Q. How should I play in the first hour of a low buy-in tournament?
Things to do:
1. When the blinds are low, and there isn't a lot of raising pre-flop, limp along with hands that can flop monsters. These usually include any pocket pair or suited connectors. However, remember
why you are in the hand. You are not limping with JTs to play a ten-high flop with your jack kicker. You are playing this hand for two-pair or better, and if you don't have it, don't get involved.
2. Play your big hands very fast, especially pre-flop. The low buy-in crowd just HATES to fold pre-flop, so get their chips in early.
Things not to do:
1. Bluff. In the first hour of a typical tournament, your folding equity can be pretty close to zero. Your typical fish is not going to fold his top pair, no matter what the kicker, so don't represent trips or the overpair. The simple fact is that you are probably going to have to show-down a winner.
2. Worry that your stack is a bit below average. The $15+1 Party tournaments lose half their field in the first hour, which means that the average stack has doubled to t2000. If you've been card dead, don't panic just yet. The number that matters is the ratio of the blinds to your stack, not the size of other stacks. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and there's no prize for being chip leader at the end of the first hour.
Q. How should I play with a big stack?
A. Read this
thread.
Q. What are the key posts/threads that I should read?
A. Everything by
Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, eMarkM's
classic post, and Pokerneal's
gem.
Q. What does it mean to pwn limpers, and how can I do it?
A. Sossman and others explain the world of pwning
here.