Brantford Tournament Strategy
Seeing as this is a re-buy tournament which is new to me I had a few questions...
#1 With the ability to re-buy should I wait until the re-buy period is over to bluff since calling and losing your stack is not a problem to most players willing to re-buy?
#2 Should I gamble to try and build a big stack until the end of the re-buy? I have a big enough bank-roll that I am willing to use the re-buy option.
#3 My normal tournament strategy that I have had some success with has me playing pretty tight until near the money where I have been able to build up a nice stack or go bust of course. Should I alter this and start out aggressive since there is not a big consequence to losing my entire stack until the re-buy period ends? and then switch right after?
I would appreciate any help you could give me. Go ahead Scotty and throw your 2 cents in to
Just no advice from Keith since I take his money on a regular basis!
#1 With the ability to re-buy should I wait until the re-buy period is over to bluff since calling and losing your stack is not a problem to most players willing to re-buy?
#2 Should I gamble to try and build a big stack until the end of the re-buy? I have a big enough bank-roll that I am willing to use the re-buy option.
#3 My normal tournament strategy that I have had some success with has me playing pretty tight until near the money where I have been able to build up a nice stack or go bust of course. Should I alter this and start out aggressive since there is not a big consequence to losing my entire stack until the re-buy period ends? and then switch right after?
I would appreciate any help you could give me. Go ahead Scotty and throw your 2 cents in to
Just no advice from Keith since I take his money on a regular basis!
Comments
Keith
What most people think of as the "typical" re-buy tournament often has cheap re-buys and wild players during the re-buy period.
However, I can imagine this time there being a lot of players who are much more averse to busting out than is usual for a re-buy toutnament. You're going to get a lot of people thinking twice about playing like a psycho during the re-buy period when they realize that will cost them $200 to get their initial 1,000 chips back, or $300 for a full re-buy to 1,500.
Assessing early on how much disrespect your table has for their chips during the re-buy period will be vital so you can adjust your own play accordingly.
I think an important thing you're going to have to consider for yourself is how much you are personally willing to allocate to this tournament in total. $600? $1,200? $2,000? More? You can't be playing too wildly yourself if you don't want to re-buy enough to cover your wild play. It's also clearly important to also leave some headroom for those "unexpected" bust-outs (e.g. AA vs. KK) even if you go into a more conservative mode.
It's also worth considering before you get to the tournament under what conditions you will take the add-on. I've heard some people say you should *always* take the add-on. I've heard that maybe you don't really need to if you are already far above average in chips, or maybe even far below average. Perhaps simply the total chip count for the tournament (or, perhaps for your own table) matters. If there were so many re-buys that there are 200,000 chips in play, is a 1,000 chip add-on for $200 going to be good value?
Finally (but probably one of the more important things), are the chips stacks going to be reset to equal on the final day? If so, I think a "play wild, re-buy like crazy" strategy is going to go way, *way* down in value.
Good luck, and have fun man! 8)
ScottyZ
This is exactly what I'm going by. If people are playing wildly during the rebuy period, I might take a rebuy if I lose chips to a bad beat or something. I'll take the add-on if I'm floating around the average and depending on roughly how many chips are in play. Like Scotty said, if I'm way below or above the average it won't be necessary to take the add-on or rebuy if I double/triple up early on.
I'm pretty sure that the chips stacks will be preserved for the final day for each player. It would be unfair and stupid for them to be reset for the final day.
For ComaU, or anyone else in the tourney, what are your starting days?
Be sure to check with the organizers on this one. It *is* standard to reset stacks between rounds of a multi-shootout tournament. But the fact that there are re-buys makes me wonder what they will do in this case. I also have the feeling that the stack sizes *shouldn't* be reset, but I have no idea what the organizers are planning on doing.
Come to think of it, this is the first time I've ever heard of a multi-shootout tournament with re-buys.
Well, I'm not to sure about this. That paragraph you quoted was really meant to be just a bunch of ideas I have heard of (not necessarily my own), and not a fancy way of delivering answers and/or suggestions. 8)
ScottyZ
I think that the reason that they are doing it this way is that they only have a certain number (namely, 5) tables available for the tournament. Sort of like how the WSOP main event had two first days. This has 5 first days.
Keith
My thinking is that at the end of the re-buy period almost everyone will have the same number of chips (in the case of Brantford I understand that this will be after three 1/2 hour levels). There isn't too much you can do to change this. Most players will take whatever re-buys they are entitled to. So, in the case of Brantford I am guessing that the average stack after 1 1/2 hours will be $2500 ($1000 original + $500 re-buy + $1000 add-on). I prefer to accept that I will be in for $400 (buy-in, re-buy, add-on) but HOPE that I can pay less. The only way to pay less is to win those chips.
I PREFER a low variance approach that calls for playing very tight. From an EV perspective you are probably best off to take ANY edge in the re-buy period. Tournament strategy often calls for you to pass on small edges but when you are protected by the ability to re-buy max EV demands that you take EVERY edge -- you can't go bust. I simply prefer the low-variance approach so I CHOOSE not to take the max EV approach.
My math oriented friends tell me that you should ALWAYS take an add-on if there is an overlay (i.e. starting chips for half price). The additional chips will devalue the average chip value but not by as much as you pay for them (they are half price). Unless I have a HUGE stack I ALWAYS take a progressive re-buy.
Final note on the Brantford tournament. If I am correct it is three 30 minute levels (re-buys) and then it goes to 20 minute levels. There are relatively few chips in play (average will be VERY close to $2500 at the end of the re-buy period). The is going to be a VERY FAST action tournament. Generally, screw it down very tight. This structure will reward the very tight aggressive players (not my style). Patience patience patience. Loose aggressive players (my style) are at a disadvantage because the chips are not deep enough to withstand the huge variance swings that we loose players undergo. "Tight is right" for this tournament. Lower your variance and cross your fingers.
My Dad played his seat last night and this is what I got from him during a short Q&A after leaving:
There wasn't that many people who took a rebuy(s). One wild guy at his table rebought like seven times and another guy three times, and I'm pretty sure some others took one rebuy when they dipped below T1000.
He told me that pretty much everyone took the add-on.
My Dad was the chip leader at one point with around T6000 before losing about 2/3 of his stack, doubling another player up. My old man isn't a good player by any means, not to degrade him. He told me he built his stack up by winning two all-in coin flips with AK. He busted out around 5th at his table, which was around 3 hours in.
I'll make more comments later. I gotta go to work now....
Good luck to Jay, ComaU, and anyone else who is playing in this tournament! Let us know how it goes.
Regards,
all_aces
Thanks. l'll update y'all for sure after tomorrow night.