Monday, April 7, 2008
Small-Stakes Multi-Table Online Poker Tournaments
Every major online site runs some of these tournaments each day. In the case of the major sites, there may be dozens of such events every day. Entry fees range from $1 to $30. (Larger entry fees than this go in a separate category, as they will start to attract the pros.) The number of players could be as high as several thousand. Your buy-in will get you $1,000 to $1,500 in tournament chips, and the blinds will start in the $5/$10 or $10/$20 area. The blinds will increase rapidly, however, as the rounds will typically be very short: perhaps 5, 10, or 12 minutes each, allowing only 8-to-12 hands per round.
These tournaments obviously involve much more luck than the slower live events. The combination of the large number of inexperienced players, short rounds, and rapidly-increasing blind structure means that you're compelled to play quickly and aggressively just to stay ahead of the blinds. However, there's still plenty of scope for strategy, and a skilled player can do much better than average. Here are a few tips.
1. Don't plan on being able to use your powers of observation very much. Players will constantly be moving all their chips in and getting knocked out, so tables don't stay together long enough to get solid information on the other players. Most of your hands will need to be evaluated in a vacuum.
2. Don't plan on running any bluffs. Players are extremely aggressive; they're looking to double up quickly, and they don't need much to call. You'll see plenty of all-in showdowns where a pair of fours butts up against an ace-six offsuit. The bottom line: Your shrewd, well-considered bluff to steal the pot will probably be answered by a big reraise followed by an all-in! Don't bother. Just make sure you have a hand when you get a lot of chips in the pot. (Interestingly, although bluffs don't work in these games, you'll still see plenty of bluffs tried.)
3. Betting patterns are very different from normal poker. At least in the early stages of these tournaments, there's very little actual value betting. Slow-playing, trapping, and all-in bets predominate. A solid value bet, for instance, is almost always paid off, sometimes with a big reraise.
4. Crowded pots. Before the flop, the pot may be crowded with five to seven limpers. A significant raise after several players have limped in won't thin the field; it will only function as a pot-sweetner.
5. Optimal strategy. With so many players playing so aggressively, a conservative strategy ought to pay big dividends, since strong hands rate to get paid very well. If the blinds were increasing slowly, and the rounds were longer, this would certainly be true. But with short rounds and sharp blind increases, a strictly conservative approach won't yield results fast enough to keep your stack from shrinking as the blinds come charging. While you should be generally conservative, you have to mix in two other ideas:
A. In late position, try to see some cheap flops with suited-connectors or small pairs, in the hope of flopping a monster that could let you double up. The large number of players in each pot makes your implied odds huge when you hit a set, straight, or a flush.
B. Push your good hands (top pairs, trips) to the maximum, again with the hope of doubling up. You're much more likely to be called all-in than in a normal tournament. Remember that even your weaker top pair hands, like nines and eights, go up in value while high unpaired cards go down in value.
These tournaments obviously involve much more luck than the slower live events. The combination of the large number of inexperienced players, short rounds, and rapidly-increasing blind structure means that you're compelled to play quickly and aggressively just to stay ahead of the blinds. However, there's still plenty of scope for strategy, and a skilled player can do much better than average. Here are a few tips.
1. Don't plan on being able to use your powers of observation very much. Players will constantly be moving all their chips in and getting knocked out, so tables don't stay together long enough to get solid information on the other players. Most of your hands will need to be evaluated in a vacuum.
2. Don't plan on running any bluffs. Players are extremely aggressive; they're looking to double up quickly, and they don't need much to call. You'll see plenty of all-in showdowns where a pair of fours butts up against an ace-six offsuit. The bottom line: Your shrewd, well-considered bluff to steal the pot will probably be answered by a big reraise followed by an all-in! Don't bother. Just make sure you have a hand when you get a lot of chips in the pot. (Interestingly, although bluffs don't work in these games, you'll still see plenty of bluffs tried.)
3. Betting patterns are very different from normal poker. At least in the early stages of these tournaments, there's very little actual value betting. Slow-playing, trapping, and all-in bets predominate. A solid value bet, for instance, is almost always paid off, sometimes with a big reraise.
4. Crowded pots. Before the flop, the pot may be crowded with five to seven limpers. A significant raise after several players have limped in won't thin the field; it will only function as a pot-sweetner.
5. Optimal strategy. With so many players playing so aggressively, a conservative strategy ought to pay big dividends, since strong hands rate to get paid very well. If the blinds were increasing slowly, and the rounds were longer, this would certainly be true. But with short rounds and sharp blind increases, a strictly conservative approach won't yield results fast enough to keep your stack from shrinking as the blinds come charging. While you should be generally conservative, you have to mix in two other ideas:
A. In late position, try to see some cheap flops with suited-connectors or small pairs, in the hope of flopping a monster that could let you double up. The large number of players in each pot makes your implied odds huge when you hit a set, straight, or a flush.
B. Push your good hands (top pairs, trips) to the maximum, again with the hope of doubling up. You're much more likely to be called all-in than in a normal tournament. Remember that even your weaker top pair hands, like nines and eights, go up in value while high unpaired cards go down in value.
# posted by bonycamel @ 1:42 AM 
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