Early live tournament strategy

[pleno1]

Hey,

Itt can we discuss thoughts on early live deep stack tournament strategy?

I don't really have much to say or contribute initially, I have mixed both rocky and splashy styles with varied success in both.

Looking forward to some replies.

[TL900]

seeing flops FTW

[sm00035]

seeing rivers FTW

[pleno1]

thoguht i was gonna get a big sammy mac strat post on how to be chip leader in tournaments.

[sm00035]

lol. Have actually talked about this before with some people. My views have changed a fair amount still then, but I still think some are still true.

Most tournaments these days you are going to start 250-300bb deep. A lot of people play so tight at the early stages, or miss them all together but is this actually the right strategy?

I think you can actually make it very hard for an opponent to win a pot with AA/KK etc when 200+ bb deep. If therefore some opens, you 3bet, now you get 4bet a lot of people are exclusively polarised to AA/KK. If playing say 250bb deep, can an arguement not be made for peeling such a wide range? It is very hard for them to call off 200+bb on most flop/turn/rivers unless hit a set or get certain board runouts. Especially now, when people bet so small there is SO much room for maneuverability through the streets. Obviously I am not saying to go banannas at the start of a comp but and start 3/4 betting every hand, but may be an argument can be made for say 3bet calling pre a lot wider range (esp in pos)?

Obviously it can be quite hard to pay £10k for an event, or be backed into it and then do your stack peeling a 4bet pre with 56, calling a J96 board, bet/raising a 4 turn then shoving an 8 river. Also, it's hard to look back at tournaments where you have bust out with no pair no draw after making the 'strongest' of plays and been called down. But likewise a lot of your opponents are going to be thinking this. How many fish want to bust within 1 hour of a EPT and tell there mates 'well i had AA and 4bet some young kid then bet, bet called, check called a QJ759 board.....In a vacuum it sounds pretty terrible to bust with 1 pair on a board like that.

OOP, is where most 4betting will be from, can make some very difficult situations arise. Your oppenent will find it hard to predict what you are going to tdo and you will have a good idea of where you are at at every point in the hand, which is pretty much a disaster for you opponent in NLH when playing this deepstacked.
 
If you look at what hands people check turn and/or river with, often they are checking to try and control pot. If in position, it is then possible to manipulate the pot size so that a river shove is near impossible to call. Like I said, it is very hard/rare to hear of someone busting early on in big-buyin comps with just 1 pair. It's hard enough on dry boards, let alone straightening/flushing/paired boards etc. Not to mention there is always a chance you can hit 2 pair after peeling a 4bet with J3s !!

All being said, it's sooo important to profile your opponent, especially if your going to be attacking top of someones range. No point ^^ if it's against someone who is happy to bust and say 'had AA and got outdrawn'

[sm00035]

I'm more talking about attacking the worse players on table in ^^ btw

[cambridgealex]

never too early to get busy

[Rupert]

tight but aggressive, that's your style professor

[pleno1]

So not trying to play multi way pots passively pre

[Rupert]

ya I mean I wouldn't be trying to get people to fold aces but you can take some flops, develop some reads etc. Don't try and win the tourney in level 1!

[pleno1]

level 1,

ep opens, mp calls, we're otb whats very worst hand we want to see a flop with?

[Rupert]

Assuming some sort of deepstack structure... can't really go too wrong with suited hands more connected the better, I'd call most OS broadway and maybe some connectors. Weakest offsuit ace probably AJ.

[cambridgealex]

I'm peeling as low as 45s here, JTo, AJo, all suited aces and T7s+.

[rfgqqabc]

Sm's post was really nice but in the buy ins I play 50-500 there's so much value in just waiting for the hand and just get the easy double with the set etc. Maybe in the higher buyin's the ballistic 4bet strategy is good but I've just spent a weekend in Blackpool with every guy under 30 telling me its softer that the hot 2.20 lol. Shame to bust comps like that with any slightly high variance line really.

[youthnkzR]

I'm peeling as low as 45s here, JTo, AJo, all suited aces and T7s+.

This seems about right