tourney advice

[DASH7]

I've started playing some freeroll tourneys on
Party Poker and Pokerstars (still haven't taken the plunge into real money games yet). I was wondering if anyone has good tourney strategy.
It seems I start out pretty good early on by playing tight-agressive poker and I seem to last into the top 10 to 20 percent of the starting players but by then my stack is alot lower than many others. I loosen up a bit knowing the blinds are going to start eating me up but I still get eliminated. Should I play a little looser early on or stick to what I'm comfortable with-tight agressive?

[Dave B]

I have been playing a lot of tournaments lately. I know exactly what you mean. One thing that I have noticed is that people are much more aggressive than they probably should be. What I have success doing is being real tight as far as the hands that I play. But when I play a hand, I play it very strong. Many people in NL will go all in w/ a top pair and an ace or bet big w/ a straight or flush draw. Wait for a set, str8 or flush and clean them out when they do.

[DASH7]

I've noticed that also. I've noticed a few of the large stack players play real tight-strong poker but a few are also pretty loose. I always wonder if it is more luck than good strong poker. Of course I would guess that freeroll tourneys are going to be different (player quality) than most rel tourneys. I may be wrong though-like I said, I'm still fairly new at this online thing.
Thanks

[PokerGoblin]

Freerolls are easy to advance in just simply because the first hour the field is reduced to about 40% because all the bad players are eliminated early. If you happen to draw strong cards early, you can take advantage and profit from their stupidity. If not, just sit back and let the idiots weed themselves out and keep your bankroll while the blinds are still low.

You can usually keep an eye on the average chip count of the remaining players. If you watch that and you find yourself falling below the avg., then you need to play the strong hands a little more aggressively or maybe try to limp in on a few marginal hands that you might normally throw away. If you're riding well and comfortably above the avg. you can either play very conservatively, or you can try and limp in before the flop and then bully your way to an even bigger stack, you just have to be very selective on which pots can be bought and which players will be bullied.

What I usually try to do is to maintain my roll at the average, then try to bust 'em when I flop the nuts. No point in betting big before the flop early in the tournament, if you do you might end up scaring everyone off and buying a dinky pot, or you might get called and wind up getting beat on the flop or worse, the river, when it's cost you even more chips. When you're in a hole early in a tournament it is often difficult to recover.

Hope that helps

PG

[xStratePhlushx]

I play MANY tourneys at Poker Stars and I used to find myself in the exact same predicament. Basically what you need to do is start the tournament playing very slowly. Get a feel for the players at the table, what they play, who are the weak ones, who are overly agressive, etc.

I do this every time i switch tables, often not playing the first few hands regardless of what I have (except top pairs and AKs). The weaker players will call on anything so bet big when you have a strong hand. The aggressive players will all in you to steal the pot so slow play your hand and take all their chips. Taking advantage of these weaknesses will make you a lot of chips early.

Also, before the blinds go up play more starting hands. Sometimes I play almost anything (as long as theres no big raise by a weak or tight player) and try to make some cash early. Don't, however, make mistakes for many chips with marginal hands. A good assumption is that if you turn top pair, someone else has the pair with an ace kicker. When you play more starting hands you are NOT trying to make pairs. Don't try to win a big pot with a small pair, wait till that hand makes a straight or at least 2 pair. Even then don't get caught calling off your money to a bigger hand. When the blinds start going up tighten up and play solid.

Basically the beginning of the tournament is the most important time because most of the people you play against won't be any good. Exploit their weaknesses and they will give you all their chips. Make solid moves yourself and never make a mistake for all YOUR chips. I often don't go all-in until I am shortstacked.

With these considerations and playing every day, you will be making the final tables in no time.

-xStratePhlushx-

[golddog]

I've done pretty well (both on-line play and B&M) in (generally) playing it like a tollbooth operator early on.

If I've got 'em, I'm going to charge you a toll to see 'em. If everyone folds right then, and I win a small pot, that's fine. Once you've been called down a few times and establish that you're a solid player playing good hands, I think it makes it a bit easier to steal a pot here and there.

Of course, the initial requirement of getting a few good hands to play doesn't always happen...

[DASH7]

Thanks everybody for the advice. I'll keep trying and hopefully start playing in some real money tourneys soon.