Posted by Junelli 1:17 PM
A very good player recently gave me some very helpful advice for playing the big online multi-table tournaments. Here it is:

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Generally, in the large-field tourneys, you have to give the deck a chance to hit you early. It's a big advantage to build an above average stack as you head into the blind- stealing middle stages. You want to see some cheap flops in the first 2-3 levels, particularly in position. And by cheap, that includes calling a reasonable raise multiway (ie 10-20 blinds, someone makes it 60, someone else calls and you have 2500 on the button - call that suited
2 gapper).

Take some chances early (slowplay, draw to a gutshot if the impied odds are there, bet a flush draw etc) to try and maximize your stack while the bad players are still in the tourney.

You build your stack early against the people who can't lay an overpair or TPTK down against your 2 pair, set, straight, etc. By the same token, you normally don't want to be going to the mat early in the tourney with one pair. Especially if there is a lot of action post flop.

Special note on AA-KK early in these tourneys. I'll either 1) limp with them, looking to play a small pot unless I flop a set or 2) I will open raise them between 1/6th and 1/5th of my stack. When I make a big raise (ie I have 2500, I raise to 450 when the blinds are 10-20), I am looking to pick a fight with someone who has AK or QQ-TT. A pocket pair is 7:5:1 against AA on the flop. So if they call 5:1 preflop, they are not getting correct implied odds to flop a set. In other words, if they flop a set, they paid too much to get there even if they get my whole stack. KK is a little tricky when an Ace flops after you made a big raise, but that only happens about 20% of the time.

I don't know if party poker has antes, but about the middle of the second hour, you should start to pick your spots to steal blinds. Play good in early position, but in middle position if no one has entered the pot, you can open up and raise most any reasonable looking hand. If you show down a bad hand, be aware of your image. TIghten up for awhile. You generally want to be raising the blinds twice an orbit from the 7th level on. Be aware of stealing opportunities on the bubble.

Stack awareness is key. If you have read Harrington, he says M is the ratio of your stack divided by the blinds + antes. In other words, how many "orbits" you have left. At an M of 5 or less, you
are in the all-in stage.

At Ms of 6-10, you are borderline all-in stage. In most internet tourneys, the average stack will have an M of 10 on the bubble, which gets to be an all-in fest. Hopefully, you'll have an M of 20 or more in the late stages.

Often you will raise and someone else will raise all in over the top. Here's a key concept. If you are getting 3:2 on the call, you can call with a hand that you think is in the pusher's range of hands. If you are getting 2:1 on the call, you can call with a hand that is a couple of notches worse than worst hand in the raisers' range. If you are getting 6:5, you can only call with a hand that is a couple notches better than the worst hand in the raiser's range.

Example. You have 20K and the blinds are 400-800. Your M is 17. You raise to 2000. A short stack goes all in for 7K. It costs you 5K to win 10,200, so you are getting 2:1. You figure the raiser has AA-99 or AK-AQ. You can call with AA-22, AK-AQ and suited broadway hands. If you figure the raiser is tighter, lets say AA-JJ + AK, then you can call with AA-TT + AK.

However, if the guy pushes all in for 12K, now it costs you 10K to win 15,200. You are getting 3:2. Now you have to a hand in his range to call.

If he pushes all in for 20K, putting you all in and giving you 23,200:18,000 or roughly 4:3 odds, now you need a hand significantly better than his range. If you put him on AA-JJ + AK, you can only call with AA-QQ.

Good luck to you.


PS - Don't get down if things don't work out. Most of the money is at the final table, and that's a hard place to get. To go deep in a 5000 person event, you are going to have to win all of your key races, suck out a couple of times with the worst hand, and not suffer any crippling bad beats. Your job is to make the best decisions you can and hope the deck is kind. Focus on process and not results.

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