TOP Re-Read Ch's 1-4

[Copernicus]

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When I played the 800 chip tourneys I was uber tight early. In the 1000's i'm a bit looser early on. Well if I am interpreting chapter 4 properly, sklansky is saying that this is not wise. In fact that I should be playing TIGHTER early on in the 1000 chip tourneys than in the 800 chip tourneys.

To recap the chapter, the higher the ante's (defind as ante's + blinds) the more hands you should play due to increased pot odds. The lower the ante's the fewer hands/tighter you should play due to the low pot odds.

There is a claue that you want to take advantage of bad play in low ante games so play more due to this, but if anything the 1000 chip games have FEWER bad players.


So what gives? Is this a clear place where SNG structure and TOP do not line up? Are those of us opening up early making a mistake?

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He is talking about cash games, not tourneys in TOP. In the context of a small stack tournament there are conflicting influences. The lower stack/ante ratio would make your standards to enter the pot looser (ie you are starting with lower M), increasing blinds would make you more LAG, but lose one significant hand and you are way behind the rest of the pack and jeopardizes survival.

What is the most important of those influences? Since everyone faces the same constraints, survival should win out. That leads you to think in terms of the Gap Concept.

If we want to play looser and more aggressive, but still recognize survival, the conclusion would be to lower your raising standards.

What about calling standards? If everyone is lowering their raising standards shouldnt everyone be able to maintain a similar gap and lower their calling standards as well.

I think the answer is no, because if the entire table is leaning more toward LAG, your best style is to let them gun it out, and survive for your best hands.

I dont see any inconsistency with TOP.

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I think the answer is no, because if the entire table is leaning more toward LAG, your best style is to let them gun it out, and survive for your best hands.


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I think that this is even more true when the table is a bunch of TAGs.

One thing to realize is the changing nature of the game. It seems that the large % of good players will go from being TAGs to LAGs as the game progresses. Therefore, if you are going to go up against a TAG with anything other than a very premium hand, one of two things is going to happen, one you steal, or two you get called, in which case you are likely going to be behind.

In the 800 chip Party SnG, your starting stack doesn't have enough girth to withstand more than one or two failed bluff attempts. Also with a full ring of people the chances that someone has a good hand are much high against 10 players in levels 1 and 2 than at levels 5 or 6 with 5 players. Therefore, for that reason alone your bluffs are better left for later, also the risk / reward is much greater due to the bigger blinds, and lastly that as you get closer to the bubble players will tighten up a lot to a raise, so there is more fold equity.

Based on this I do think that the TAG style is correct for early on if the game is full of LAG or TAG. The only time that it would not be (imho) is when the game is full of loose passive opponents who will lay down to a flop or turn raise with anything less than top pair....pretty rare, and becoming increasingly rare as time goes on.

Margon