brujita]

If you play your regular game you will be in decent shape. The biggest adjustment you have to make is to open raise with worse hands than you would normally open with an call with fewer hands. This is a short explanation of the gap concept-you should search the archives for it.

Also, be inclined to do more raising and less limping.

Finally, if you are the big stack you need to be aggressive-very agressive and push people around.

Regards

[37offsuit]

In addition, watch for situations where you can attack people's blinds. Think of it this way, every succesful blind steal gives you one more set of blinds you can give up, if you need to. Rest assured, that you'll have your blinds attacked.

Also, unlike limit, don't chase hoping the second best hand will improve to be the best hand, unless you have additional outs. So if you're in the BB with Ax suited and it gets limped to you, you flop A X X with two to your suit, then you can chase smaller raises from aces that are likely weak (they limped and are betting low) but stronger than yours because of the additional nut flush outs. If you're in the BB with a weak ace and hit top pair/weak kicker, don't get too invested in the pot. Put out a small probe bet, and use the information it gives you to either follow through with your hand or get away from it.

[salty]

They are totally different animals,Im assuming its a No Lim tourney coz I have not played Limit tourneys live.

I tried to discuss tells here the other day and Ive mentioned them in replys to threads and im starting to Bore myself with it but I think if you never played a tourney before you should start with good habits so here goes again (in short)

Dont look at your cards till the action arrives to you.

Look at the people infront of you while they are checking THEYRE cards.

Dont limp late on in tourneys raise or fold.

Look for player types,loud LAGs,old guys who just play good hands,guys with arms folded ie:patiently waiting for good ammo etc.

People who look at theyre cards and sit in to the table (rather than slouching) or straighten up in their seat are about to come into the hand/action with a good hand.

Watch how people protect theyre cards youll be able to figure the strength of theyre hands after a while.guys using good luck charms can give away info by how quickly they protect theyre cards when they have looked at them.

Listen to what others say when they are talking about cards,its funny how many people will tell you what hands they love or weird hands they like to call,A Guy told me T3 was his lucky hand....how do you find that one out.

LAGS try to intimidate with chips,body language and other silly stuff,one guy i play the closer his chips land to me when he tries to splash the pot means hes bluffing.0-12 inches hes got a hand 12 inches + hes bluffing.Watch guys who when they bet sit bolt upright and broaden theyre chest,theyre bluffing.

If you start playing the player and your cards youll get better quicker,follow some of those and learn others and youll be holding your own real soon.