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2008-11-14: Hardgeus' Guide to PokerStars 45 Man Turbo Tournaments - Misc Stuff
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Introduction/Audience
The audience for this
guide is beginning players who are looking for a relatively safe way
of learning the game and building a bankroll. It is also a guide
specifically aimed at playing against mostly crappy players. I don't
suggest you take my advice and try it out at the WSOP.
Why the
45 Man?
I have played
several different structures of tournaments on PokerStars, and most
of them left me feeling dirty in the morning. The 9 man Sit 'n Gos
just don't seem to have enough payout for their variance. I didn't
feel like I was crushing them, and I just had a slow slow upward
grind. If I lost 4 or 5 in a row, I had a long grind to make back
the money from those losses.
The larger
tournaments, from 180 man up, were just too depressing. I couldn't
stand sitting there for hours at a time, only to bust out on the
bubble, or with a lame booby-prize of a mincash. Not only that, I
could easily expect to lose 10 or 15 of those in a row before getting
any sort of cash. No thanks.
The 45 man is the
porridge that Goldilocks ate. The variance is not really markedly
higher than the 9 man, and the payout is much more respectable. And
while you don't get the big sexy payday of a 180 man, you can expect
to get 2 or 3 first-place finishes (easily) in 45 mans in the same
number of tries it takes you to get to one final table at a 180 man.
Why
Turbo?
For quite a while I
was sold on the 10 minute regular 45 man tourneys. I just felt that
the variance was too high on the turbos, and I stuck to my guns.
Then one day a poster on the 2+2 forums asked for opinions on turbos
vs. regulars and I started crunching some stats on my games to post.
Lo and behold, I was over 10% more profitable on the turbos than the
regulars!
One obvious reason for
this is that the rake on non-turbo 45 mans is usually around 20%,
while the rake on turbos is usually 10% or even less. For example,
at the one dollar level, the regular tournament is $1.20, while the
turbo is $1.10. This may not seem like a big deal, but bear in mind
that 40% ROI over the long term is very good 226 and a %10 cut from
that profit makes a big difference.
I keep a spreadsheet
of numbers and notes on every tournament I play, and I noticed
something interesting: The early blind levels didn't really have a
lot of effect on my ability to win the tournament. The first blind
levels are really just a waiting room for the real game. My game was
mostly made or broken once the blinds got up around 100/200 or so.
Why bother spending the first 45 minutes just folding everything in
sight? Crank up a turbo and have the tournament rapidly progress to
the point where the blinds can actually add to your stack!
This guide is strictly
regarding the $3.25 45 man turbo on Stars, and if my limited sample
size is any indicator, also the $6.50 turbo.
Fundamentals
First of all, realize
that cash games and tournaments are drastically different beasts.
You can easily destroy yourself as a tournament player by failing to
grasp this fact and only playing A+ premium hands as the blinds
disintegrate your stack. In many ways, tournament Poker isn't really
Poker at all. 223True224 Poker is a complex, post-flop game that
features deep and complex thinking, multi-street bluffing and all
manner of fancy stuff that purists love. Tournament Poker is a
primarily pre-flop game of aggression and mathematics. You can win
Poker tournaments without even understanding post-flop play. Trust
me, I suck at post-flop play.
If you are new to
Poker, and intend on focusing on tournaments, avoid cash-game Poker
books. There is nothing wrong with these books, but if you are a
newbie the last thing you need is conflicting messages. Focus on
reading material which is focused on tournaments. Harrington
on Hold 'em Vols I and II are must-read books. If you only read two
books in your Poker Life, make it those two. You cannot
skip volume 2. They are not really separate books, but rather one
book split into two. (Vol III, while very good, I do not consider
essential)
I also recommend Poker
Tournament Formula by Arnold Snyder. He is a favorite whipping boy
of the 2+2 crowd, but I think it is a very good book, and not as
dramatically different from Harrington's style as people (including
Snyder himself) seem to think.
Bankroll
Management
You really need at
least $50 or so before you can consider playing the cheapest 45 man,
the $1.10 turbo. I started out at $30, but I had a lot of swings
where I was getting close to $10, so I don't recommend it. As a
beginner, you are going to have some pretty big swings while you get
a feel for these tournaments. Don't overestimate your skill and
think you'll crush them without any downswings.
I am a bankroll nit,
so my rule was to only play tournaments when my bankroll could
support 50 buyins. This meant that I could only play the $3.25
tournament after I hit $150. If you find that you are doing very
well at these tournaments, then you can probably loosen this
restriction, but I would not recommend loosening it too much. I have
been a consistent winner at these tournaments, but I have had 11 loss
swings several times. Here are a couple of structures:
Hardgeus nitty
structure:
$0-$120: $1.10 45 man
$120-$300: $3.25 45 man
(If you dip back to $80, switch back to $1.10)
$300+: $6.50 45 man (If
you dip back to $150, switch back to $3.25)
Normal person
structure:
$0-$90: $1.10 45 man
$90-$120: $3.25 45 man
(If you dip back to $50, switch back to $1.10)
$120+: $6.50 45 man (If
you dip back to $90, switch back to $3.25)
Tools
PokerTracker
You need to get
PokerTracker or a similar piece of software. If you are playing
without PokerTracker, then you are putting yourself at a severe
disadvantage. The real-time stats PokerTracker provides on your
opponents are invaluable. There are a ton of stats, but the most
basic stats are VPIP/PFR. These are 223Voluntarily put money into
pot224 and 223Pre flop raise224 percentages. You will often see
people on 2+2 express a player's behavior as 20/17 or 40/10. These
stats are very telling of a player's overall style. I am going to
give a couple of examples, and while they're by no means the bible,
they are good general guidelines of player style: (Note that the
numbers aren't accurate until you have seen about 25 or so hands with
this player...once you hit about 50 hands or so you have a solid
read)
8/0011-011Total nit. Will
not see a hand without the nuts, and is timid to boot. Postflop
he'll probably fold if he whiffs the flop. Steal from this guy
relentlessly.
18/12011-011Very tight TAG
player. You can probably steal from this guy preflop, but be careful
of messing with him postflop or after he raises preflop -- he's
probably going to punish you.
30/25 - This is a loose
aggressive type player. He raises a lot of hands and sees a lot of
flops. He probably tries to steal a lot postflop. It's best to
attack these guys when you have a hand.
45/5 - This is a
loose passive player. He limps into a ton of pots and probably just
bleeds chips. If he is a big stack at your table, it is just through
sheer luck. Players like this are usually calling stations post
flop.
68/44 - Total maniac
idiot. Reshove on him the second you get AQ.
PokerStove
PokerStove is a piece
of software that lets you put in hole cards and compare their
relative win %. It is an invaluable tool for determining if you made
the right decision in certain situations. You will also find
yourself very surprised at how well certain hands hold up against
certain other hands. Every Poker player should have a copy of
PokerStove at hand.
Player
Base
Most of the players in
these things are absolutely horrible. Terrible. They make your eyes
water. But you *cannot* make the standard 2+2 mistake of assuming
these guys never have hands. These guys *usually* have hands when
they go nuts, they just tend to (way) overvalue them. Or not.
Sometimes they have the nuts. Don't just say to yourself, 223This is
a $6 donkament. He can't have the nuts.224
That is hubris. Even
donks get cards.
Anyway. There are a
few basic player types in these things:
Psycho: These guys are
easy to spot. They will usually shove one of the first ten hands,
usually with KJo or something. If you get A9+ against these guys,
take the flip. These guys usually bust out by the third blind level,
or end up sitting at $8,000 chips. I would say that I double my
stack through of one of these guys in about 25% of my tournaments
before the fourth blind level. I prefer flipping preflop with these
guys rather than playing after the flop. These guys will go nuts on
middle pair, top pair weak kicker etc. It's hard to really know
where you stand post-flop. You're probably going to get all your
chips in the middle if you play with them, so you might as well make
it while you're ahead.
Calling Station: We
all know the type. Don't bluff them. Don't make moves. Don't
C-bet. Either hit a hand and value bet them, or get out.
Calling
Station-McShovesAlot: This is almost identical to the last guy, but
he'll shove the turn/river if he spikes two pair, a straight, a flush
etc. These guys tend to limp lots of speculative hands, play them
passively, and then shove when they hit. I think a big 2+2 leak is
not recognizing these guys and respecting their shoves.
Mr. Weak/Tight: He
rarely sees a hand, and doesn't bet unless he hits the flop. Very
exploitable. He'll come in handy once the blinds rise.
Mr. TAG: Hard to
differentiate from Mr. Weak/Tight in the first few blind levels, but
gets very dangerous once the blinds rise. Generally knows good
positional poker and pushbotting. You need to keep good notes on the
players to really spot him.
I really haven't seen
too many great LAG players in these things. I think that because the
field is so spewy to begin with, it is difficult to use a LAG
approach. Most of the better players (and there actually are a fair
number of decent players) tend to be TAG players.
Position
Position is one of the
most important aspects of tournament play, and probably the least
understood by new players. Simply put, position is how late you act
during a given hand. The more players who act before you, the
better. The button is the absolute best position (getting to act
last post-flop), and the small blind is the absolute worst position
(having to act first post-flop).
This concept takes a
while to fully appreciate, but understand that it is not up for
debate. This is not a hazy theoretical opinion. Position is king!
He who acts last acts best. The last to act gets all of the attempts
to steal, the guy who acts last gets to throw away his marginal hands
when other players hit the nuts, the guy who acts last gets to check
for a free card -- the guy who acts last acts best!
How many times have
you seen the table do this: check, check, check on the flop. check,
check, bet, fold fold on the turn? If you haven't noticed it, keep
an eye out. Even when you know the button is stealing, there isn't
really a whole hell of a lot you can do to stop him unless you have
good cards -- or balls of steel.
There is a twofold
reason you can play more marginal hands in late position than in
early position. First of all, you have a pretty good idea how much
it's going to cost you to play the hand. Since you're acting late,
you know whether or not somebody is going to raise -- because they
had to act first. If you have a hand like QJo in early position, do
you really want to keep playing that hand if somebody makes a hefty
raise after you? You're dominated by AJ, AQ, AK, AA, KK, QQ, JJ, QK,
KJ, and are a dog against most pocket pairs. However, if everybody
folded to you on the button with only the blinds left, you can feel
fairly confident that your QJo is probably better than whatever the
blinds are holding. This is the first reason you can open your range
in late position.
The second reason you
can open your range in late position is you act last postflop. This
gives you so much information that you do not have if you are forced
to act first or early after the flop. Let's use our QJo example.
Let's say that you raise it in early position, and get three callers.
Then the flop comes down KJ7. Now you are the first to act. Do you
really want to fire a bet into three people when any one of them
could be holding a K?
Now let's take the
same example with you playing on the button. Let's say that you have
a middle position limper, and everybody else folds. You go ahead and
limp on the button with QJo, and both blinds call. Now you get that
same KJ7 flop. In this case, you get to see everyone else act before
you have to do anything. If the small blind bets, the big blind
raises, and the MP goes all-in, you can fold the hand without a
problem. If, however, the three other players check, you can feel
fairly confident that your jacks are good.
Finally, let's
assume that the flop totally missed you. Let's say that the flop was
A47. Let's suppose that this time everybody checks to you. There is
a pretty good chance, once again, that the flop missed everybody and
that A is a scary card. Now, you can potentially steal this pot by
making a bet even though you have nothing. Position gives you
opportunities to steal that you don't have when you have to act
early!
Stacks,
Blinds, and Antes
The second most
important consideration in tournament play is stack size relative to
blinds. A play that would be madness with a stack of $1500 and
blinds of $50 can be your only option with a stack of $1500 and
blinds of $600. After position, ignorance of the implications of
different stack sizes is the biggest leak suffered by novice
tournament players.
In a nutshell, the
bigger your stack is relative to the blinds, the more time you have
to wait for good hands and positive opportunities. The lower your
stack size relative to the blinds, the more desperate you are, and
the more aggressive you have to be with a marginal edge.
So what constitutes a
desperate stack? Once your stack is less than about 10 big blinds,
you are pretty much at a desperate stack size. This may surprise
novice tournament players, as in a turbo tournament you can expect to
get below 10 bb pretty quickly. Once you get to this stack size,
your options are limited. Pretty much, if you intend to play a hand,
you're going to want to shove it (or make a preflop raise with the
absolute intention of shoving any flop).
One of the biggest
leaks of novice players is failing to appreciate their desperate
stack and limping marginal hands (suited connectors, I'm looking at
you!) when the blinds are way too high to allow them to do so. If
you are 10bb or below it is against the law of Poker to play marginal
hands to 223see what the flop brings.224 At 10bb or below you're
pretty much going to shove or fold most hands.
This pretty much means
that you are going to be shoving or folding most hands later in a
tournament. You will hear whines at your table from people saying
that all you know how to do is shove. You will hear people whine to
you, 223Play Poker!224 But you will know better. If people don't
like it, then they can go play a cash game, or a tournament with 5
hour blind levels. Given the structure of turbo tournaments, you
will need to get into a shove-fest to win.
Once you get to about
20bb (preferably more), you can actually play some poker. You can
raise 3xbb preflop, maybe fire a bet on the flop, and still get away
from the hand if you are beaten. But if you're below 10bb, don't
fool yourself into thinking that you can see a flop.
Aside from your own
stack, you have to be aware of other players' stacks. Even the
nittiest nit understands that when he gets below 5bb he is desperate.
Occasionally you will run into somebody who will fold himself to
nothing, (and when you see him, be sure to steal from him
mercilessly) but most players will shove before they blind out. Part
of your decision to play a hand should take into consideration the
likelihood of a small-stack shove.
Let's suppose that you
have $3000 chips, the BB is 150, you are on the button with K9s, and
it is folded around to you. This is a pretty good spot to attempt a
raise of 450 to try to steal the blinds, but what if the player in
the BB has a stack of $800? You have to be aware that it is very
unlikely that the BB will just call your bet. The BB will either
fold or shove, and most players will shove very wide in this
situation. You have to be aware of this psychology before you try to
steal the blinds. Other players' stack sizes are a primary
consideration when deciding how to play!
Let's take that exact
same situation, except the BB player has a stack of $20,000. Here is
a case where you really don't want to try to get fancy. That $20,000
player can shove all-in on top of you just to prove a point, and
won't much care of he loses that $3,000 chips. Most players would be
willing to do it just to show the table that it's not smart to mess
with the big stack.
The best time to try a
button steal like this is when the BB has a stack of roughly average
size, such as your $3,000 stack. That $150 BB isn't very precious to
him, and folding leaves him with a comfortable stack. In addition,
if he were to shove all-in on you, he could lose his entire stack. A
player with this stack size will be a lot less prone to defend his BB
than a desperately small stack or a dangerously big stack.
This principle doesn't
just apply to blind-stealing scenarios. In general, you want to get
into skirmishes with the medium sized stacks, and be careful with the
tiny and the huge stacks. The tiny stacks will go all-in out of
desperation, and the giant stacks will put you all-in because they
can.
A final word about
antes. The tone of the tournament changes dramatically when the
antes kick in. The ratio between the starting pot and players'
stacks changes quite a bit. Preflop, before anybody has voluntarily
put any money into the pot, the pot is now big enough to make a big
difference. After the antes kick in, you want to eye every pot
greedily for an opportunity to steal.
Cards
You
will notice that I mention cards after position and stack sizes.
This is because cards, in my opinion, are of much less importance
than the prior two factors. Tournament Poker is a game of wagering,
position, and aggression that happens to use cards. That doesn't
mean that you can play any old cards any old time you like, but that
you need to make your decisions taking all three of these factors
into account, weighted heavily toward stack and position.
Early in the
tournament, you should be playing tight -- and your cards are very
important. There just aren't enough chips in the pot preflop to
bother fighting over. Plus, you usually have a few total nutjobs
flying around in the beginning, and you don't want to get squeezed
between them with a marginal holding. In the first few blind levels,
generally don't bother playing anything but tier-1 hands. This means
AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AK, AQ and (barely) AJ. Don't be afraid to
re-shove if you are holding one of these big hands and somebody
raises you. If somebody goes nuts on you in the first several hands,
and you have one of these powerhouses, you are almost certainly best.
Shove shove shove. You will run into a lot of guys in the first
level of a tourney who are willing to go all-in on any broadway hand.
Early in the
tournament, you are playing solid starting hands and playing ABC
Poker (except for that shoving on psychos part). But as the
tournament progresses, you are playing a more situational game. The
importance of your cards (in a vacuum) declines as the importance of
stacks, blinds, and position go up. At this point, your PokerTracker
stats become very important, because they give you a good picture of
the type of card ranges you can play against certain villains in
certain positions. If a 18/12 player raises from middle position,
you probably don't want to call with AT on the button. However, if
that same raise came from a 60/44 player, you might consider shoving
over the top. Shoves turn into folds, and folds turn into shoves
depending on the stats of the player you're against, stack sizes etc.
Play
Style: Early
You should only be
playing quality hands early in a tournament. Any hands you play
should be opened with a raise. You want to avoid limping into pots
for several reasons. First, you don't want to let J6s into a pot
cheaply only to have him hit a ragged two pair that beats your paired
A with a K kicker. You don't want 34o to get to see a flop cheaply
and hit a straight. You don't want to let 33 in the pot cheaply to
hit a set. You want to punish your opponents for seeing flops when
they hold marginal hands. You want them to play when you are the
favorite. Another important reason to always raise is to thin the
field and set yourself up for a cbet. (see below)
One important thing
about the first two blind levels: 3xBB raises are crap! If you are
at the 10/20 level in early-ish position with AA, don't raise 3x
unless you want everybody to call. I generally won't raise less than
100 under any circumstances. If you are in the cutoff or button, you
can get away with a 3x raise, but from hijack to UTG, you need to
make a bigger raise. Once the BB hits 50, you can start doing a
standard 3x raise, as people will now (well....somewhat) respect it.
As I said before, one
place where I think it's +EV to depart from ABC Poker early is to
identify the psychos at your table and take some coin flips. I know
that there are a bazillion opinions on this, but the blinds raise so
fast in these things that you need a little breathing room. An early
double up can keep you out of awkward situations once the blinds rise
and the tables get short. Bear in mind that I'm not telling you to
immediately discount everybody at your table as a donk and call any
shove with AJo. You need a read on somebody before you can do that.
Luckily, there will usually be somebody at your table so bad that AJo
is almost the nuts. If there aren't any nutcases at your table
shoving crap, then you just have to stick to ABC Poker.
The
Glorious C-Bet
A continuation bet, or
cbet, is when you raise preflop, and then fire a bet on the flop
regardless of what you see. You are continuing your aggression from
preflop. Cbetting is one of the first steps you take from being a
tight/passive nitty player towards becoming a solid TAG Poker player.
Against your typical weak loose/passive online player, the cbet is a
very powerful weapon. If you pick your spots carefully, cbetting
will account for a large percentage of the chips you win over the
course of a tournament.
A textbook example of
a cbet is as follows: You pick up AKo in middle position and it is
folded to you. You raise up 3xbb, and everybody folds but the
blinds. The flop comes down ragged with 9s2d6h. The small blind
checks, the big blind checks, and you fire a bet of half the pot.
They both fold and you pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
Generally, you want to
avoid cbetting into more than two players. If you want to steal
against more than two players, it is usually a good idea to wait
until everybody checks-around the turn. The more players you have on
the flop, the less likely you are to steal the pot with a cbet.
Also, player reads are important. There are some players who just
won't fold. Identify them and don't C-bet into them. Preflop stats
actually give you a pretty good indication of a player's
vulnerability to the C-bet. Somebody that is 12/8 will usually fold
if they don't connect.
Play
Style: Mid (32 left)
I would consider
mid-game in a 45 man to start right around when the BB hits 100.
This is the first point at which you want to really start stealing
blinds. Unless you have hit a big hand, you can expect your stack to
be anywhere from 1200 to 900 by this point in the tournament if you
haven't hit a hand yet. It is very common for your stack to be
approaching a desperation level. Most novice players fail to realize
this, and just continue chugging along as if everything is fine.
This point of the tournament can make or break you!
A lot of people play a
style where they limp a lot of hands early, and then tighten up once
the BB hits 100. This is the exact opposite of how I play. I play
butt-tight in the early levels, and begin to get aggressive with the
blinds once the BB hits 100. If your stack is 1200 at this point,
150 chips represents 13% of your stack. This is a big deal.
If your stack at this
point is 1000 or under, then your only option is to shove. You
cannot play any hand unless it is all in. Do not make the mistake of
most crappy players by shoving all-in with QJ in early position at
this point. Sometimes, this move is your only option, but at this
point in the tournament it is virtual suicide.
You are far far better
off open shoving 72o on the blinds than shoving QJ in early position.
Unfortunately, the two players to your left have a big impact on
your ability to steal. If you have a giant stack to your left with
60/40 stats, you can feel fairly certain that he is going to call
your shove. In this case, you have to be very careful about picking
your spot.
If you are lucky, you
will hit a big hand or two by this point in the tournament and you
won't have to shove on the blinds to survive. If you have a big
enough stack, you can continue to play good, solid, ABC poker. Make
a few raises, cbet, rinse and repeat. When you're getting good
cards, it's not hard to do well in a tournament.
But, most likely, you
will go card dead at some point and be forced to steal. You cannot
depend on your cards. You cannot wait for your cards. You should
not look down and say, 223Is this hand good enough to play?224 What
you should do is say, 223Am I in a good enough position, with proper
stack sizes after me, and big enough blinds, that I have a good rate
of success with an all-in shove, and IF I get called still have a
moderate chance of winning?224
The
Glorious Shove
One thing you have to
realize about tournament Poker is that at some point it will devolve
into a shove-fest. It devolves into a big mess of people shoving
all-in preflop. This is just reality due to the structure of the
quickly rising blinds.
This does not mean,
however, that you simply shove the second you get ATo in your hand.
A very important principle in tournament Poker is it is far better
to have everybody fold to your shove than to call a shove or to have
someone call your shove.
It is far
better to button-shove A8o when everybody folds to you than it is to
call a shove with AKs. As the tournament progresses, the
blinds and antes get so huge relative to the stacks that stealing an
uncontested pot is better than calling all-in to win somebody's
stack.
When other people
fold, you can't lose the hand. AA will lose to 72o if the flop is
772. It happens every day. Your primary goal in tournament poker
should be to steal pots nobody is interested in fighting over. This,
of course, doesn't really happen until the blinds get very high.
This is why there is little point in playing marginal hands early in
the tournament.
I have gotten to the
final table of many 45 man tournaments with a healthy stack after
going completely card dead for the entire tournament. This is only
possible due to the application of judicious stealing.
Play
Style - Mid/Late (22 left)
One feature of 45 man
tournaments is that you spend a good amount of time at short tables.
Unlike tournaments with hundreds or thousands of players, at the 45
man you are dealing with constantly growing and shrinking tables.
Most players do not properly adjust for this, and making the proper
adjustments is part of how you win these tournaments!
At a 9 man table, A6o
is not a particularly great hand, and you certainly don't want to
raise with it in middle position. At a 5 man table, this suddenly
becomes a pretty good hand for attacking the blinds in the same
position. At a 9 man table, two after the BB is middle position. At
a 5 man table, two after the BB is the cutoff seat!
At these short tables,
you will be hitting the blinds far more quickly than you will at a
full table. You want your 223pressure224 level to increase as your
table gets shorter. Your hand ranges need to widen, your concept of
position needs to change, and your overall aggression level needs to
increase. You are going to be shoving a lot more liberally here.
But then -- BOOM! --
you're at a full table again. You have to take a step back and
re-assess the situation. Are you still as desperate as you were at
the short table? How soon will you hit the blinds again? You need
to re-tighten your hand ranges. You need to wait for later to
position to attack the blinds.
Usually, relative to
the blinds, you will be short stacked at this point in the
tournament. The antes have kicked in, and the preflop pot is pretty
big. Unless you have gotten lucky at some point, your only move is
going to be all-in. Remember that in these 45 mans most people tend
to tighten up when it gets down to about 15 or so people. Everybody
wants to hit that final table.
There is usually a
pretty good amount of time between 15 players and the final table.
You will hit the blinds a bunch of times. You cannot afford to play
tight here and hope to fold your way into the final table. The only
way of surviving this dragging short table is to increase your
aggression on the blinds. While everybody else is trying to fold
themselves to a warm and fuzzy 223at least I hit the final table,224
you need to be attacking relentlessly to grow your stack.
Play
Style - Final Table
Your final table play
if you are short stacked isn't much different than before. Shove in
the right spot. A lot of people went from hoping to fold their way
into the final table to now trying to fold their way into the money.
Screw mincashing. You are here to win. One win makes up for a lot
of losses. You didn't shove on the blinds 20 times so you could
mincash. You are here to win.
It doesn't matter if
you are the short stack at this point. You want to go after the
middle stacks here. Don't get into fights with the other short
stacks or the big stacks. Pick on the guys with 20/10 stats who want
to fold their way into a cash. Pick on the guys who won't call your
shove with anything other than QQ+. People hate busting out
just before cashing. Take advantage of this fact and steal their
pots.
If you get lucky at
this point, you should be one of the bigger stacks relatively quickly
at the final table. Either that, or you have busted out. At the
final table, it only takes 3 or 4 steals to become a big stack.
While villains are waiting for QQ+ and AK to 223hit a bit pot,224 you
have already hit a big pot just by stealing the blinds with Q9.
Once you have a strong
stack, you can now start using your stack like a bludgeon. Now you
don't have to shove to make everybody fold. You can do a 3xbb raise
and that's enough to put people all-in. You need to keep up your
aggression and bully the table. Raise from the SB, raise from the
BB, raise from the button. If you keep it up, something magical will
start to happen. You'll start getting walks in the BB.
Play
Style - 3 Way
If you are the short
stack when it gets 3-way, then you play pretty much as described
above for the short stack.
If you have a decent
stack, however, you have to identify the 223dynamic224 of the 3-way
relationship at the table. Who is the big stack, who is the small
stack? Are you all even? You want to try to get the other two guys
into a pissing match with one another. You want both of these guys
to dread a confrontation with you, and to think that it's a much
better idea to pick on one another.
If you have been
playing like I suggested above, this will happen naturally. They
will both think you are a total lunatic, and won't want to get into a
pot with you unless they have a strong holding. I advocate a lot of
button folds when it gets 3 way. The SB will be tempted to raise on
the BB, and the BB will be tempted to shove on the SB. Even though
one of these guys will end up as the giant stack if they go all-in,
that shouldn't matter to you. You should be a better heads-up player
than them and you should be able to make up the chip difference.
Play
Style - Heads Up
Most players at this
level crumble in heads-up play. They are flat-out terrible.
Usually, they are either way too passive and you can bowl over them,
or they are shove happy and you can bust them the second you get a
decent hand.
If your opponent folds
his SB to you more than once or twice, you can be rest assured you
can bowl over him. All you really have to do against these guys is
raise any decent hand. When they re-raise or re-shove, just let the
hand go. Keep the pressure on them. Raise with any remotely
reasonable hand. Fire at flops and see if he'll let you steal
post-flop. Usually, players like this won't go crazy on you unless
they have a real hand. More often than not, they will not have a
real hand. Just keep leaning on them until they get desperate and
have to go all-in.
A large number of
villains will just shove the first hand. That's great. These guys
are pretty easy to bust. What I like to do against these guys is
raise my reasonable hands (Ax, Kx, high connectors), limp my garbage
(I never fold my SB), and limp my powerhouses (AT+, 88+).
These hyper-aggressive
types will start shoving over your SB limps all of the time. That's
fine, let them do it. Get them in the habit of shoving over your
limped SB. Then limp the next Ax or powerhouse hand you get and
you'll bust them most of the time. With the hyper-aggressive, you
usually have to let them hang themselves.
Common
Problems
Villain Aces
It's hard to let go of
QQ after an A flops. But, generally, somebody has the Ace. If you
raised preflop, go ahead and fire a c-bet into two villains, but give
up if they raise or call. Don't fire into more than two villains, I
promise that one of them has an Ace. One of the fundamental facts
about the crappy players at these tournaments is that they always
keep every ace.
Villain Flushes
Crappy players at this
level keep every suited no matter what. No amount of preflop raising
will get them off of their beloved sooted. They will keep every J9s,
they will keep every 42s, they will keep every 74s. They will keep
every sooted no matter what you do. If you see a three-flush on the
board, there is roughly a 30% chance (at a full table) that somebody
has a flush. Keep that in mind. Most of these guys will shove the
second their flush hits. If a 3flush hits the board, and a calling
station, or some other relatively passive type player shoves, he
probably has the flush.
Low/Mid Pocket Pairs
You are playing these
low and middle pocket pairs for set value. You want to get into a
flop cheaply, and you hope to flop a set. If you miss your set get
out of the hand unless you have
a solid overpair (99 with a low flop). Unless you are an excellent
postflop player, you are going to get yourself into trouble with a
weakish pair that isn't an overpair to the board. Note also, that if
you have 99 and it is an overpair, there is a very good chance that
somebody has a straight draw.
Suited Connectors
You
are playing these for straight and flush drawing potential. Just
like with low/mid pocket pairs, if the flop doesn't give you what
you're looking for get out of the hand.
Unless you are a great postflop player, you shouldn't continue with
76s after you hit a 7. With lowish suited connectors, you are not
trying to spike a pair, you are going for a straight or a flush. If
you don't have one of these draws, get out.
Low Broadway
Very little gets
beginners into trouble like low, unsuited broadway hands. These
hands consist of JTo, QTo, KTo, QJo, KJo. You have to be very
careful about these hands, because it is extremely easy to be
dominated by a better hand. In general, you should trow these hands
away unless it is folded to you in good position. You should not
call or reraise any raises with these hands.
This advice will no
doubt bother a lot of players. These hands make up a good chunk of
most beginners' raising range. But these hands will bust you for a
lot of reasons. It is very easy to end up going all-in with KJ when
you hit your J, only to lose your whole stack to AJ. Second, if you
hit two pair with one of these hands, it is going to give someone at
least a straight draw if not a made straight. Two pair with
broadway hands is extremely dangerous!
You can play suited
broadway a little more aggressively, but you have to remember that
you are playing more for straight and flush potential than for single
or double pair potential. That's not to say you fold every time you
hit a pair, but you have to be very conscious of your opponent when
you spike a pair. If you hit a J when you are holding QJs, you can't
expect your hand to be the nuts when your 12/8 opponent raised UTG.
Ace Rag
Another common
beginner mistake is to play Ace Rag. Because almost everybody plays
every ace, it is very dangerous to get involved with a hand when your
kicker is mediocre. All too often people bust out with A6 when
they're up against AJ+. You can be a little more liberal with
keeping Ace Rag when it is folded to you and you are on the button or
in the cutoff. But don't forget it is possible for the blinds to
have a better Ace than you do! Also, if your second card pairs, you
hand isn't very strong. You want to go into hands where both of your
cards are live. In general, Ace Rag is a very dangerous hand and
should be avoided.
You can be a bit more
liberal with low suited Aces, but once again you are treading on
dangerous territory. You want to treat suited Aces as a speculative
hand. Either flop a flush or flush draw, or get out of the hand.
Don't get excited when you flop a pair of Aces when you kept A3s. If
you flop an Ace when playing Ace Rag suited, maybe you can fire one
bet, but fold after any aggression.
Glossary
Ace Rag: A hand
with an Ace and a low card (generally 8 or below)
Ante: Chips
that are automatically put into the pot for each player -- in
addition to the blinds -- at the beginning of a hand. In PokerStars
Hold 'Em tournaments, the antes usually begin after the first 200 BB
level.
bb: Big blinds.
Often, numbers in Poker are expressed as a multiple of big blinds.
So if the big blind is 100, and you have a stack of 1500 chips, you
have 15 bb.
Broadway:
Broadway hands are any unpaired combination of cards 10 or above.
For example, QT is a low broadway hand, KQ is a high broadway hand.
Generally, I don't think people refer to AK as broadway.
Bust: To lose
all of your chips, and hence the tournament
Bubble: The time
period when one more player busting means that the remaining players
cash. Also, the bubble can occur in a 45 mans just before the final
table, even though only 7 get paid.
Button: The
dealer button. The player in this position acts last after the flop.
Calling Station: A
passive type player who will generally call all bets to the river
regardless of the strength of his hand, or the strength you have
represented. Do not try to bluff them.
Cash: To make
any amount of money in a tournament
Cbet: Continuation
bet. The act of betting on the flop because your raised pre-flop.
You are continuing your aggression from preflop. Typically, a
continuation bet is when you have missed the flop, or only have a
draw, but any follow-up bet to your preflop raise can be called a
continuation bet.
Cutoff:
The player just before the button.
Dominated: When
you have a hand which shares a card with your opponents hand, and
your other card is a lower rank than his other card. For example, AJ
is dominated by AK.
Kicker: The
unpaired card in your hand that comes into play in the case of a tie.
If you have AK and your pair your A, the K is your kicker.
LAG: Loose
aggressive player. Plays lots of hands, raises a lot, steals a lot.
A pain in the ass.
Leak: A
mistake in your Poker game that results in you losing money.
Mincash:
To make the minimum payout in a tournament. Usually double your
buyin.
MP: Middle
position. Middle position in between the blinds and the button.
Nit:
A super tight player who
doesn't play any hands unless he has a powerhouse, and will not
commit a lot of chips to the pot unless he is a solid favorite.
Open:
To be the first person to see the blinds or raise a pot preflop.
Open Shove:
To shove all-in when you are the first person to see the blinds or
raise a pot preflop.
Overpair: A pair
that is higher than any of the cards on the board. If you hold 99,
and the flop is 276, you have an overpair.
Rake: The
portion of the tournament buy-in that goes to PokerStars rather than
the prize pool. In the $1.10 turbo 45 man, the ten cents is the
rake.
Range:
How many different hands you are willing to play. A wide range
includes more, and weaker, hands. A tight range only includes
premium hands.
Short Table:
A Poker table with under 9 players, typically 6 or less.
Shove: To go
all-in. Bet all of your chips.
TAG: Tight
aggressive player. Generally only plays good starting hands, but
plays them strongly.
TPTK: Top pair
top kicker
UTG: Under the
gun. The first seat to act after the blinds preflop. This is
considered a very poor position, and raises from this seat (if from a
decent player) should be taken seriously.
Variance:
Deviation from the 223expected224 win rate. Even if you play perfect
poker, sometimes you will lose many games in a row. This is
variance.
Villain: Your
opponent in a Poker hand.
Walk: When
everybody folds to your BB.
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