Monthly neighborhood tournament...is my thinking right?

Not sure this in the right forum, if not I apologize.

It also may be a waste of a lot of peoples time, but I look at it as a legit way to pull down some bank.

I have a monthly neighborhood game, usually 2 tables, $25 buy-in, payout to top 3 or 4.

I consider myself probably top 3 of the group (this is a good indicator of how poor the play is!!) It's a given I'll make final table 90% of the time.

Usually my strategy is to play tight & let the maniacs knock down the field. Then I make the final table short stacked and try to get my chips in good.

Occasionally I'll play loose at the start and get "lucky" a few times, it's amazing how many bluffs I can pull off later.

If anyone else has a similar situation, I would be interested in your feedback.


Latah

{moved from Poker Etc}

Duh!
Thnks for moving it.

describe the pay outs and blind structure. tight is probably right early

Originally Posted by drmcboy

describe the pay outs and blind structure. tight is probably right early

If 2 full tables (18-20) will payout top 4:
1st %50
2nd %30
3rd %15
4th %5 (or buy-in back, whichever is higher)

Start w/ $1000
Blinds start @ 5/10, 10/20, etc.
go up every 15 min.

I don't know if you've checked out teh live poker forum?

I suck at the not losing to donkeys IRL, so can offer nothing apart from "tight sounds good if there's maniac donkeys around "

Thanks for the tip,

It's funny the way these guys think, I've won this thing 3 times in the last year, and ITM 7 of 12. (I wish my result were this good on-line, could probably quite my "real" job.

Their thinking is backwards IMO, I mean it is amazing how much action I'll get pre flop.... I think it's so thet can be the guy that took me out.

Are they aggressive pre-flop or are there a bunch of limpers?

Also, with your success rate it doesn't look like you need to change much here unless they start adjusting.

Originally Posted by GatorJH

Are they aggressive pre-flop or are there a bunch of limpers?

Mostly limpers pre, could even be 5-6 way pot w/ a pre-flop raise, and multi-way called to the river, which to me makes it hard to put them on a hand.

Also I agree w/ your 2nd post, just trying to fine tune if able because I feel I should be winning even more.

The best advice I can give you when against multiple maniacs is to make your raises scare even them. I play a home game now and then with some guys who seem to unconsciously compete for the most aggression. I adopt the same strategy you do; play tight, get the money in when good and almost always cash.

In my game, the guys know when I get in a pot they should probably be more cautious since I'm holding basically one of seven or eight hands (excluding the times I choose to bluff), but it sounds like your opponents think the opposite way...so my advice would be to raise such a ridiculous amount when you've got a hand that only one of them has the balls to call you. If you pick up AA you don't want 4-5 people "trying to bust you," so make it a serious raise (or just go AI pf if the blinds are high enough).

I remember the day I started doing this. Previously I had just accepted the fact that my raise was going to be called by everyone at the table, but I picked up KK one day and figured...what the hell, someone's going to call me anyway...and pushed all in. After about 3 minutes of being jokingly mocked for "just trying to steal the blinds", a guy called me with QJs. Cha-ching!

Good luck in your game!

Originally Posted by tim412

Originally Posted by GatorJH

Are they aggressive pre-flop or are there a bunch of limpers?

Mostly limpers pre, could even be 5-6 way pot w/ a pre-flop raise, and multi-way called to the river, which to me makes it hard to put them on a hand.

Also I agree w/ your 2nd post, just trying to fine tune if able because I feel I should be winning even more.

If that is the case then play very tight when you are in early to mid position and make higher than normal raises to keep the field down when you do enter a pot. When you are in the CO and Btn with hands like suited connectors, one gappers, etc. (hands with good drawing potential) and there are a bunch of limpers, limp along but ONLY play them post flop when you hit in general a two pair or bigger hand.

Also resist the urge to play more hands from the blinds as being OOP against these types of players just sucks.

One othe piece of advice is to REALLY see what kinds of hands each player is taking to the river. For example there are probably a couple that will run with any pair, even bottom pair; and there are probably some that chase draws to the river but give up there. This type of information will be valuable as you can value town the first guy to death and bluff the second guy off of his missed draw.

For example there is one guy in a home game that I play in who LOVES to float flops but will give up on the turn unless he has something. I used to check the turn until I realized what he was doing. Now I fire 2 barrells at him consistently, even if I have air.

Thanks for the advice guys,
Game is tonight, we'll see how it goes.
It sounds like there is a knockout bounty on each player this time, like this group needs any incentive to play loose!!

Well, I followed the advice of Taicho & GatorJH.
Sort of a poor turn out 12 players (ran w/ 2 6-handed tables)
Started w/ 1500, 1st level was 10/25 for 20 min.

Stayed tight for first 2 blind levels, then got to 50/100 and 1 dropped out.

I get AA UTG+1

UTG called $100, I raised to $600(1/2 my stack)
CO fold
BTN fold
SB goes all in(I barely have him covered)
BB & UTG fold
I obviously call
SB says: "Your Dead!" (I assume we'll be chopping)
He flips KK
I grin & say "No, You are!!"
Imagine that AA holds up!(actually flopped an Ace for good measure)

That hand propelled me to final table(6 players).
Finished 3rd after a couple of suck outs

Oh well, back to the 2NL grind!

congrats on the 3rd place finish!!!

Originally Posted by GatorJH

congrats on the 3rd place finish!!!

Thnx,

Buy-in was $20,
I got $40
Any time you double up, it's good.

Nice, grats