Strategy help... very quick blind schedule.

[msb]

Hello, all.

We have a tournament poker league in our city (perhaps you've heard of it World Tavern Poker?). There are multiple, multi-table tournaments a week and you accumulate points based on your finish position.

Anyway, I need help adjusting my strategy for a relatively odd structure. Here's the particulars...

<ul type="square">[*]No buy-in (that's right... you accumulate points for finishing in the top-20 of any tournament. The more players in the tourney, the more points)[*]Average tournament has about 50-70 players.[*]You start with T5000 and blinds go up every 20-25 minutes.[*]Blind structure is very aggressive:
Round 1: 100-200
Round 2: 200-400
Round 3: 400-800
-- Break and color-up --
Round 5: 500-1000
Round 6: 1000-2000
Round 7: 2000-4000
Round 8: 4000-8000
Round 9: 5000-10000
Round 10: 10000-20000
etc...[*]Everyone deals their own... play can sometimes be very slow (as a matter of fact, last night, the blinds were already in Round 3 before the third orbit of the deal!)[/list]
So, there you go. I'm looking for some strategy thought on how to beat this game. If you play too tight, you will get blinded out rather quickly. If you play too loose, you will get plenty of loose calls 'cause people arent playing with their own money.

Don't get me wrong... there are some very good players, but I'd bet only about 1/3 are better than average.

Thought?

[elmitchbo]

it's a strange stituation. a pub where i play freebie tournaments does the same thing. basically, i've decided not to change anything. i just play my normal game. if you play tight, then other loose players will be blinded out faster than you. once you get some of the field eliminated, it's easier to play a little looser if you're short stacked at that point.

as tempting as it might seem, i don't think playing loose early on is the answer.