TV qualifier help needed

[sunek]

Hi

I have a mission. A television company in my home country is launching a series of TV poker tournaments during this month. I want a seat. There are still about 15 seats available. To get a set you will have to win an MMT and only the winner of each tournament will win a seat the rest gets nothing.

There are about 70 players each time and I am in the better half of the field but probably not in the top 10 of best players. I have played 3 qualifiers until now and my positions have been 5, 12 and 24.

Each player starts with 3.000 in chips and the time for each blind level are 15 minutes. The blind start out very softly and develops something like this:

10/20, 15/30, 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 100/200/25, 150/300/25, 200/400/50…. 2000/4000/200

I usually do fine the first 4 levels. The times I have played I have doubled or tripled when the blinds reached 75/150. The strategy for the first 2-3 levels is pretty simple: play any hand with potential if it can be done cheaply (suited connecters and small pairs) and play high pairs and hands like AKo, and AQs the Dan Harrington way. When your hands hit, play them hard and make traps with our monsters. It usually only takes about 2 good hands to double or triple you stack since there are many players in each hand and the game is very aggressive.

The problems arise when the blind level increases to around 200/400/50. At this point there will be about 20-25 players left many with relatively short stacks (1500-2500) who will go all in all the time as an attempt to steal blinds and calling these players can make you or break you since some goes all in with 75o and others with pocket aces. At the same time there will be a few huge stack at the size of 30 K who steals blinds all the time as well since the know the can put most other out of business in one hand.

And now for the question: are there certain strategies you can use in these “the winner takes it all” tournaments? It is obvious that a high level of aggression is needed through out the whole tournament. You should not play marginal hands like K9o unless your stack is running short.

Is there any way of avoiding that a tournament turns in to a lottery when the field is down to only a few players?

Best regards

sunek

P.S. I have read both Dan Harringtons books.

[Roman]

play poker.

[sunek]

Hi

The approach here is not the same as "normal" MTTs where the top 10 % of all players are rewarded.

I can see you have posted almost 2000 postings – it must be really hard to create that many serious posts like the fantastic one above. I guess you must be some kind of poker genius – maybe even a new Sklansky. You are sharp as a razor you must indeed be a winning player.

Thank you for your very fine answer it is nice to see that some of the user of this forum takes other players posts serious and takes time to think about them and give a good solid answer like the one you gave me.

Maybe you should even write a book if you have not written one all ready.

Once again thank you for your extremely good answer. I am looking forward to read through the rest of your 2000 postings – I hope they are as spectacular as the one above.

Best regards

sunek

[37offsuit]

Nice reply to the nit. These sorts of tournaments will always be somewhat of a crap shoot because, as you've said, there is nothing for second place. I would look to isolate the weaker players. Figure out who is pushing with 75o and who's pushing with AA, as you said. You really need to pay attention in these things because in order to place first, you can't just wait for big hands, you have to find all the big situations where you can push people off their hands. That means controlling the pot size so that your opponents aren't always feeling compelled to call with marginal hands. You'll definately need some luck, but if you play selectively over aggressive, I think you can build up enough of a stack to gamble in the right spots. Obviously, stay away from the bigger stacks until you have a legitimate hand and see as many cheap flops as possible. Personally in this structure, I look to trap the big stacks and push the smaller stacks hard. Every stollen pot and double up you can get throughout the tourny will be what you need to win it. Even then, when you get down to the last few people, it's a lot about luck. I'd say if you make it to the final 5, step up the aggression even more. These players are looking to win and might tighten up a bit. Even then, look to pick on the smaller stacks who might be waiting for a big hand to make a stand. If you attack a small stack with a weaker hand (say suited 1 gap) and they finally make their stand, call them with the worst of it if you've gotten enough chips from stealing. You can take some short odds late if it means acquiring enough chips to win, but you've got to get to that point first. Always, always remind yourself, you must be aggressive against anyone who can't break you and even those who can when the time seems right.

[sunek]

Hi

Thank you that really sound like a sound advice (no irony this time [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]). Yesterday I started making notes on each of the players since many plays these tournaments day after day. So over a few days I should be able to spot some of the weak players and milk them like you suggests.

Regards

sunek