Champions of Poker

Luckily I won a seat at the upcoming no limit tourney to be held in Regina, Sk. Canada. The buy in I heard is $1000 and I’m glad as it is going to be on TV. But I’m now bothered as I badly want to win the gold. How should I play then?

To make things clearer, there are two stages. In the first stage, to be able to start out, you need $10,000 in chips. The blind time will be 40 mins and the blinds will begin at 25 / 50. Antes I heard will begin at level 9. The tourney will run for three days and every day only 350 players can play. If you belong to the top 10% at the end of a certain day, you can proceed to the next stage. However, if you lose you can re-buy for the next day. Unfortunately, if it happens that you lose the third day, then sorry as you are already out. In the second stage, everyone will be in the money and approximately 105 will be fighting for the first place with a whooping $350,000 prize. About the chips, well if you have many chips left after passing on the first stage, good for you as it will be accumulated at this stage. However, no deals are prohibited and everyone will be playing on and on till one player remains.

Now, what day do you think should I play? And do you have any strategy in mind to share with me? Please, I hope I could use it for stage one and stage two.

Thank you very much for your time.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Benz
Benz,

First, this is an odd tournament structure. As far as which day, it depends on your style of play. If you are very aggressive and can accumulate chips, the last day may work as the most players typically play that day. If you are tighter, I would play the first two days and loosen your starting hand requirements some.

You need to be in the top 35 at the end of the day. As a result, you need to build up chips. This means playing looser than normal and taking a few more risks. Try and build chips by stealing blind, taking advantage of weaker players, and seeing a lot of flops and punishing when you hit the flop well.

If you won your seat for this tournament, then great, go ahead and play. I wouldn’t play it otherwise.

Hello,

I have two questions for you. I know you’re the only person who could help me out. I hope you have time. Thanks in advance!

1. Say I played in a NLH low buy-in tournaments with starting chips of $1000. Blinds were moving up every 13 minutes or so and multiple limpers preflop were at the every corner of the table. So do you think, what’s the best way to deal with such kind of players? I thought of having a strictly solid aggressive game with them but I was not sure. I also thought of raising a bit than usual with less than optimal starting hands but just the same thing, I have some doubts. Anything to share?
2. When is the best time to do slowplay trips? I heard the the best time is when the board is very uncoordinated but I also heard the best time could be already when you have a coordinated flop. Which one is true?

Thanks again!

Drew
Drew,

1. With a tournament with a fast blind structure and low chips, I like to try and push my strong hands really hard. You can try and see a lot of flops, but there are a lot of players that will use that strategy. Your best bet is to pick up a hand and punish the players that come in with garbage. In these types of tournaments you need to get lucky too.
2. The best time to slowplay trips is when the flop comes uncoordinated, meaning that there isn’t a potential straight or flush on the board. When the flop is coordinated, slow playing can lead to someone outdrawing you. You want to avoid this.

Hi,

I believe I’m doing good in home tournaments that me and my friends have every week. In fact, I usually belong to the final 3 players. However, I feel that I’m into trouble when with regards to dealing with heads up.

Well, most of the time my opponent raises and I don’t have the top pair, I just can’t call. I hate when this happens as I’m not working on the right track.

On the good side, I’m doing relatively good when it comes to trapping. I can earn a lot of chips because of successfully trapping down a player.

My question now is, how do you play heads up? Is there any strategy I need to know and eventually master?

Thank you so much!

Sigmund Karlsen
Sigmund,

You need to play a little looser heads up. Try and see a lot of cheap flops with various hands and punish them when you connect. Don’t just call down with top pair. Sometimes middle and even bottom pair are just as good. Don’t be afraid to draw a little more.

Hi,

Just this morning, I played in a game that offers a huge pots and with a modest entry fee. If I could remember it right, the game was a $50 buy in and actually has a time limit. It allowed 12 to 20 players back then with around four hours playing time. At mid part, tables should be combined along with the three or four chip leaders.

Well, I must admit, the problems came from by the game setup itself as well as from other players. Specifically, I find playing with time limit difficult. And one thing I noticed, players have been placing their money in the pot then without considering if they have terrible hands with bad position or not.

Any piece of advice? Do you have any strategy to share with me or I’ll just stop playing at those plays with time limit?

Thanks in advance!

Regards,
Kit Weaver
Kit,

In tournaments you have to adjust your play to account for the increase in blinds. Sometimes you have to loosen your requirements and also steal blinds more. I would loosen your requirements in later position and try and steal more blinds from your opponents.

Of course, if games with time limits and rising blinds bother you, you can always switch to cash games. Many people prefer cash games. There is nothing wrong with that. Some of the top pros in the world primarily play cash games.