Tourney Advice - small stack, long blinds
I'm planning on playing the Seneca Octoberfest Friday tournament which has a starting stack of 5,000 and 30 minute blinds. Any advice on playing tournaments where the blind levels are a decent length but the starting stack is average? Is it better to still be more aggressive in the first two levels and try and steal blinds early, on the assumption that most players will be waiting for decent cards? Or should you be more patient and wait for decent cards in the first couple levels (25/50, 50/100) while your M is still quite large and to get a better feel for the players at the table? I find I seem to burn through chips when I play in casino based tournaments for some reason as you still get a lot of initial raises of more than 6 x the BB in the first couple of levels.
As most tournaments these days seem to be based on 20 minute (or lower) blind increments, how would the 30 minute blind level change your general approach to the tournament?
As most tournaments these days seem to be based on 20 minute (or lower) blind increments, how would the 30 minute blind level change your general approach to the tournament?
Comments
Tight is def. better at this place for 1 primary reason. The early play is terrible. This consists of about 50% of the field. In their daily tournaments there isnt really alot of room to wait around so your forced to play TPTK as the nuts.
Alot of the regulars dont convert their styles to account for the better structure - and still think TPTK is the nuts. It is relatively easy to pick these out and exploit them in the first 2-3 blind levels.
Also - I believe it starts @ 25/25, then 25/50, 50/100 - unless the structures have changed.
I doubled up at the 50-100 level when I had Kings and was in the BB. A player later raised to 600 and I smooth called expecting him to continuation bet the flop and check/raise him. Flop came, I checked and he pushed 5K. I called and he had Queens and I doubled up.
Hopefully 25/25 is the first blind level as that leaves more room for getting to know the table. I would expect the blind levels increase substancially at some point.