CORRECT STRATEGY FOR UNIQUE STRUCTURE???

[DcifrThs]

I would like to ask those interested about what they think correct strategy would be for the following tournament.

Home game, $25 buy in 9 players. Stated 70% first place 30% 2nd place but usually deals get made somehow or 3rd player gets like $20 back. start with $2500 in chips and blinds go for 20 minute rounds and increase as follows: 10/20, 20/40, 30/60, 40/80, 50/100, 100/200, 150/300, 200/400 and on and on until tourney is done. I stated privately to tourney leader that maybe the later blinds should increase faster b/c then the last few people left wouldn't be correct to play soooo tight that boredom usually causes one of the last two to make errors (i'm not joking, my first tourney thats what i saw).

anyway, I think that with such slow blinds increase its probably a good idea to play to get in cheap with hands that can make big hands and play in a fast mode in the beginning to amass a nice chip lead. $22,500 total. a nice lead would be to have about $10,000. then blinds are not an issue and you can run over small stacks since those stacks' chips are worth more to them than yours are to you. but even then, why risk losing chips to those small stacks when you can limp into the money after having such a big chip lead. my question is this: would it be correct to be in a survival mode LONGER than what would normally be correct if the blinds were increasing at a faster rate???

if so, then fast play to amass chips into a long survival mode is probably the best way to maximize $$.

Skill level of players varies. seems to be a husband and wife couple who play well but some guys ask if you can concentrate the whole time because they "zone out" and don't know what is going on sometimes (i couldn't make that up if i tried)

comments?
-Barron

[CrisBrown]

Hi Decypher,

I think you'll find these blinds will play faster than you realize. Twenty minutes passes quickly at a 9-player table in a face-to-face game. You may well see the blinds going up in less than one full orbit of the table.

Given that, the players may feel pressured and play a little faster and looser, so you may be better off sitting tight and waiting for the big hands or premium openings to get involved. You start with a big enough stack that you can certainly afford to sit tight for a couple of orbits, using the time to study your opponents and how they play.

And if most of the players are weaker than you, the ultra-tight strategy also helps because you gain $EV everytime one of them knocks another out.

Once the field begins to thin, and it may sooner than you expect, you'll have more opportunities to "make plays."

Cris

[DcifrThs]

Thank you very much cris. The reason i asked is because i KNOW (and knew after the hand) i played a hand way wrong based on chip positions, blind structure, and relative stacks. Of course it was aces. I had em utg in the middle of the tourney, maybe 40/80 or 50/100 blinds and i had 10,500 chips, by far the chip leader after stealing a big pot from a player i knew had a better hand than i but was scared of the flush when it came in on the river. he bet something that amounted to a post oak bluff and i moved in on him knowing hed fold...he thought for a few seconds and folded. anyway, utg i open for 300 chips, 3x or 3.66x the bb. middle calling station calls and tricky button player calls (luca is his name and he's the guy that "zones out" sometimes but he definately is unpredicable at times and had a decent sized stack) and blinds call(which was surprising). flop comes t 6 3 i bet out 500 into 1500 pot (mistake?- should i bet more? less? i think i should have bet more and ill say why in a sec) and luca raises it to 1000 so its 500 more to me, $3000 pot and 500 to call. at this point i thought he had a ten (a hand he has shown he'll call all in with and or move all in with) or a 6, or less likely t6, 63, tt, 66, or 33. after he raised 500 i moved in nobody else was in the hand after his raise and he called(here it was clearly a mistake i think b/c he'd only call if he had one of the less likely hands, turns out it was 33 and i lost a large portion of my nice sized stack).

I think i made two pretty serious mistakes. 1) betting small (3-4 times bb) to open b/c this is the type of hand to lose a lot with and im not in fast mode, or i shouldn't have been, at that point so i should have been happy with just the blinds, send it, next hand thank you very much. 2) on the flop betting 500 into 1500 allowed him to raise me a small amount and get my stack. had i bet 1500 i may have been able to save $$ when he moved in, which is i'm sure what he would have done faced with that size bet and if he did i think i had a clear fold b/c of my stack size. i would have lost 1800 out of my stack but still had just under 9000. instead i bet small, he raised and i moved in and ended up with under 5000, which wasn't very good.

i still just don't like the way i played that. anyway i went on to be knocked out just out of the money when a long shot draw came in.

comments? lemme know what i could have done differntly.

NEXT QUESTION: what about a structure like this one: same 9 people (or same pool of people from which 9 will be chosen) but this time its on a wed night at 730 so only $1500 chips to start. same blind structure but it moves up as follows: 10/20 goes for TWO FULL ORBITS, as does 20/40. after that its one orbit and blinds increase! now the speed at which the blinds increase is directly related to the # of players. i think that should require a bit faster play in the beginning since if a few people get knocked out after the 20/40 rounds i'd be looking at a risky situation unless i had a bunch of chips which is why i should probably play faster than the 2500 tourney chip situation.

comments?
thanks a lot
-Barron