[Roscopiko]

Just want some other peoples thoughts and ideas on the best strategy for this tournament.

For those who are unfarmiliar its a $10 buy in with generally 20,000+ runners and offers a whopping first prize in excess of $10,000.

Structure is standard stars with 10 min blinds and 3,000 starting stack.

I have played the tourney on a number of occassions and varied my game to everything from very tight to very loose in the early stages none with great success.

Given the number of runners and the lottery like chance of winning I am erring on the side of playing fairly loose and trying to get as many chips as possible in the early stages while there are plenty of people trying to do the same with marginal holdings.

Or should I just play my usual tight game early on and prey I get some big hands that hold up?

Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

[Swinebag]

I assume you are on about the 100K guaranteed on stars on sunday night.

There was a good thread on this a few months back

check it out

http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=769.0

[Roscopiko]

Some good posts on that thread but my point is more on strategy. It seems from those posts most people in a normal ABC way to "survive" into the money, my question is whether this is optimal strategy for such a huge field where all in o"clock occurs with so many more runners.

I.E. in a normalish tourney say 180 runners you can play to get to the cash say 18 places and at this point until maybe final table its a shove fest for the majority...so 9 places to survive and so the luck factor is not so high to go on and win.

However, when there are 3000 runners and you reach the same point, you now have to shove through 2990 players.  If you have a monster chip stack before this point you are going to steal the majority of unraised pots and further increase both your stack and chances of a BIG payday and be more protected against unfortunate suckouts.

I realise this it is not always possible to acheive this monster stack but should be a little more donkish in trying to?

[morlspin]

1min 45 seconds into last weeks i was down to 60 chips after this hand

PokerStars Game #17200100384: Tournament #86191292, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/05/04 - 15:31:45 (ET)
Table "86191292 778" 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: kinglau (3000 in chips)
Seat 2: FatalError (2960 in chips)
Seat 3: Htodust (2960 in chips)
Seat 4: Bobpoker69 (2980 in chips)
Seat 5: bennycac3 (3000 in chips)
Seat 6: tjo57 (3000 in chips)
Seat 7: morlspin (3080 in chips)
Seat 8: aykasel (3000 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 9: KonaKrazy (3020 in chips)
Bobpoker69: posts small blind 10
bennycac3: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to morlspin [ ]
tjo57: folds
morlspin: raises 60 to 80
aykasel: folds
KonaKrazy: calls 80
kinglau: folds
FatalError: folds
Htodust: raises 300 to 380
Bobpoker69: folds
bennycac3: folds
morlspin: calls 300
KonaKrazy: raises 2640 to 3020 and is all-in
Htodust: calls 2580 and is all-in
morlspin: calls 2640
*** FLOP *** [ ]
*** TURN *** [ ] []
*** RIVER *** [ ] []
*** SHOW DOWN ***
morlspin: shows [ ] (high card Ace)
KonaKrazy: shows [ ] (high card Ace)
morlspin collected 60 from side pot
KonaKrazy collected 60 from side pot
Htodust: shows [ ] (a pair of Queens)
Htodust collected 8910 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9030 Main pot 8910. Side pot 120. | Rake 0
Board [ ]
Seat 1: kinglau folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 2: FatalError folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 3: Htodust (button) showed [ ] and won (8910) with a pair of Queens
Seat 4: Bobpoker69 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: bennycac3 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: tjo57 folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 7: morlspin showed [ ] and won (60) with high card Ace
Seat 8: aykasel folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 9: KonaKrazy showed [ ] and won (60) with high card Ace

Managed to quad up and quad up again and eventually finished 787th for just over $66 and along the way i folded the following, showing that shortstack play dosent necessarily mean you have to go all in, yes the QQ looks terrible and the 10 10 but i made an extra 50 dollars.....i know i may have made more if i pushed and won, but if i can play every MTT and make 6x the buy in each time im gonna be happy!

QQ

PokerStars Game #17203797187: Tournament #86191292, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (800/1600) - 2008/05/04 - 18:04:18 (ET)
Table "86191292 1718" 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Meuci (65680 in chips)
Seat 2: MaxiPadTDI (78577 in chips)
Seat 3: kevinokocha2 (12855 in chips)
Seat 4: tycgoer (26916 in chips)
Seat 5: morlspin (16895 in chips)
Seat 6: cardsfan000 (57164 in chips)
Seat 7: MTeasy..eddy (47367 in chips)
Seat 8: jarbeans (20390 in chips)
Seat 9: darou (51824 in chips)
Meuci: posts the ante 150
MaxiPadTDI: posts the ante 150
kevinokocha2: posts the ante 150
tycgoer: posts the ante 150
morlspin: posts the ante 150
cardsfan000: posts the ante 150
MTeasy..eddy: posts the ante 150
jarbeans: posts the ante 150
darou: posts the ante 150
tycgoer: posts small blind 800
morlspin: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to morlspin [ ]
cardsfan000: calls 1600
MTeasy..eddy: folds
jarbeans: raises 18640 to 20240 and is all-in
darou: folds
Meuci: calls 20240
MaxiPadTDI: folds
kevinokocha2: folds
tycgoer: folds
morlspin: folds
cardsfan000: folds
morlspin said, "qq"
*** FLOP *** [ ]
*** TURN *** [ ] []
*** RIVER *** [ ] []
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jarbeans: shows [ Th] (a pair of Sixes)
Meuci: shows [ ] (a pair of Sixes - Ace+King kicker)
Meuci collected 45830 from pot
robwhufc is connected
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 45830 | Rake 0
Board [ ]
Seat 1: Meuci showed [ ] and won (45830) with a pair of Sixes
Seat 2: MaxiPadTDI folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 3: kevinokocha2 (button) folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 4: tycgoer (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: morlspin (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: cardsfan000 folded before Flop
Seat 7: MTeasy..eddy folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 8: jarbeans showed [ Th] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 9: darou folded before Flop (didn"t bet)

10 10

PokerStars Game #17204338836: Tournament #86191292, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (2000/4000) - 2008/05/04 - 18:27:41 (ET)
Table "86191292 1718" 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Meuci (105770 in chips)
Seat 2: MaxiPadTDI (128877 in chips)
Seat 3: kevinokocha2 (25710 in chips)
Seat 4: tycgoer (25332 in chips)
Seat 5: morlspin (4695 in chips)
Seat 6: cardsfan000 (12364 in chips)
Seat 7: MTeasy..eddy (42967 in chips)
Seat 8: robwhufc (51708 in chips)
Seat 9: darou (39624 in chips)
Meuci: posts the ante 400
MaxiPadTDI: posts the ante 400
kevinokocha2: posts the ante 400
tycgoer: posts the ante 400
morlspin: posts the ante 400
cardsfan000: posts the ante 400
MTeasy..eddy: posts the ante 400
robwhufc: posts the ante 400
darou: posts the ante 400
cardsfan000: posts small blind 2000
MTeasy..eddy: posts big blind 4000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to morlspin [Th Td]
robwhufc: folds
darou: folds
Meuci: folds
MaxiPadTDI: folds
kevinokocha2: raises 21310 to 25310 and is all-in
tycgoer: folds
morlspin has timed out
morlspin: folds
morlspin is sitting out
cardsfan000: folds
morlspin has returned
MTeasy..eddy: calls 21310
morlspin said, "arrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 10 10 again ffs"
*** FLOP *** [ Ts]
*** TURN *** [ Ts] [As]
*** RIVER *** [ Ts As] []
morlspin said, "arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MTeasy..eddy: shows [ ] (a pair of Kings)
kevinokocha2: shows [ ] (a pair of Aces)
kevinokocha2 collected 56220 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 56220 | Rake 0
Board [ Ts As ]
Seat 1: Meuci folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 2: MaxiPadTDI folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 3: kevinokocha2 showed [ ] and won (56220) with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: tycgoer folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 5: morlspin (button) folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 6: cardsfan000 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: MTeasy..eddy (big blind) showed [ ] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 8: robwhufc folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 9: darou folded before Flop (didn"t bet)

[AMRN]

In my opinion, the way you play this tourney depends on what you want out of the game. 

Any decent player should be able to make the money most of the time just by playing tight survival poker so long as your biggest hands hold up when you do play.  If you"re happy to spend 3 hours of a Sunday night turning $10 into $60, then this is the place you can do it relatively easily.

Due to small buy in, and the donkfest attitude to this game, I"ve tended to start playing it for a bit of fun early on - looking to get all in with good odds and hope for an early treble up or two, and get towards being ITM with a huge stack...... or go out very early.

I"m usually playing the iPoker $250k gtd for $215 buy-in in another window, and that one gets a whole lot more respect. The iPoker game is where I"m looking to play poker, and the Stars $100k gtd is just the sideshow (freakshow?) for a bit of fun.

[morlspin]

Any decent player should be able to make the money most of the time just by playing tight survival poker so long as your biggest hands hold up when you do play.  If you"re happy to spend 3 hours of a Sunday night turning $10 into $60, then this is the place you can do it relatively easily.

Due to small buy in, and the donkfest attitude to this game, I"ve tended to start playing it for a bit of fun early on - looking to get all in with good odds and hope for an early treble up or two, and get towards being ITM with a huge stack...... or go out very early.

This is the exact motivation i had that night, build a big stack or go play somewhere else! Hence the call when 2 all in with AK

On my regular forum we have whats called focus games, where points for league positions are given based on where you finish in that nights focus game, this was that said game, and i went from 2000+ to 787th by tight play and got myself up the league a little. Also won a little money which is always nice.

[AMRN]

Ironically, I went out of tonight"s $250k on iPoker in 300th - 150 short of the money...... but am still in the $100k on Stars!!!   i have 44k whilst average is 25k - sitting in 298 of last 2413

[morlspin]

Im sat 500th of 2300 from 20500 runners at the min on stars 100k

[AMRN]

gl - see you on final table!!

[AMRN]

now 69th of last 800 - 148k chips against average of 73k. starting to get some aspirations now

[AMRN]

.....and my point is made. Exit in 414th place after nearly 4 hours....... for a profit of a mighty $70.03. 

[lukybugur]

I was 1085th for $40. 50k to zero in three hands.

My buddy Derek (Oenone on Stars, Zanshin on here) is still going OK at 176th of 358 left. He has 148k with average 173k and has an M of 6 - a silly game this SHG

[lukybugur]

And has now just doubled up. He called a push with of AJ with his KK which held up. Now 312k and 56th of 307 remaining.

[hi_am_chris]

now railing... got nothing better to do lol

[lukybugur]

Now 77th of 192 remaining on 300k ... Go D!