Early stage tournament strategy

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I just finished talking to my friend on the phone and we had a discussion about tournament strategy. My friend suggests that a player need to play super tight in the early stages of the tournament and in the middle/later stages reverts more to his standard ring game strategy. Is that really correct? Doesn''t it make more sense to play a strategy more similar to ring games in the early stages of a tournament when the stacks are deep?

Posts: 484 · Posted: 15.05.2007, 18:38

Hi Rhea...In the early stages of a tourney I've always found it better to play tight and save those valuable and scarce chips for premium hands. That way when you finally are holding the absolute nuts and the looser players are throwing their chips in the middle, you have way more chips to make the all-in and thus your chip total will grow perhaps three or four times higher than if you were wasting them playing rags and losing!

Posts: 301 · Posted: 16.05.2007, 19:44

Hi rhea,

Very good question.
Which I think Spookth has given the perfect answer to.
The only thing I can add is this.......
If you decide to play a tight game strategy,
I think it is important to be very disciplined and play, as spookth said " premium hand's only."

Alan

Posts: 6 · Posted: 17.05.2007, 09:59

I THINK PLAYING TIGHT AT THE BEGINING IS BEST IT GETS YOU FARTHER INTO THE TOURNY WITH OUT BEING BUSTED BY SOMEONE CHASEING A STRAIGHT OR A FLUSH.THERES A LOT OF PLAYERS WHO LIKE TO GO ALL IN IN THE EARLY PART OF THE GAME.NO MATTER WHAT THEY HAVE. ITS SAD TO GET KNOCKED OUT EARLY BY A BAD BEAT.
A) Initial question thread:
The reason to play tight in the early part of the tournament is that blinds and antes(if any antes) are low compared to the size of the stacks so stealing pots wont get you far. Instead, play tight, wait for a monster....and double or triple up. most books will tell you that.

Even so, you should mix your play OCASIONALLY. Enough so that you remain unpredictable. Harrington on holdâ€™em is a good book to learn strategies like that.(There are two Harrington on holdâ€™em books)

Use that strategy........it will get you into the top half or third of the tourney most times. (thatâ€™s what Iâ€™ve noticed from experience)

Posts: 654 · Posted: 26.05.2007, 22:32

finshko ~ I posted a reply to another post you made that I really disapproved of, and I let you know it. You know -- that silly knee-jerk question.

But this post of yours was a good one --PC's kind of post!

Thanks for the good info, BUT....Most of the guys who write those books do so because they can't make a good living playing poker. They also usually just keep repeating what each other wrote in THEIR book.

But my BIGGEST complaint against learning poker from the books is that if it was written by a pro or someone who really knows his stuff, he will NOT give up the really good stuff we need to know to become consistent winners.

NOW..... You are lucky you signed up here because we all believe (or KNOW) we have the VERY best way to learn enough to go pro and in a relatively short time. We have our own Poker Guru who is our resident poker pro and he REALLY WANTS us to advance fast. He gives us lessons (free) that are the best, is always there to advise and coach (except he is away right now on an important pro circuit), and, best of all -- HE ACTUALLY GIVES US (members only) HIS OWN PERSONAL SECRETS AND TRICKS AND TIPS.

AND -- he is a helluva nice guy! Wait til you meet him!

As an ex-professor, he is the best of teachers.....sneaks learning in on us when we don't even recognize it as a lesson. He calls it "painless learning". Sure improved my winnings by about 80%.

If any other member here has a different opinion -- of course we welcome all points of view as long as they are presented in a nice, friendly and polite way as a discussion from which all members can learn.

With posts like this one, WELCOME to Poker-Crush!

royalblush

Posts: 301 · Posted: 27.05.2007, 20:02

Welcome finshko,

Thank you for your opinions which are valued a great deal
I've learned a a lot about poker since joining this forum mainly from our Guru but also from other members like yourself, so please, if you have any views or tips, they would be very much appreciated.
There is also a friendly atmosphere at pc with the philosophy that if were not learning poker, then lets have a bit of fun with each other,
It's all free

Alan

Posts: 654 · Posted: 31.05.2007, 15:47

ROFLMAO!

ALW, you are 100% right!!!

Finshko, welcome to Crusherville where we learn and we play! No matter what we do, we care about one another and we learn to be better poker players. But we do have more than a one-track mind, as ALW said just right.

That was the plan, also, Guru told us he had in mind from the very start when he took over the admin of this site. And that is approved by our owner, Geno, as well!

THANK YOU, ALW, for putting it so clearly and correctly.

I think we have the healthiest way of making it -- at least MENTALLY healthy! LOL!

royalblush

Posts: 1 · Posted: 20.08.2007, 18:48

There are several reason not to play normal ring game strategy in a tournament.

I will lean on David Sklansky and repeat what he has suggested using my own words.

The big reason you should not use normal ring game strategy is that if you lose all your chips you can't go back buy in again. That should be enough of a reason by itself.

He even suggest that if you have a slight edge in the hand that many times it is better to fold. Same reasoning.

You are in the tourney to survive almost as much as to win. Keep that in mind.

There is math involved in reasoning why you should fold a hand with a small edge at the beginning stages of a tournament because of the possible reward further on where you can make more chips.

Simply put you are risking your tournament life when you make these calls where you have a small edge. Better to have a larger edge in the early stages in order to have the best chance to survive to the later stages.