Tight Poker

[Linuxrocks]

Ok, a few people have requested this, so let's talk about strategy. Usually 1/3 of my monthly poker income comes from satellites and they are very profitable. I see many players making horrendous mistakes like calling all-ins with AQ (when you have a healthy stack) etc. I am going to list a few things in no particular order. Take FWIW.

1. Playing sats for making money involves selling/trading T$ or W$. You may have to use the 2+2 thread for this. Of course, if you want to play the tourney itself at a lower price, more power to you. Don't forget to unregister if you just want the W$ or T$
2. All sats are not equal. SNG, DSO, TSO sats that pay only one seat or require you to win one or more SNGs are usually tough. The variance is obviously high. No matter how good you think you are, you are not going to win the first level of a DSO more than 7-10% of the time. Another problem with DSO, TSOs is that they take inordinate amount of time as you have to wait for others to finish
3. MTT sats are good and MTT rebuy sats are better
4. Choosing the right satellite is important. A 3R to win 215$ requires more luck than a 11R to win 215$. Go figure.

I am going to talk about rebuy sats only because that's what I play most.

1. The rebuy tournaments have insane structure and you have to play carefully. The blinds increase every 5 minutes.
2. In the rebuy period, the usual rebuy strategy. Doble up, triple up, slow play aces, whatever. Check my old rebuy strategy guide.
3. Take the add-on of course.
4. After this, the real game begins. You have to steal to stay alive, but you don't have to over do it. Keep an eye on your position, average stack and number of players.
5. The most important thing is to minimize risk. You can't call all-ins with AK some times.
6. The goal is to get an entry, not to get chips.
7. In my experience, usually there will be just one spot where you must win to get an entry. Some tournaments require more of these. 11R is a good example where you just have to win one flip or important hand and that's it, after that you can fold every hand.
8. It's easier to steal from big stacks than short stacks.
9. Stalling is usually not necessary, but you may be forced to do it at times. You just can't throw away 215$ because you think it's bad. It's not, and it's part of the strategy. If you think you need to stall, you might have missed the sweet spot to double up or steal blinds. Some times, it happens, don't sweat it.

Go play a few of these and make some money. I think point 7 is the most important of all. Figuring out that spot is what takes a little bit of practice. You have to choose the right set of opponents (in blinds) to steal to make it work.

If you have questions, post here.

[mewsiclovr]

Bankroll considerations...11r seems a little steep to me with a ~700 roll. Am I too nitty? What kind of bankroll is adequate to do these with any regularity?

[crunny]

Nice post! You make it sound very interesting. I may have to try one of these sometime!!

Also, whats you average cost for the 11R??

[tightpoker]

I also have to mention that there's a certain element of math theory that goes into the early levels of a rebuy. Going for a stack early in the game is of critical importance in rebuys. Playing tight is often a very bad idea in rebuys until after rebuys are over, as you want to play as many possible hands as possible with players that are often far inferior players.

An example is if 4 people are all in and you have 55, it wouldn't be a bad decision to call here depending on the variables. If it were the first hand, I would call here just to bump up to the 5000 chip lead in the event of a set. Most likely I won't win and long term, it's not great, but I know that giving me an early chip lead like this against a table of weak players will easily give me the power to lay on the hurt.

For those familiar with sports, the big stack early in a rebuy is like a power play. There's no certainty of holding it forever or that it'll work out to something good, but when you do have it, you need to try and do as much damage as humanly possible.

[Linuxrocks]

Bankroll considerations...11r seems a little steep to me with a ~700 roll. Am I too nitty? What kind of bankroll is adequate to do these with any regularity?

My average cost seems to be around 5x buy-in, so, with that in consideration ~700$ roll is quite adequate. Don't bother playing the 3R unless for practice. It's too much of a crap shoot at times if you don't double up early. I don't have my ITM numbers here, but I think it's around 60-70%. ROI is obviously well in excess of 200% with winrate probably ranging around 40-50$/hr.

That said, there will be times, you just want to quit (or not try for a double up) after putting some thing like 4x buy-in as you just don't have good stack and the rebuy period is almost over. This is what causes some of the variance and keep that in mind.

[Linuxrocks]

Nice post! You make it sound very interesting. I may have to try one of these sometime!!

Also, whats you average cost for the 11R??

Average is around 5x buy-in. This is not a real MTT, so don't go fooling around spending higher than that. If you don't double up much (say after burning two buy-ins), just make the one rebuy, stay at 2x chips and, take the add-on and play.

[mewsiclovr]

Do you have a link to your old rebuy strat? I searched but came up empty.

[Linuxrocks]

Do you have a link to your old rebuy strat? I searched but came up empty.

It's here, in best of the forum section

[darinvg]

Nice post. I never try any of these things but can see how it can be pretty profitable. I'm pretty set in my ways w/ my STTs.
One question though. What are W$ and T$ and the difference. Can you use them for STTs?

[Linuxrocks]

T$ are just like money except that you can't cash and use them in cash games. You can just use them for playing tournaments. I almost always play my T$ in SNGs instead of trading them for money. If you are trading T$, don't go below 98% exchange rate.

W$ are different because they can only be used to play certain class of tournaments usually starting with a W like WCOOP, WPT etc. So, these are not that useful unless you cash. Trading usually is done at 85-90%.