Crappy Structure, but its gonna have to do for now

[FrontonPoker]

im in miami, florida, and while yes, we have better tourney up north at seminole and hardrock, i cant get there very often, maybe once or twice a week... during the week, there are daily tourneys at a dog track.. i explained the structure earlier but here goes:
buy in $45
final 9 get paid (usually, sometimes its less)
blinds start at 50/100, go up every 15 minutes
100/200
150/300 (sometimes this level is skipped)
200/400
300/600
400/800 and 100 ante
what is the best approach here.. you cant sit and wait for the "premium suited hands" or pairs.. currently, ive been "semi aggresive" in the early rounds, playing pairs, Ax suited, A anything 8 or above off suit, and K anything 9 or above suited, and suited connectors, 7 and up... as the blinds go up, my starting requeirements tighten up..more often then not, ive been reaching the point where we are down to three tables.. had a few money finishes, but no 1st places.. i keep getting blinded out, my stack dwindles to the point that i have to go all in on a hand i rather not.. am i wrong by tightening up at the end? again, i know its a crappy structure, but locally, one casino has "rebuy tourneys" and the rest of the indian casinos are a bit further north and doesnt allow me to go as much as id like.. thanks

[Maulik]

I reccomend reading all the poker tournament literature you can find.

[Runner Runner]

There is a lot of luck involved in a fast structured tournament like this. If I am guessing correctly, the blinds move up so fast in this tournament that there are a lot of people who are shortstacked and feeling the pressure of the quickly escalating blinds. When you are shortstacked, you have to really pick your spots and it's now push or fold poker. Stealing the blinds becomes of grave importance.

So yes you have to loosen up because you cannot afford to get blinded down. But having set starting hand requirements isn't what's important. What's important is the likelihood that you will pick up the blinds uncalled. Factors to consider are (A) your position (B) the tightness of players in the blinds and (C) how many BB's you have.

In a fast moving structure, you are going to have to occaisionally push with junk. You don't want to EVER blind yourself down to less then 4BB's cause you will lose all your fold equity. You don't have time to wait for a premium hand, so look for spots where you can pick up chips uncalled, and if you do get called maybe you will get lucky.

In a fast tournament like the one you described, I still play a tight aggressive game, and I don't necessarily want to spew chips away by loosening up early, although I will limp in with stuff like Ax suited and pairs if I don't think there will be a raise and the limp is for less then 5% of my stack. I think your focus early should be getting your chips in with the best of it, and your focus late should be stealing blinds and winning chips without confrontations.

Good luck and remember that the luck factor in this type of tournament is huge.