The best approach for this local tournament structure?

[Marc Desjardins]

I just found out that a local bar is holding a weekly NL hold'em tournament. I went there for the first time last week. The structure is not great.

You start with 3500 in chips for 20$. For the first hour, the blinds are 50-100 and then they double every half hour after that. Rebuys are allowed in the first hour, but they are not regular rebuy, you can only rebuy if you are bellow 3000 chips and for 20$, they will get you back to 3000, so let's say you have 500 left, you rebuy and you get 2500 chips. If you are broke, the same 20$ will get you 3000 chips.

The competion seemed pretty weak, with a few people not even understanding the blinds and how the betting worked. I had one very aggressive player at my table, but the other were mostly calling stations, if they have money in the pot, they will call any raise and they will call any bet if they caught anything on the flop.

But with the blinds doubling every half hour, it quickly becomes a crapshoot. We started with 52 players and after the rebuy period was over, they announced a 1300$ prize pool, so it means that there was only 13 rebuy. I didn't get many hands during the first hour, I managed to double my stack up to about 7k while playing only 2 hands in the first hour. But with 4 tables left (about 28 players) and blinds of 400-800, I had only 6k left, I caught a pair of 99 in middle position, but people were pretty tight, so I decided not to go all-in but I raised to 3k, stupid move, I know... I got one caller, the aggressive guy, so I decided that I would try and check-raise him all in after the flop, whatever came. An ace fell and turns out he had AQ, so I was eliminated. He had a big stack so I'm pretty sure he would have called my all-in anyway, but I felt bad about not having the guts to pull the trigger and go all-in anyway, with 7.5BB and already 1200 in the pot with the blinds...

So anyway, what do you guys think of that structure, is it worth playing? How should I handle the rebuy? Should I use them at all?

Thanks for any feedback you might have

[yoadrians]

[ QUOTE ]
I just found out that a local bar is holding a weekly NL hold'em tournament. I went there for the first time last week. The structure is not great.

You start with 3500 in chips for 20$. For the first hour, the blinds are 50-100 and then they double every half hour after that. Rebuys are allowed in the first hour, but they are not regular rebuy, you can only rebuy if you are bellow 3000 chips and for 20$, they will get you back to 3000, so let's say you have 500 left, you rebuy and you get 2500 chips. If you are broke, the same 20$ will get you 3000 chips.

The competion seemed pretty weak, with a few people not even understanding the blinds and how the betting worked. I had one very aggressive player at my table, but the other were mostly calling stations, if they have money in the pot, they will call any raise and they will call any bet if they caught anything on the flop.

But with the blinds doubling every half hour, it quickly becomes a crapshoot. We started with 52 players and after the rebuy period was over, they announced a 1300$ prize pool, so it means that there was only 13 rebuy. I didn't get many hands during the first hour, I managed to double my stack up to about 7k while playing only 2 hands in the first hour. But with 4 tables left (about 28 players) and blinds of 400-800, I had only 6k left, I caught a pair of 99 in middle position, but people were pretty tight, so I decided not to go all-in but I raised to 3k, stupid move, I know... I got one caller, the aggressive guy, so I decided that I would try and check-raise him all in after the flop, whatever came. An ace fell and turns out he had AQ, so I was eliminated. He had a big stack so I'm pretty sure he would have called my all-in anyway, but I felt bad about not having the guts to pull the trigger and go all-in anyway, with 7.5BB and already 1200 in the pot with the blinds...

So anyway, what do you guys think of that structure, is it worth playing? How should I handle the rebuy? Should I use them at all?

Thanks for any feedback you might have

[/ QUOTE ]

For a 'bar' tournament, this doesn't seem that bad at all. You start with 30 BBs and unchanging blinds in the first hour. While I'd rather start a bit deeper, this is fun. Time to accumulate chips ... perhaps even play push-or-fold because of the rebuys.

After the rebuy period, sure, it becomes a crapshoot. But hey. It's at a bar. It sounds like a fun way to bleed through about $60 bucks and drink some beer to me.

I'd play it every single week if I could ... and the advantage that you have is that you know when to be aggressive (please don't just raise '99' next time, though :, and you can just PUNISH the limpers in a bar tournament like this. Don't get too cute with your game, and have fun.

[Exitonly]

Did you have a good time?

If so, then yea it's worth playing.

It's not the most profitable structure, and you probably should avoid rebuying unless it gets real ugly, but if you're a good player it'll still be profitable.

[yoadrians]

[ QUOTE ]
Did you have a good time?

If so, then yea it's worth playing.

It's not the most profitable structure, and you probably should avoid rebuying unless it gets real ugly, but if you're a good player it'll still be profitable.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's why, again, I'd advocate playing push-or-fold during the first hour. You'll punish the limpers, and when you lose a hand, you'll NEED to rebuy.

FWIW, I wouldn't rebuy here unless I busted. So, if you lose a big hand, I'd just keep pushing until you either get back to 3K in chips or bust ... so you can get the full value of your rebuy.

I really do think I'd be open pushing ANY real hand you get in the first hour, though, if you can afford to. Kind of like the first hour of a $3R or $11R on Stars. Either steal the blinds, double up, or, at worse, rebuy ... and start the game again [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]