Beginner Question about tournaments

The more I learn about poker from books and this site ... and the more I think about my lifestyle / alloted poker time ... I'm starting to realize that I may have to "specialize" in tournaments for now. (My first kid is due in about 2 months, and I'm not going to sacrifice too much family time to play poker. Those darn priorities!!!)

While I plan on spending as much time as possible building a bankroll from low limits, it seems to me that the ever popular SNG's may be the best way for me to increase my poker knowledge and skills. Smaller MTT's have an attraction to me also. Anything to hone my skills and apply the 2+2 strategies.

I've checked with the Tournament forums and found the most recommended books to read (TOP, HOHE, TPFAP). Most of the other advice is very specific/advanced.

What order should I approach books in? (I do have GSIH, WLLHE, and SSH. I'm <u>studying</u> IN DETAIL the two 2+2 books) How much table/cash game time will help with tournament play? Which sites are best for online tournaments for a newer player? What am I forgetting to ask?

Any other advice is welcome as I know enough to know that there are important questions I'm not asking. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Thanks in advance for all your help!

[Allinlife]

hello card cheat

STAY THE EFF away from MTTs.. they are very high in variance / skill factor matters least out of all types of cashgame/tournaements. you won't make good progress with it.

I strongly recommend you to play NL HE. it's the easiest to learn IMO, has lower variance than limit, and as you progress as a poker player, you will have hard time learning to play "real poker" if you only play tournaments where most of the game is played preflop, due to average stacks being very shallow (10~20bb in comparison to 100bb+ deep in cashgames)

get Bob Ciaffone's NL/PL book for solid and practical NL foundation, Get Theory of poker as it will explain the 'game theory' part of poker, so you can understand why it is correct to make a certain move, and get inside the poker mind to help you understand variance, psycology and dicipline of poker. with those 3 books + posting /reading in SSNL forums, you should be set.

gl (stay away from mtts)

[deacsoft]

Fpr family time I would suggest going the other way and just playing ring (cash) games. You could still jump into the occasional MTT if you want. The reason being that a ring game ins't going to chain you to the computer. MTTs can take hours. Your wife/girlfriend isn't goin to want to here "hold on, honey, the tournament is on break in 28mins &amp; 26seconds" if she needs help with something. With ring games you can get up whenever you want.

For building a bankroll MTTs are a good way to do it fast, but that's only if you're winning and finishing high in the money. That, obviously, isn't going to happen all the time. As my esteemed collegue pointed out in the above post, the variance is crazy high. SNGs generally won't take nearly as much time as a MTT but unless you're finishing in the money around 40%+ of the time the bankroll isn't going to move too fast and your risk of ruin is not as high as MTTs but is still much higher than ring games. You're mich better off sticking to the lower limit ring games for building your bankroll. You may aslo want to consider doing some bonus whoring.

For books on NL, TOP (the best overall poker book there is and a must read for any poker player), HOH, and TPFAP are good ones to get you going. That list could aslo include HOH2, Kill Phil, Phil Gordon's Little Green Book, and NL and PL by Ruben and Ciaffone. I can't stress enough how important TOP is to any poker player.

As far as sites go... I'd stick to Party Poker or Poker Stars for now.

Hey, thanks for all the great advice.

I'm trying to feel my way into the world of poker conservatively and appreciate all the help.

You may also want to consider using "training" software (eg Poker Academy" as a "top-up" to your online play. I use PA to supplement my online experience, for the simple fact you can get through MANY hands really quickly.

Like you, I will be a father(in about 6 months) so I know time is going to be limited. Consequently I'm looking for a balance between quality and quantity (in hands that is!)

Regards,
Ian

I have a two year old daughter so here's my two cents. SNG's and MTT's are lots of fun for some people but they don't work well with babies/toddlers. You are unable to put these things on hold if the baby wakes up when you are playing at night after the family goes to bed (that is when I get the majority of my playing in). It sucks to be big stack in a SNG only to hear a crying baby with a dirty diaper. Then to weigh whether playing your kings is as important as attending to her, after all, its only one more minute. I don't begrudge anyone that needs to play that hand and then gets her, but I think of how much I'd hate to crap myself and then deal with it. Ring games on the other hand provide a lot of flexibility in that you can always sit out/leave until you are able to play again.

[archcity]

I prefer playing SNGs also because that is what I play at home games and it has really helped my live game.

But the previous poster makes an excellent point. If I was in your position I would also be switching to NL ring games for this exact reason.