Face to face MTT - how different from online

Couldn't decide whether to put this here or in MTT, but decided it's more of a newbie thing.


What adjustments should I make going from online MTTs (2000 players) to a face-to-face MTT (expect 120 people). In both cases, low stakes, NLHE.

I'm guessing there's won't be the crazy laggy all-in behavior that you see at the beginning of most online MTTs, and a lot more need to judge the table and get reads on behaviors.

I'm used to playing super tight in the beginning of online MTTs, but wonder if I should be prepared to loosen up a lot in face to face.

Advice or links appreciated...

The bad thing about most low limit live Mtt's is that the structure absolutely sucks. Most are 1000 or 1500 stacks and blinds starting at 25/50 with 15 or 20 minute blind levels. Considering that live dealer and play is much slower than online you get to see about 1/2 the hands you would see online, which turns these tournaments into a turbo tournaments. You get to see very few hands and have no stack to be able to raise and get away from a lot of hands without being crippled. That being said if you are willing to play it like a turbo, (accepting coin flips and drawing hands early as ways to double up and last quite awhile) you can still be successful but playing very tight in these tournaments is the wrong way to play, unless you plan to get a great run of cards. If you are able to find one with at least 30 minute blind levels you can start to play like you would online.

Good point. This one is scheduled to run 3 hours, and the home tourney sites I've looked at for our own home games have blind scheduled that seem reasonable and are suggested to conclude in 3 hours. I can hope for that, but I think your concern is one I'll definitely have to plan for.

It's a charity game, so I expect a lot of novice players, which means calling stations, which means scary suck-outs at the end which could be painful combined with the turbo-like blinds.

I stopped playing the local 50 person mtt. Blinds up every 20 mins. It becomes 2 card bingo after 2 hours.