Push Poker?

[Fade]

it seems that with the increase in popularity of poker, more and more local clubs are featuring weekly tournaments (about 40 players with final 16 getting payed).

but the thing is, the starting number of chips compared to the blinds has a m of 20, with blinds doubling once every 15 minutes, the game has turned into push or fold poker. A full table is 8 players btw, so that means you take more blinds than usual as well.

structure: 1500 starting chip
blinds at 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 200/400, 300/600, 500/1000, 1000/2000, 1500/3000, 2000/4000, 2500/5000, 3000/6000, 5000/10000 ... etc?
at the start of the 100/200 blinds, every gets chipped up and an additional 1000 chips is given to everyone.

the standards of play has fallen drastically due to the influx of new players with an average of 4-6 players limping into the pot at a any given time. due to this, a decent raise of 4 times to BB at late position would not chase out any players due to the good pot odds. Any higher raise would put too big of a dent in your chips and you would be better off with an all in. Bluffs rarely ever work with players being more than happy to call to the river with a medium pair with 2 overcards on the board. flopping a good hand betting for maximum value (perhaps even overbets) would always get payed off, but the structure of the blinds would mean that playing too tight would get you blinded out very quickly. playing looser would eat up your chip count fast if you don't flop anything.

so how do someone approach this sort of game?

[gop2004]

I would approach it by not playing in it. Not joking. Why waste your bankroll on a crapshoot? Real Craps is more fun.

If you simply must play it, don't play anything you're not willing to AI preflop. Watch out for players who have you covered. Go allin if you must but don't get PUT AI. Play it like a $2 SNG, wait for a premium hand and get the max from it.

[Fade]

actually, I was just thinking that maybe I shouldn't play it at all.

I prefer when the number of BB is about 100-200.

[Chopper]

i would look closely at the structure and traffic (players' number of, and skill level) before playing in any of them.

that one you mention sucks.

only play the ones that allow your post flop skills to gain an edge.

even online is iffy, at times. you still have to study the structure a bit...to get an idea of how the tourney will play.

[Fade]

what sort of structure do you have in mind? give some examples. from there I can work out which ones are best by comparing the blinds with the size of chip stack. also I heard 7 min of online play equals to approximately 20min of real life play, so please specify whether its online or real life play.

[Chopper]

nothing specific. but, when i started playing tourneys a couple years ago, i started at pacific. i also played at sun. i cant remember specifics at sun, but i didnt like it, either.

starting chips of 800 and blinds of 10/20(i think)...too small a chip stack to start out with, imo. i ended up pushing too quickly...even after a decent start.

stars was better...deeper stacks, and blinds went up a little slower.

at the time, stars was regarded as the best tourney structure (and fishiest) there was available.

as a result, i feel most have copied their model.

try some "deep stack" or "double stack" tourneys. i know FTP has them...starting at the 10NL level, so, your roll needs to be able to handle them.

some people are better at push-poker than i am...they like turbos...i dont. to me, they force me into pushing too quickly, as the blinds go up crazy fast.

i sound like i would like a tourney that gives you 10000 chips, and starts with blinds at 5/10 or 10/20 with levels going up every hour or two...

i would. but, i think (and i may be way off) thats what the WSOP does...and you see how long it lasts. no way you can do that online. so, there has to be a happy medium somewhere.

SNGs typically are designed to go 1.5-2 hrs, i think. so, they go fast, by design. the other methods mimicking live tourneys would never hold the attention span of the online player...or even be profitable. so, we are stuck with whatever they offer.

i would just look for the slower level increases, and the deepest starting stack you can find, and start out there.

any other recommendations by some of you who play several sites?

[dstir2]

don't play this tourney. if you must, you're either pushing preflop or checking your bb and hoping to catch something. that's sadly the only way you can approach it with some hope of success.