online poker gurus: any special tips for my first online tourney?

[LordSnailz]

I've been playing regular tables for awhile, not too big, 0.5/1 and 1/2 and I've done well, but my friend tells me that tourney is much more fun and there are a lot less fishers.

This is my first tourney and I would suspect play would be different from plays on the regular table. Any tips or general differences between regular tables and tourney?

I'm probably going to try the lowest one first, and see how that goes. Oh and this is with partypoker.

TIA!

 

[illusion88]

Never commit all your chips except when you have the nuts. I assume you are playing on one of those single table deals. Blinds go up every 15 hands IIRC (could be every 10 hands). This means that its pretty fast action. On the 5 dollar tables you still see alot of fishes. Expect to see several people out before round 2 if you are playing NL. Just play it slow at first, but expect to switch gears soon if you want to last until the end. Once blinds get big (and this happens fast) it becomes really important to start pulling in lots of pots, stealing blinds etc. If you can win a pot every round that should put you in good position to make it to the final 3 (the payout).

Good luck!

 

[sixone]

Table image is everything. Start out tight, chose your hands very carefully. The higher the blinds, the tighter the play gets, so it's best to loosen up about mid-way thru to steal blinds and as many pots as possibe.

 

[new2AMD]

tournament play is about survival. No need to get in a pi$$in match without the hand to do it with. Live to fight anouther day until youre in the money then go for it.

 

[poopaskoopa]

Table image and position. Stealing blinds later in the game when they represent bigger part of your stack. I agree with sixone about starting out tight and getting looser and more aggressive later in the game. If it's a one-table small stakes S&G($10 for me), you can almost be robotic in your play and finish in the money consistently. If you're talking about playing those crazy ass $1/$2 MTTs, expect ridiculous all-ins pre-flop and on the flop very early in the game.

 

[Soccerman06]

if the pot is still cheap, say first round, stay in until flop, if nothin shows, either fold on a bet or check. Only play if you know you have the best hand, or you are bluffing but dont bluff for the first round because someone will always have a decent hand at the flop. Learn to save your chips and steal the blinds after half the people are gone, dont make wimpy bets.

Say if you get 2 pair off the flop but its a flush draw, look at what the other players are doing, if your first to bet, check or small raise will work, if he raises large after either of your options, it usually meens he has something (or obviously a bluff). Most pros will check a good hand on the flop so that the other player will raise.

careful, if you have a good hand, someone might have a better hand. You dont have to play every good hand, depending on raise/call situation.

 

[alien42]

what kind of tourneys? single or multi table? turbo or not?

 

[Billzie7718]

All it takes is heart.

 

[DBL]

Originally posted by: illusion88
Never commit all your chips except when you have the nuts.

C'mon, that?s not good advice. Poker is very situational. It can often be the right play to commit all your chips even on a draw. It depends on the situation.

Also, playing tight early is usually beneficial b/c pots won early usually mean a lot less than pots won later, due to the size of the blinds and the resulting pot. However, by no means should you lay down extremely strong hands early to overly aggressive opponents at small buy-in SnG's. There is just too high a probability that you hold a dominating hand.

 

[speg]

Speaking of party poker, can someone send me $0.15... I blew all my cash at the new blackjack table and can't even get in on a game of micro

 

[vrbaba]

where do u play?

eh... nevermind, didnt see it earlier. Yeah, PP sucks. It doesnt matter what you do there. lol, i got tired of it, and moved to others.

 

[Billzie7718]

Originally posted by: DBL

Originally posted by: illusion88
Never commit all your chips except when you have the nuts.

C'mon, that?s not good advice. Poker is very situational. It can often be the right play to commit all your chips even on a draw. It depends on the situation.

I will usually go all-in with rags several times throughout a tournament. I can bluff and take down the pots because people say "Never commit all your chips except when you have the nuts."

 

[DBL]

Originally posted by: Billzie7718

Originally posted by: DBL

Originally posted by: illusion88
Never commit all your chips except when you have the nuts.

C'mon, that?s not good advice. Poker is very situational. It can often be the right play to commit all your chips even on a draw. It depends on the situation.

I will usually go all-in with rags several times throughout a tournament. I can bluff and take down the pots because people say "Never commit all your chips except when you have the nuts."

Sounds like a recipe for winning a little often and losing everything eventually. Unless you are just talking about stealing blinds and even then you should probably hold something worthwhile (better than average).

 

[Billzie7718]

Originally posted by: DBL

Originally posted by: Billzie7718

Originally posted by: DBL

Originally posted by: illusion88
Never commit all your chips except when you have the nuts.

C'mon, that?s not good advice. Poker is very situational. It can often be the right play to commit all your chips even on a draw. It depends on the situation.

I will usually go all-in with rags several times throughout a tournament. I can bluff and take down the pots because people say "Never commit all your chips except when you have the nuts."

Sounds like a recipe for winning a little often and losing everything eventually. Unless you are just talking about stealing blinds and even then you should probably hold something worthwhile (better than average).

You can do it with more success than you might think. The key is being respected at the table. That means you play premium hands early, get some monsters, and conduct yourself with class (ie. don't try to be a table bully or piss people off - because at tournaments there are people playing who know they are not going to win and may call you with 7,2 just to piss you off, only to pull a 7's full boat). Once people know that you could just as likely be holding a straight flush as one pair, it gets easier to bluff it out when they seem weak.

 

[Billzie7718]

Originally posted by: Billzie7718

Originally posted by: DBL

Originally posted by: Billzie7718

Originally posted by: DBL

Originally posted by: illusion88
Never commit all your chips except when you have the nuts.

C'mon, that?s not good advice. Poker is very situational. It can often be the right play to commit all your chips even on a draw. It depends on the situation.

I will usually go all-in with rags several times throughout a tournament. I can bluff and take down the pots because people say "Never commit all your chips except when you have the nuts."

Sounds like a recipe for winning a little often and losing everything eventually. Unless you are just talking about stealing blinds and even then you should probably hold something worthwhile (better than average).

You can do it with more success than you might think. The key is being respected at the table. That means you play premium hands early, get some monsters, and conduct yourself with class (ie. don't try to be a table bully or piss people off - because at tournaments there are people playing who know they are not going to win and may call you with 7,2 just to piss you off, only to pull a 7's full boat). Once people know that you could just as likely be holding a straight flush as one pair, it gets easier to bluff it out when they seem weak.

Errr .... I totally missed the word "Online" in the OP. So unless you are playing in person at an actual table full of people, please disregard every single comment I just made. Thanks

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: speg
Speaking of party poker, can someone send me $0.15... I blew all my cash at the new blackjack table and can't even get in on a game of micro

I love reading this. Just shows that party is killing online poker by breaking up the skins and offering this stupid garbage like blackjack and betting on the flop.

 

[LordSnailz]

Thanks for the tips guys ... generally, it's the transistion point that I need to improve in, especially during home games. I can play tight and play well during first couple of rounds but then sometimes I don't realize I need to play more hands or be a bit more aggressive and 1-2 people take a good lead.

But it seems like general rule is to stay tight and have a good table image start to bluff towards the end to win it all.

What's all this stuff about pp suck and what's this skins thing and how is it hurting noobs like me?

 

[LordSnailz]

::UPDATE::
Won a few tourneys, totally agree with you guys, table image makes a hell of a difference, I was able to bluff on a number of hands, even with a small raise Tourney is definitely the way to go.
Let me know if anyone wants to play together, it's more fun that way, plus it's only $6 buy-ins.

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: LordSnailz
Thanks for the tips guys ... generally, it's the transistion point that I need to improve in, especially during home games. I can play tight and play well during first couple of rounds but then sometimes I don't realize I need to play more hands or be a bit more aggressive and 1-2 people take a good lead.

But it seems like general rule is to stay tight and have a good table image start to bluff towards the end to win it all.

What's all this stuff about pp suck and what's this skins thing and how is it hurting noobs like me?

because party has blackjack and betting on the flop which are long term losers no matter what, and all that money goes right to party. so it's less money to win from players. also there use to be a bunch of different "skins" that all used the same poker tables - party poker, empire poker, eurobet, multipoker, intertops, and pokernow were all the same site, so lots more players. However party broke off from that skin network.