Quick need help! Tournament in 2 hours

Watup everybody I didnt wanna post this in the home games forum because nobody would read it before my tournament tonight. My girlfriends dad invited me to a tournament that starts in 2 hours. I know nothing about the competition except its a bunch older guys. I will be the absolute youngest one there.

He is running the tournament as a $25 buyin. It has 10-12 people and will be divided up into 2 tables of 5-6 people each until half are knocked out where the final table will be played. So the tournament will be shorthanded play the whole time.

The way they are doing the prize distribution (everyone at the final table gets $10 and then the finalist gets 60% of pool..it wasnt made very clear)and the way they talk in general has me thinking that they do not have real tournament experience. They do play often, but I dont think there are any real studiers in the group. I have no idea about the blind structure, but I assume it will be low and slow.

The main thing I want to know is how you would go about playing a shorthanded tournament. I know that more hands will be considered good, but I also do not want to play like I am at the final table and blow myself out before even reaching it.

I will just have to see who is bluffable, who is there to drink and etc and adjust according to what I see. So dont tell me that.

From the few sketchy details Ive offered, what advice is out there waiting for me inside your brains?

And hurry up.

PS - You are the first and only ones I have come to for help, so feel special or something...

My first thing would be to adjust to everyone's style of play around you...The first few orbits stay away from any draws and play only top 10 hands. By that time u should see who's who at the table...When you start getting short-stacked, make moves on smaller stacks that you have position on, force THEM to make a decision, don't be a caller, be a raiser and mix up your play more often....that's my 2 cents of advice.

Thanks for the tips. Ok well I have to leave early now, so just wish me luck. Ill be back with results later.

super tight is right

So how did you do .....?

Well, only 9 people showed up and I ended up taking 3rd. Because of the damn payout structure I only got paid $10 back out of my original $25 but it was more fun than anything. My girlfriends dad bought me some coronas for my birthday so of course I had to put em away (into my gut) during the game but I think I played well.

The table I played at started with 5 people and the first hand I was dealt AA under the gun. I raised it 100 chips (we had 1500) and got folds all around I guess I thought they would play looser than that but oh well.

After that I played pretty tight and built my stack up without seeing any showdowns. In fact, after one time I took the pot 2 guys mentioned what they had, and it was hard to keep myself from telling them that the worst hand had just bought the pot. I stole many more pots than my tight image revealed.

I did get short at one point but I went all in with AK against the big stack and doubled up into safety. That was my first gamble.

The final table ended up with 4 people, my buddy busted out when his J high flush ran into an ace high flush. Pretty tough shit considering there were only 3 spades out.

The blinds went up pretty fast and capped at 50-100 but I couldnt get shit. I know against 2 only people your hand values need to go down but I couldnt come up with anything whatsoever so my stack dwindled pretty fast. I think I took one pot after raising with A7 (2 callers)and then betting half of my littleass stack when 2 queens flopped.

After that I hit absolutely nothing, while the chip leader took many pots with 63o's that won showdowns. When I was down to about 400 chips I took my last fatal gamble with KQ.

I decided that I would go all in with it no matter what flopped because to raise it I would need half my stack anyways. I knew it was risky not going all in in the first place but I was willing to get a caller or 2 to put some chips in and then cross my fingers. Villain took the rest of my chips when his K10 hit an ace high straight while I managed a pair of queens. I knew I shouldnt have bet into the board (showing JQA89) but my mind was made up about the all-in scenario. I feel that that was the only major mistake I made. I pretty much gave up and crossed my fingers and threw the chips in.

Besides that last hand, I think I made a pretty good showing. The play got pretty loose after the first few hands and I stayed out of the way while they all had at it.

One interesting side note - In playing online SNGs, I dont think twice to bet the blanks on the flop if I raised preflop. Looking someone in the eyes and putting your chips in against them was a pretty funny feeling the first time I did that with absolutely nothing of a hand.