Odd Tournament Structure: Strategy Help!!!!

[Doctor Jay]

Thanks in advance to anyone who puts some thought into strategy for this tournament. I have some of my own thoughts, but would love to get some input.

This is a local live NL Hold'em tournament that I was invited to by a friend. I will tell you at what point I realized what was going to happen below (I know I should have asked more questions)

50$ buy in, 24 players. We started with three tables, 8 players at each. We each had about 3500 in chips. Blinds started at 10/20 and doubled every 30 minutes. After two hours, the top three chip leaders at each table go to the final table, everyone else is out. Blinds back down to 40/80 at that point then continue to double every 30 minutes. Two hours of final table play, then only the top three chip leaders are in the money. I did not realize this until 30 minutes prior to the end. As you might imagine, the big stacks protect their lead and the shorter stacks are panicking by the end.

The players were all loose-passive, with few preflop raises and a lot of calling stations. Luckily, I snuck into the 3rd chip position by 30 tourney chips. I had over 18,000 in chips and the 4th place guy sure was pissed (as I would be).

Sorry for the long post, and thanks again for the advice.

DJ

[lil_o]

I guess the best strategy for this format is try and see a lot of flops early in the tourney exploiting the low blinds and passive players. Hopefully you can hit a monster and
double up to cruise into the final table.

If you become shortstacked then I would become uber aggressive during the 4th level since the big stacks will want to protect there top-3 standings and hopefully you can make some moves/pick up a lot of blinds (80/160) to get in 3rd.

This may be a very interesting format, but it really doesn't allow you to sit like a rock and get blinded away. Gotta make moves early and fast. Good luck.

[storm]

I have a buddy that ran a game with the same format. I do not play it. This is a horrable structure. Befor the table merge there is no good reason for someone with chips to play any hand. visa versa when short of top 3 before merge players must play any hands as they can not advance without more chips. If there is 10 minutes of play and you are in 5'th at your table you can not wait for a hand you must throw chips in blind and hope for the best. I suggested they reformat but just never went back.

[wegs the wegs]

Best strategy? Don't play. The structure is horrible