BUY IN TOURNAMENTS
If you're used to tournament style play then cheap buy
in tournaments may be your answer. There are a few things
you should know about buy in tournaments. There are two
main types, Sit n Go and Multi-Table. Multi table
tournaments have guaranteed prize pools or not guaranteed,
rebuy or freezeout. Sit n Go's are freezeout and
guaranteed because the tournaments don't start unless the
table is full. These will be further explained as we go.
A very important thing to check before you join a
tournament is the prize pool. Some tournaments have a
guaranteed prize pool. This means that no matter how many
players register, the prize pool is set and if it's a
re-buy, it'll get bigger. These are the ones you should
play. The other ones don't have a guarantee, which means
the prize pool depends on the number of players who
register (pay the buy in fee). The total amount of all the
buy-in's, is the prize pool. Most often, it is not worth
playing as the payout outs (amount of positions paid) are
not determined until the tournament starts and if there
are relatively few players then the payouts is limited,
meaning you have to finish really high to make the money.
Each site will have their payout structure on their site
if you want to check/find it. For example, 1 to 50 players
pay top 3, 50 to 100 pays top 10. As a rule of thumb, look
for the big guaranteed tournaments that fit your bankroll.
If your bankroll is limited, you don't want to join a
tournament where the payout is entry into another
tournament unless the tournament series is a
“rounders” type series where the tournament is a sit n
go style but there are levels (usually around 5) to get to
the final tournament where the payout is money usually the
money payouts are pretty large. Check our "poker
sites" page for sites with good tournaments.
You may notice some tournaments have the word 'turbo'
in their description. Or some other word describing speed.
This means that the game is played faster, you don't get
as long to "think" about your decisions, blinds
increase faster, the breaks are shorter and come up
usually every 30 minutes instead of every hour.
SIT N GO
Start off with the single table ones. There are some
that span a few tables. Find one that pays the top 3
places, with third usually almost doubling your buy in.
The secret to these sit n go's is patience. Watch your
opponents carefully you'll need to know when it comes down
to the bubble position. Usually you'll find that while
waiting for a good hand, 3-4 people will be out or almost
out. So almost half gone, if you managed to get chips then
you'll be near or on the bubble soon (unless you've
managed to get a lot of chips). Patience will get you half
way to the money, getting into the money depends on your
play. Get as many chips as you can when you got a hand.
You don't necessarily want to over bet and make your
opponents fold unless the cards make a risky situation.
Like in no limit, 3-4 times the bb is sufficient followed
by a check/raise should get you a nice sized pot if you
get any calls. Remember, if you get to double up, don't
squander your chips, you may not want to bully people as
one bad move can put you on the bubble, some place you
don't want to be unless it happens that way. If you're on
the bubble, play it tight and aggressive as nobody wants
to lose chips and be put on the bubble be careful of the
chip leader, if he's loose make sure your hand warrants an
aggressive bet. You need to get as many chips as you can
if only to survive the blinds and wait for someone else to
make the mistake. Each mistake is costly for any player in
a sit n go. Just make sure you're not the one making the
mistake.
MULTI TABLE
The other tournaments you might want to try are the
multiple table tournaments (multi tables). The one thing
to notice are most of these types are re-buy tournaments.
This means that during the tournament, a player can pay
the buy in again to receive another "set" of
chips, usually equivalent to the starting amount of chips
each player gets at the start of the tournament. Sometimes
these re-buys are available when a players' chip count is
less than the starting amount or when a player has lost
all their chips. There usually is a time limit associated
with re-buys, meaning you can only re-buy during the first
30 minutes or first hour of the tournament depending on
the tournament. At the end of the re-buy period there is
usually an "add-on" which is the last re-buy
opportunity given to all players. You will be at a
significant chip disadvantage if you are not able to add
on, so it would be wise to have enough for 2 re-buys and
the add on. It would be great if you didn't need to re-buy
but bad beats happen to everyone. It would also be wise to
add on when you get the chance even if you have chips. You
would not want to move down any spots due to the add-ons.
You can count on 95% of the remaining players to take
advantage of the add-on. Usually all of the re-buy/add-on
dollars are added to the prize pool. If you are able to
size up your opponents quickly you can take advantage of
those players who are relying on the re-buys to try to get
a quick chip lead. Reminiscent of the early stages of a
free roll tournament. These players most likely will be
able to afford many re-buys. If you find yourself having
to re-buy more than 3 times, then consider letting go of
this tournament. Either you are getting outplayed or the
cards are not falling for you and making up the re-buy
amounts means you will have to place higher in the
standings which will get increasingly slim as the
remaining players will have a significantly larger stack
than you and will start to play more tight therefore to
catch up you have to play loose and get lucky a few times.
Not a good scenario either way. If you are confident and
comfortable with this then continue if not, it would be
wise to quit the tournament. Or unless you have a big
enough bankroll to support the continuation of this one.
If you have a small bankroll it would be best to stick to
sit n go's rather than multi table re-buy tourneys. A
cheap buy in freeze out tournament with a large guaranteed
prize pool is good play too.
You may find that with a chip lead and 1 or 2 spots to
the money it would be best to just wait it out if the
blinds are damaging everyone at roughly the same rate. At
this stage it will be very costly for anyone to make a
mistake. Usually all the loose players are out already and
everyone is playing a waiting game. If your cards are
hitting don't be afraid to slow play a little to get a few
extra chips. The theory is that a big pre flop raise will
scare away almost everything at this point so holding a
monster and just calling may get the SB to call. If the
flop is scary, bet big. A scary flop would be one with 2
suited cards or two connected ones in the upper range of
cards. It would be unlikely at this point that anyone
would be calling with small cards unless it's a pair.
Maybe suited AND connected cards. The check/raise strategy
does well in these situations. The check gives you an
opportunity to see how strong your opponents cards are at
the expense of losing out on a round of betting if
everyone also checks and getting to see the turn card. One
thing to note in particular is the small stack or bubble
position. They will only be playing monster hands at this
point with a blind steal now and again. Hopefully you will
have been paying attention to your opponents play styles
and will be able to pick up on "fishing" bets
(bets made just to see if you'll fold or to draw more
chips into the pot) or "blocking" bets (a small
bet to induce a call to see a cheap showdown).
When you've made the money, players tend to loosen up.
This is a good opportunity for you to keep playing tight
if possible and catch their mistakes. If making the money
makes you lowest stack, keep playing tight as long as
possible and be aggressive with a good hand. At the very
least you've broken even and you need a round of blinds to
stay alive. One very important thing to keep in mind when
playing re-buys which is different from freerolling and
sit n go's is that the mid game strategies change. There
really isn't a noticeable mid game in sit n go's and the
mid game in a freeroll is to make it to the money spots.
In a rebuy, the mid game is also making it to the money
BUT you HAVE to keep in mind the blinds and upcoming
antes. If your stack is not big to begin with, you will
find yourself short stacked when playing tight and forced
to play marginal hands. Try to prevent this by maximizing
your winnings in the mid game, maybe loosen up a little.
YOU NEED CHIPS to be competitive on the final table with
the majority of the $$$ in the top 3 positions.
The multi table tournaments that do not have re-buys
are mostly named "freeze out" tournaments. Once
you lose your stack, you're busted out.
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