Thread added to PocketFives Strategy Archives (see MTT Strategy section)

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Here are some views of mine on low limit tournies. Its pretty long but I tried to cover as many thoughts as I could. I hope its beneficial to the forum.

First, playing low stakes tournaments, there are a few value tournaments that should be played with every session. They are the 3r, 5r, 10 cubed, and the 5 2r1a. These tournaments have everything...solid payouts, lots of bad players and lots of chips in play. The 11 and 27 at 7 and 8pm are both great value tournaments as well. While the rebuys are 10 minute levels every other day, they are still pretty damn deep if you can get some chips or run deep. These tournaments all start within a 2.5 hour period as a bonus and are all on the same site, so tourneys from other sites can obviously be added as well.

In these tournaments TAG is obviously a successful style, but don't be afraid to be creative. Know your opponents and try to gauge strength/weakness as best you can. Pay good attention to bet sizing. As a general rule of thumb, the stronger the bet, the stronger the hand. I know it sounds basic but its really a valuable identifier. There are obviously exceptions such as the aggrodonk who pots everything or 4xs pre but those are easily identifiable.
On the flip side of that, people are really bad and thus sometimes all it takes is the act of raising or betting to take down a hand. Thus it does not mean it has to be your guideline. Experiment with 1/3-1/4 the pot cbets, or betting 1.1x when its your action BvB. Youd be surprised how badly some people want to fold, you just have to give them the opportunity.

These are all important parts of tournament survival, as you should really constantly be in accumilation mode. You should never be content with your stack size, there are always more chips to acquire. While there are times which table dynamics will force you to bide your time, your activity should generally increase as the blinds do. Getting chips is so vital in tournament play due to the amount of showdowns its going to take to win a tournament. You are going to lose flips, 60/40s, 70/30s, and 80/20s. Its the nature of the beast unfortunately, and thus because of it you need to get enough chips so that you have chips remaining when a favorable situation suddenly turns for the worst.

See, due to the gigantic field sizes, players who play these tournaments do not run deep (final 8% or so) often at all. Their willingness to gamble and play back greatly reduces once they come to the realization that they might have a chance to win it. So while earlier in the tournament these players are volatile, conversely later their inexperience combined with poor stack management makes them easily exploitable to your advantage.

While acquiring chips during the tournament, there are plays and thoughts that should be in every players arsenal. One major play should be the ability to attack limpers. Its the ultimate form of weakness and only a very select few use it with monsters. If youre not already, you should be familiar with raising in position with medium to strong hands, and even weaker hands if you feel confident in postflop play and the situation calls. Flop play comes into effect here, and if youre not comfortable with postflop play, mess around with heads up and get a feel for flop textures and bet sizings. Quarter pot Cbets are great in spots like these, and if you dont like flop texture, become familiar with delayed cbets. Its really an effective way to not only pot control, but to take down alot of pots.

There is also so much information around you to be used, you just need to know where to find it. Obviously pay attention to peoples bet sizing, raise frequency, and showdown hands. The HH replayer can be your best friend to see if someones been active if you havent been paying attention. Pay attention to where people are from. Timing tells are huge. If you raise a button and a blind snap 3bets, I'd be much more inclined to think theyre on a resteal and consider a 4bet if the situation allows. Conversely, if they are hitting the time button, then as a general rule of thumb they're gonna have something.

-Attack bubbles. Start opening 2.1x and see what the table will let you get away with. Dont be afraid to put a stack smaller than yours to the test on scary boards if getting called and losing will still enable you to make it in the money. Those are the best spots IMO.

-Think outside the box. Get maximum value from your hands. If someone raises from a blatant steal spot and you wake up with a monster, dont be afraid to to slowplay and flat your hand. Why turn your big hand into a resteal essentially? Give opponents the opportunity to hang themselves, they will jump at the chance.

-Make sure your ranges are balanced as best as you can. Your EP raising range can't just include your top 5%, just like your 3betting and 4betting ranges cant just be jj+ aq+.

-Be aware of your image to the table, and adjust your opens to it. If you just showed a busted bluff, maybe you should just open fold your small pocket pair instead of raising it.

-Your opening raise sizes should be 2.0-2.3x. There are times when they should be bigger but generally speaking smaller raises allow you to save chips on pots you lose, allowing smaller pots for better pot control, which in turn make your cbets smaller, etc etc.

-When you have some chips dont be afraid to mix in limping buttons. Not all the time but it should be a play in your arsenal, especially if the blinds are giving you some trouble. If people know anything its that the button is THE spot to steal. Limping buttons looks weird, throws people off, and allows you to represent a wide range on the flop. Also a great spot for the 1.2xbb cbet.

-Know the players around you. Start by paying attention with the 2 to your immediate left and right. It should become very blatant very fast whether the player next to you knows what hes doing or not. A general rule of thumb is that unless the player shows otherwise, a limp anywhere but the SB equates to a weak player.

-Know your push/fold. There is a great guideline written by annette on the forums here bout P/f ranges with a BB amount. Regarding an instructional video, some of the older vids by Rizen on PXF are amazing as he does an excellent job explaining the BB/range for shoving. QJ when a shorty is the nuts haha.

-Understand your fold equity. Before 3bet stealing see what kind of pot odds you're giving the villain. Dont be hesitant with your gut. You have one weapon in your arsenal with a shortstack, and thats the steal. Picking off steals is one of the most vital survival skills in tournament play. 3bet shoving also helps balance your pushing range, which can't always be the nuts :)

Here is a very basic yet +ev move. While his stack size isnt entirely optimal and id like to have a little more to pile with, his raise is generally weak and j10 plays well against his open range.
Seat 1: Dr.Corvus (14824 in chips)
Seat 2: Magwak (96826 in chips)
Seat 3: 4shy lad (44027 in chips)
Seat 4: MrNiphty (16160 in chips)
Seat 5: spil82 (40488 in chips)
Seat 6: RadimSoudsky (44567 in chips)
Seat 7: Eham5 (52984 in chips)
Seat 8: bulliask�nig (135019 in chips)
Seat 9: doroftei77 (62181 in chips)
Dr.Corvus: posts the ante 200
Magwak: posts the ante 200
4shy lad: posts the ante 200
MrNiphty: posts the ante 200
spil82: posts the ante 200
RadimSoudsky: posts the ante 200
Eham5: posts the ante 200
bulliask�nig: posts the ante 200
doroftei77: posts the ante 200
spil82: posts small blind 600
RadimSoudsky: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MrNiphty [Td Js]
Eham5: folds
bulliask�nig: folds
doroftei77: folds
Dr.Corvus: folds
Magwak: folds
4shy lad: raises 1200 to 2400
MrNiphty: raises 13560 to 15960 and is all-in
spil82: folds
RadimSoudsky: folds
4shy lad: folds
Uncalled bet (13560) returned to MrNiphty

If you have 20+BB and find a spot where you feel youre up against someone raising light, then you should be employing a Go and Go. Its simply 3betting the villain preflop and shoving any non value flop. Its highly effective at lower stakes giving you two bullets to fire, but be cognizant of how much you will be shoving into should you be flatted.

A quick rough range of what your stacksize should be able to do:
20-25bbs - Go and Go
11-20bbs - resteal shove
10 bbs or less- shove, value shove over raiser.

Be familiar with both the use of M and BB's. I personally will use both, but generally use stack size in relation to BB much more than M.

Ive addressed many basic things which I feel are integral parts of low limit success. I have certainly missed alot of things, and could be more in depth about every topic touched, but obviously I have to end this sometime. I feel though that I have addressed many key things. The most important thing one can do is constantly be evaluating your game. There are always things that can be addressed, be done better. Talk with friends and bounce ideas and thought processes off of their head, Iron sharpens Iron and a fresh way to look at things can never be harmful.

I hope this basic guide will be beneficial to lower limit players on this forum. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate. GL at the tables

Thanks a ton posting such a lengthy article, as you obviously getting nothing back out of it. I'm not sure how long it took you but you achieved your goal of helping a micro-donk. It's really appreciated by someone like myself who needs to fix my leaks but can't drop the coin on a training site. I plan on referring to this thread many times in the future...

Excellent summary of what is scattered across dozens of articles. You've done a great job summarizing and providing examples. Good work!

solid thread, well done OP.

Excellent post OP.

Well done. A most solid summary of what's out there in the evenings.

There's another event I'd like to add to this: my favourite the last six months or so, the 11.40 $3 1r1a. With 3k, the rebuy and an add-on for 6k, this has tremendous value if you can see your way to staying awake through the night, as with all the chips in play, it usually goes ~6-7 hours if you ft it (been lucky enough to ft twice, and finished 10th three other nights).

If you play a solid game overall and are willing to let some of the loose cannons donk off with hands such as tptk in raised pots, this is for you!

What are some micros/low limit tourneys best to play on FT ???

The usual $2.20, $3.30 and $5.50 tourneys (regular ones)

Cheers,

Great job Mr. Niphty!!!

nice post. i understand the stop and go but i'm having trouble finding anything on the "GO AND GO" concept. how could it be profitable to push blindly on the flop. could you link me. thanks.

Alright so one of the most important aspects of playing a shortstack is the ability to maintain your fold equity. Like all things there are exceptions but for the most part when you have under 20 bbs you dont want to be raise folding with your stack as it is spewy. Mainly because you need to preserve as much FE as possible.

Everything is situationally dependent but like I said you always wanna be accumilating chips. Push/Fold is still tricky and when im grinding I will still ask friends around playing if I should be shoving 15bbs utg with A10 (pretty sure its a fold). Every little bit helps and thus when when a shorty practice obviously makes perfect.

However answering your question for 1, Im pretty sure A9s is a pile there, especially since the chips acquired will make a reship stack that much stronger. However dynamics are always an important thing. If this hand is in the small blind and you have a BB you feel will attack a weak sb play, then min raise with the intention of calling as youre hoping to induce weaker Aces, Kings and Queens etc.

As for 2, I looked through about 1,000 hands and couldnt find any specific Go and Gos I made myself. So sorry about that, but I should be able to elaborate enough for you.

The G/G is simply just a more elaborate version of the resteal. It comes in handy especially in situations where youre 5-7 handed on a FT bubble, and peoples ranges should thus be wider. Say you have 19 bbs after posting your BB. It folds to the button with 26 BBs, someone who has been raising when folded to in Late Position, who makes it 2.5xBB. You look down at Q10. This hand obviously plays well enough both on the flop and against his range. Calling seems entirely weak. Folding also feels weak. So raising appears to be the best option.

However, piling 20 bbs feels a bit excessive given the scenario. So you raise, hoping to take the pot down right now. Unfortunately, the BB flats. Youve now created a pot the size of your stack, and you are out of position. However, you have taken over as aggressor in the hand. So when the flop drops K43 rainbow, what are your options? Check/Folding is extremely weak and spewy. So your only option is to bet it, and with one shell, you have to bet all your chips.

But what happens when the flop drops Q43? You now have top pair, and are obviously going broke. Shoving now seems like youre missing out on value, as the only hands you beat when you get called are like 88-JJ and AK. So now you play your hand for value. You check or bet entirely small, trying to induce him to spazz out and get him to put in the rest of his chips with a range that now includes all his bluffs. When you shove Q10 on the Q hi flop, all thats calling are the few hands you beat, and every hand that has you crushed. Never his bluffing range. But when you call his shove, his range now includes his value hands that you beat, all the hands that beat you, and all his bluffs. Also sometimes, he might check back the flop, and hit say a J with his AJ on the turn, and you get more value there. etc.

I hope that helps out. Also if anyone is interested I have my HH's from the two recent tournies I shipped, the big sunday 3r with 9k players and a 22 freezeout with 1200 players. Let me know if youre interested and ill get them available asap.

Also I forgot to include yesterday that if floating is not a part of your game, then you should start working it into your arsenal.

Great post very helpful

Good stuff OP, some good info here

I think i'll print the original post so that I'll be able to read again and again

awesome read def have to improve/add some of these things in my game.

yea mrniphty id like to see some more HH's from past tourneys to get a better understanding if thats ok with you. great post btw