Poker tournament newbie needs advice

What advice would you give to a person playing in their first poker tournament (specifically the morning NL game at MC)? What are some of your do's and don'ts?

All replies are appreciated!

 

Played there in October and not a fan of the room. Being only steps away from Aria, walk or tram over there and you'll never look back.

 

Be very selective in the hands you play. It's not a $2/4 game where you want to see every flop. Be patient. And above all if 1/2 your stack will force others out, then don't go all in. You never know when you've been baited(slow played). General rule of thumb, if there are cards that can beat you, be very wary of an all-in cause those cards will show up.

Other than that have fun, and if you're doing well I hope your not in any rush because it take forever to finish. Sometimes you can speed up the ending by agreeing to a split of the prize money with the remaining players.

 

Be careful of the mechanics of the game so you don't make any faux pas. Don't talk much. Mostly so you don't make verbal mistakes. For example, don't say, "I call that bet and raise you...."

 

yes, have fun, but don't chit-chat too much. Watch your opponents' faces on the flop, not the flop itself. Keep your hands out of sight if you do a lot of hand wringing or facial touching. Not that I've ever won one of course!

 

You can't win the tournament in the first round. But you sure can lose it.

 

These low buy-in, awful structure tournaments on the strip take a lot of actual play out of them. Basically becomes all-in or fold very quickly.

The morning tournaments at Monte Carlo have blind levels that double every 20 minutes. 20 minutes in a live tournament, you might get a hand or two per level.

Two years ago, I played a cheap tournament at Mandalay Bay. $40 entry, 15 minute levels. I made the final table!!!!! But, since 22 players entered, only three got paid. I started the final table with 4 big blinds. I went all in with any cards, got called by 4 people lol.

Just don't expect a lot of high level poker thinking in these tournaments.

 

hope to pick up some cards early and shove. expect to get called in 3 places and hope to quadruple up. rinse and repeat for the next couple of hours. that's the only way to win these low-stack, rapid-blind tourneys.

 

If you are a true newcomer to the game of live tournament poker there is no advice you can take that will have a significant impact on the end result, it takes readings, experience and/or a lot of luck to get there

BUT, this being said, I have some advice anyway :

- I'll be at the MC so please play in the event while I'm there

- Look & listen, take mental notes such as "this guy raise a lot more hands than what he should he must have a lot of weak hands in his range" etc.. That's how you'll improve on your live game.

- Have FUN ! Don't stress or modify your behavior, if you have tons of tells it's too late to get rid of them and due to the structure of this low buyin tournament things will be going fast, you won't play the same group of people long enough for them to take notes on your game, they'll only see 10/20 hands from you and maybe 3 or 5 showdowns.

- Agression wins tournament, bet & raise & shove / tend to avoid calling. If you have a strong enough hand to call you can raise, if not fold.

- Don't be too tricky, bet when you hit it'll pay off often enough.

- Since you have less experience you will be dominated in the post flop play be a large portion of the field, they'll outplay you a lot. Your should select good hands easy to play where you always have the position on the oponnent, and always raise BIG preflop. That way you'll limit the edge of better players, they won't be able to outplay you after the flop with a garbage hand. I repeat, raise BIG, like 3x times the previous bet or 3 to 4x the big blind.
- If you have 12BB or less, or 15BB and there is antes, don't enter any pot with a raise or a call : this is push/fold. Same reason, good players will outplay you, by going all in they just can't.


Once you'll be a better player in tournament you'll make a lot of modification, but basic tight agressive strategy and big pot preflop is the best advice for beginners.

 

edit : damn bug

 

I hope you mean 'playable' hands...

 

Specifically the MC morning tourney -- the 9 AM one -- I've played that a few times. You'll only have about a dozen players, so it's more like a 2 table sit and go.

If you're an online player, think of it as a turbo. The blinds go up FAST, so you've really got about an hour to play.

The tourney allows rebuys for the first hour. Nobody has really rebought more than once in the times I've played the tourney, but you could get a guy who does. The rebuy feature sometimes makes guys shove a little light early on to try to build a stack.

You'll see a lot of limping in the first two levels.

 

Good news, I'll play that !

 

While you're there, the 3-6 spread limit game has always been a little soft when I've played it. A decent player can definitely beat the rake in that game. Drink service is pretty good in the room as well.

 

Sorry, made a mistake. Not one or two hands. One or two rounds. Probably closer to one.

In 20 minutes, you'll get 10 hands, 15 if hands go really fast.

 

Great advice

 

I love playing these tourneys with horrible structures. Most of my play has been online turbos. I learned a long time ago to just be more patient than everyone. Everyone gets nervous when the blinds go up. So just be patient and wait on your hand. Once you double up you have enough chips to be patient again.

 

Especially if you're new my one piece of advice is don't try to "Act". Work on not showing your emotions at all but fake-tells usually come off very badly in new players - other amateurs aren't paying attention and pros don't get fooled.

 

You don't have to worry about playing against pros in the Monte Carlo tournaments.

 

One of the most common newbie mistakes: not announcing a raise when throwing out an oversized chip.

If it's 100 to you and you throw out a 500 chip that's a call, not a raise. You have to say the amount you want to bet either before or as you put the chip in the pot.

On the other hand, if you put a 500 and 100 chip in the post, that's a raise to 600 that doesn't have to be verbalized.