[chris]

I am new to tournament playing and I play at partypoker (buy-in 5+1).
The problem I have is that my chips seems to be "eaten" by the incrementing stakes.

I usually only play very good starting hands, but know I beginning to wonder if I play too tight...

Any advice?

[razor]

People will probably give you advice to steal the blinds every now and then, but I don't have the experience (been playing a whopping 11 days or so) nor do i have the guts to do so. That's why I stay away from tournaments except for freerolls of course.

I think with experience I myself will be better at judging my cards and other players' and then be confident when to steal the blinds. I just wanted to sympathise with the way you've experienced tourney play, so good luck.

[lork]

Gotta steal the blinds. There I said it.


You always have to remember that you need a better hand to call a raise with than you would raise with yourself. In the early levels of the tournament, play tight, Only enter the pot with premium hands and pocket pairs from up front. In back you might want to play some connecting cards.

When the blinds start to matter, about 50/100 or so, you need to open up. You will start playing more hands like KQ,KJ,AJ, and AT. However, you will NOT be calling with them, you will be raising with them. You need to do it at the right time though. At a full table you want to be in a middle to late position when everyone has passed to you. You are hoping to steal the blinds. However keep in mind that if you get called and you connect with the flop, you might be in trouble because the caller could have something like AK,AQ,QQ, or JJ. For this reason I will often try to steal with crap like jack four or deuce seven. They have little chance of holding up, but honestly they are no better than KQ, or KJ. If someone plays back at your steal attempt, they have in essence turned your KJ into deuce seven anyway-you are probably behind, rendering your cards worthless. They either have a pair or two big cards like AK or AQ. If you raised with J4, the flop could come JJ4. You might even be able to get your opponent to bluff at the pot, and then you can really do some damage. However, if the flop comes K high and he bets, you are done with your hand. If you held KQ on a K high flop, well you could be in trouble with a hand that's hard to get away from.

[chris]

Thanks for the advice. I have obviously played a bit to thight...
Any input are still welcome.

[pritz]

Limp in whenver possible if you have shitty cards.
If you dont know what i mean by this, I mean if you can see the flop for cheap then do it because you never know what can happen. But otherwise play only good starting hands. Also you should learn about stealing blinds and weak players and the effect it has on the game.

[DeepBlue]

Definitely, play the reasonable hands a little too - Pair of 8's for instance can become 3 of a kind or even a full house on the flop, so if it only costs you a buck or two to see the flop then do it.

There's nothing wrong with playing very tightly at the beginning, but if you are being stung by ever-increasing blinds then you aren't necessarily at the beginning anymore. Look at steals, play the odd middle of the road hand, and look at taking pots by playing aggressively when you have a strong starting hand.