STEP tourney strategy

[Jman28]

I posted this in the MTT forum too:

Obviously you have to adjust your strategy due to the payout structure, but exactly how?

I played in 2 so far (top 4 both times btw), and I found weird adjustments being made by the other players.

The main thing is, you don't want to play many hands toward the end because 1st is no better than 4th (or 6 or 8 depending on level).

So, people are playing extra tight. Therefore, the blinds are easy to steal, but by attempting this, your risking your chips which you don't want to do.

Of course it matters a lot what size stack you have and others too.

I'm thinking this is an example of the GAP concept with the gap being extra wide. I'm a right?

-Jman28

[ChrisV]

I haven't played one yet but I assume the bubble will be even more a case of avoiding the big stack and bullying the short stack. The big stack will have life and death power over the other players and they have even less to gain from making a stand - if they double up it doesn't benefit them that much.

[Jman28]

but since the big stack has little to gain from winning more chips, and therefore should want to sit out more hands, why not bully the big stack?

[ChrisV]

For the same reason you normally can't bully a big stack, only more so. The big stack has far less to lose from going allin than you do.

The other strategy adjustment I can see is that on the bubble, when a player is allin, checking it down is ALWAYS correct.

[WarDekar]

If (when?) people start doing that, though, what do you think the consequences of that will be? If you still know you have the best hand, you'll bet, right? Brings another element in...

[Jman28]

I feel like tourneys which offer multiple spots the same prize like this are extremely advantageous to good players. When 6 spots get top prize, and there are 10 fish out of the 20 players, it's usually one fish and 9 of the better players at the final table, unlike SnGs where the top 4 could all be total fish who were lucky. This format takes longer and weeds out the worse players IMO.

This means you make a lot more than your share of top 10s, and then you are 60% to get the top prize (assuming average chip stack).

[Paragon]

Sorry for an offtopic/joke post, thought I'd share for entertainment value. Amidst some late night studying I had a Party Steps #4 game in the background where Gigabet and ZeeJustin were playing... Once the bubble finally burst, there was an interesting hand in the all-in frenzy of celebration.

Royal Flush for everyone...

[ZeeJustin]

Yes, the gap is HUGE. You can enter with trash, but you can't even call with monsters a lot of the time.

You certainly shouldn't be flipping many coins or taking risks for all your chips at any point in the tourney. Avoid hands like AQo early on that may be +ev, but result in you losing your stack too often. Small pocket pairs don't change much in value since you rarely lose your stack with them.

I could be wrong about some of these points, but I think I have a good feel for adjustments for satellite structures.

[ethan]

[ QUOTE ]

Royal Flush for everyone...

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea, I was watching that one too. Odds against a royal coming on the board are around 650,000:1.

[PBaek]

Just out of curiosity. Can you stop at any of these steps or do you have to go on until the end. I mean if I get to step 4 and would rather have the $ for instance?

Regards, Peter.