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pokerpops:
Yes, it"s another blog!

Somewhere to share my thoughts and experiences of poker. I"m a recreational poker player with a moderate amount of ability and a reasonably balanced view of how the game works. I try to improve and to increase my understanding of the techincalities of the game and I love live poker.

I posted this elsewhere, but having thought about a blog here for quite a while I decided to share it as my first substantive post.


I had a meeting in Newcastle yesterday that ended just after 2 so, having never played at Aspers Newcastle before I thought I"d give the 3pm tournament a whirl.
£10+£2 with one re-entry allowed, £500 guaranteed and when I joined it there were 19 runners - I"m thinking Top 3 paid and maybe £250 for 1st here...
By the time the second level ended there were about 30 entrants and with the re-entries added there were 47 stacks in play. OK, minimal overlay, but still, Top 4 paid, maybe Top 5, still a decent amount up top

Imagine my surprise when I saw the Prize Distribution on the screen and it showed prizes down to 10th
10th! and the prize for 10th? In a £10+£2 tournament in which over half the field had a re-entry?
£10
Same for 9th too
1st was now £170 - 34% of the pot in a 30 runner tournament...

Want to know what capped off my bemusement?

When we got to the final table bubble, with 10th place being worth £10 remember, there was a clamour from most of the players for a "saver"...
Snap refused to even consider it, despite the whining from the other table about "how much quicker we"ll get to the final table"

Then!!!
The top prize was reduced by another £20 "for the valets". Now they"d been pretty good, and I never begrudge a tip to those who get paid minimum wage and work hard, but we were coerced into this and that never sits well. I suggested that 9th and 10th place should pay the tip but that didn"t seem a popular idea with Mr Whineabout the bubble payment so went along with the "off the top" suggestion.

What makes this all even more amusing/bemusing is that even with a payout structure that paid £10 for 10th and £40 for 4th people were openly laddering (or really not very aware of how to play poker...)
Limping in utg at 1500/3000 from a 10k stack and then folding to a raise was a favourite move
Limping utg at 800/1600 with A6 off and calling a raise to 3400 from a 20k stack then jamming a flop which was AK5 two spades... yes, he won that pot vs my A4ss but he got it in with a 22% chance of that and virtually no equity against my range to call. (50p set aside for this)

That hand, plus a couple of compulsory calls of shortstack shoves that didn"t work out led to my falling from chipleader (+25% of chips in play at the start of the FT, slightly more at the start of the hand) to an exit in 4th, for the lifechanging sum of £40

I queried the payouts with the cardroom staff and apparently they are as they are because when they were set at 10% of the field +1 the regulars complained and the game got less runners...

Zozzy:
Hello David
This is a typical recreational game and should be treated as such. It costs a tenner as you say, so people could be there for the first time to learn the game after watching poker on telly for example, or they could be simply choosing to play instead of going to the boozer or bookies on a wednesday afternoon.
If you are there to try and win and make money (and so you should) then your approach needs to be different than if you were sitting down at a £100+ buy-in.
Your opponent"s general play which you describe are to be expected, this is what the poker coaches describe as Level 1 thinking, which is basically playing the strength of their own cards. You recognise the fundamental mistakes and I would presume you to be Level 2 / Level 3 thinking.
Instead of being critical of your opponent"s play, adjust your strategy
A standard 2 1/2bb - 3bb raise at this type of game could often get four or five callers (fish) with any two cards , so make them pay for attempting the badbeat and raise 4X or 5X. Level 1 thinkers don"t recognise this as abnormal.
Also tighten up your starting hand range. At this standard of tourney you can sit there for half an hour without playing a hand and suddenly raise in EP. Players won"t label you as tight or LAG so you don"t have that constant battle at the table as to what image you have, adjusting to their perception of you etc. etc. as is normal in the higher stakes tournaments.

Be a Fish! (this doesn"t sound like professional advice  :) )
What I am really saying is that you have big implied odds at this level. Bet sizing is a common mistake at lower limit buy-ins. Take advantage of this when an opponent min raises with his premium hand. It is common to see very small initial bets on the flop and turn compared to the pot size. Take advantage of this, you could hit your miracle gutshot to the nuts cheap, and these same players will call massive overbets on the river.
Novice players find it hard to lay down AA ,  KK for example.

Position is just as important as always.

The above advice if applied to a standard £100 buy-in event is nonsense. If you are up against thinking players then standard raises generally mean what they say. Also The metagame becomes important

When someone is starting out it is easy to pick up bad habits playing in these types of games and moving up to a standard game with a bigger buy-in is often difficult at first.

PHIL_TC:

--- Quote from: Zozzy on February 23, 2012, 12:26:46 PM ---
Be a Fish! (this doesn"t sound like professional advice  :) )

--- End quote ---


Please don"t encourage him  ;)

Nice to see the starting up a blog Dave... will see you later this evening although we maybe slightly inebriated by then x

pokerpops:

--- Quote from: PHIL_TC on February 23, 2012, 12:29:36 PM ---

--- Quote from: Zozzy on February 23, 2012, 12:26:46 PM ---
Be a Fish! (this doesn"t sound like professional advice  :) )

--- End quote ---


Please don"t encourage him  ;)

Nice to see the starting up a blog Dave... will see you later this evening although we maybe slightly inebriated by then x

--- End quote ---


I"m swerving the mayhem tonight Phil - I"ll read about it in Stu"s blog first thing Friday  ;)

Zozzy:
Sorry for getting carried away with my long winded reply  :-[  My passion for poker runs away with me sometimes.

Great to see your Blog start. It is good to read experiences Dave
And Phil we have something in common I am meeting a couple of mates this afternoon and there is a strong possibility of ending up slightly inebriated  :)

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