How do you manage/pace a tourney?

[justT]

See, even Johnny Chan couldn't recover from the dreaded flat line <g>

But seriously, I appreciate the dissenting opinion, it give me the opportunity to re-evaluate.

I come from the slow side of the tracks, so anything that causes me to play a bit faster is probably an improvement. I don’t have a rule that I have to accumulate chips every 3 orbits, it’s more a warning sign. If I go 3 orbits with no action other than surrendering my blinds, I might be card dead OR I might have slipped back into being too selective.

I know I need to constantly be looking for situations to accumulate chips. In the past, a good situation meant good cards, now my game has “evolved” somewhat. When I flat line, I start looking (or maybe look harder) for situations where the cards aren’t as important. Johnny Chan looks for situations, then goes into survival mode and looks for good cards. One of us has the order reversed.

I'm obviously still working on figuring this game out, thanks again for the feedback.

[justT]

cool, I hope it helps!

[MicroBob]

yeah. i definitely think what perspective you are coming from is important.

if you already know that you are generally too passive then I think trying to find some kind of signals that you should kick your ass in gear might be a good thing.


I'm coming from the opposite direction...I can be too fast sometimes and need to find ways to slow myself down.
Other times I'm completely paranoid of taking chances and make folds when I probably shouldn't.
It's a tough balance obviously.

When I'm fast:ERVERY time I have something half-decent in the CO or button doesn't HAVE to be a steal. My opponents will get wise to it and will not respect my steals as much (which I can obviously take advantage of when I get KK or something of course).

[pfkaok]

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Then again, I played against Chip Jett and Huck Seed in a couple of other events and their fast-play ability to accumulate lots and lots of chips was something to behold.


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yeah, this is the approach that i've been trying to emulate latel, and it seems more effective, and WAAY more fun, especially in live play. its so much more fun to go in there with the attitude of "i want every chip on this table"... especially when it works. sure you run into hands and bust out early sometimes, but most people, esp in live play are very reluctant to call a 2/3-3/4 potsized bet on the flop without top pair or better if they expect you to put them allin on the turn. most people simply don't like to gamble a lot, and thats so easy to exploit. the last few live tourney's i've played in, i've been able to double-triple my stack in the first round or two without ever showing a hand. usually thats about the point where people realize that unlike them, you don't need top pair to bet on the flop. in live games its pretty easy to tell when you hit this point, and VERY few people notice when you actually shift gears. mostly they remember that you've been raising alot preflop, and betting almost every flop, so you're full of XXXX. then if you start seeing cheap flops with anything decent, or even not very good hands in position, its SOOO easy to get paid off if you flop strong. if you're lucky enough to flop very good hands, then alot of times you can get paid off by Ahigh hands after you push allin on the flop. its pretty amazing sometimes. when you can tell they're pissed at you, and they finally put in a raise on your flop bet, its nice to be able to push in with top pair knowing that they'll call even if they have Ahihg b/c they "know you're full of XXXX". its funny too, b/c a lot of times i lost big chunks of my stack by limping from LP, having a blind make a small raise, i hit good on the flop, and he bets into me and calls my push with Ahigh drawing to the overcard. then i get a really good chuckle when after they suck out the guy acts like he outplayed me and tells me thats what i deserve for playing those crappy hands. there's something very enjoyable to me about having my play insulted by somebody after they just sucked out.

of course i'm still very new to this style so i'm working out a lot of the kinks and balancing, but it seems to be working fairly well. its so hard to tell b/c of all the hidden luck in the game, but i sure know that i've been doubling or tripling my stack a whole lot more often without having to win some huge allin hands early on... and needless to say i've had very little trouble getting my big hands paid off when i do pick them up.