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LIMIT Hold Em tournies

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  1. mjf21 mjf21 is offline

    Boston, MA
    United States

    Posts: 297
    Joined: Apr 05

    Nov 2nd, 2006 (11/2/2006 8:59am)

    Playing in a live Limit Hold Em tourney at Foxwoods tomorrow. It's my first live limit tourney. Anyone have any advice. It's part of the WPF, so the structure is pretty good. Thanks for the help.
  2. bdluss bdluss is offline

    Posts: 1,331
    Joined: Apr 05

    Nov 2nd, 2006 (11/2/2006 10:42am) in reply to mjf21

    I posted this awhile back in relation to limit holdem and someone's question. This should help some.

    Just a quick background on me and limit so you know where its coming from...in the past 16 months of hardcore tracking my game I have played 213 limit tournies with 5 firsts, 3 seconds and 22 overall final tables. In cash games I primarily play 3.6 shorthanded or 5.10 full table with an average of 3 big bets an hour.

    The biggest thing in limit tournies is not having to build chips early, but rather in the middle stages. By this I mean in the 4-8th levels. This is where you should never enter a pot without raising, when you do enter pots play them aggressively. You have to be willing to push small edges and not be willing to slow down when you have good hands (but not great). Example is if you have AK and raise a previous better and the flop comes A 8 4...you need to be ramming and jamming all the way till the river. By the river then if he is still betting slow down. But you need to get as much value on these good but not great hands. Unlike a cash game where you wouldn't go more than 3 bets with this hand on the turn, tournies require you to take more risks.

    Second big thing is you have to play aggressively. The reason is you need to build a big stack in limit tournies cause that is how you survive. This means in mid position i.e. 3-5th with no one else in the pot, raising with 44 or 78 suited or K10 or other spots where a cash game you fold. Aggressively attack when in position, like if you are in the cutoff or button it is almost an automatic raise (and if the big blind is a defender then continuation bet once if you miss then just check it down if your hand misses). Aggression is the key. I would recommend if you are not playing aggressive enough to play some more 6 handed games because aggression is the key there.

    Finally, if you do get shortstacked with 2-5 big bets, then its time to get your $ in and not fold. If you have A9, you just need to go with it. If you flop a flush draw get all the money into the pot but ramming and jamming. If you get a small pair get all the $ in. Think of it like a no limit tournament, if you are short stacked you just shove in, well you do the same here. You are basically just shoving in but it takes a few more bets to actually accomplish it.

    On one last note, do not be a blind defender in limit tournies. The blinds are always a big portion of a limit tourny stack, so don't get involved in defending. Defend with hands that can hit like 7 8 pairs or AQ but muck hands like A7 K10 and so on.

    Hope this helps.
     
  3. mjf21 mjf21 is offline

    Boston, MA
    United States

    Posts: 297
    Joined: Apr 05

    Nov 2nd, 2006 (11/2/2006 11:09am) in reply to bdluss

    That helps a lot. I appreciate the advice. Thanks.
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