02-28-05, LearnTexasHoldem:
Moving Up In Limits
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One more question I have is regarding a charity tournament I participated in 2 weeks ago. The tournament was a $20 buy-in, but I did not know the full details of the tournament prior to. After I sat down, I received 45 worth of chips and blinds started out at 1-2. The tournament turned out to be a tubro. Blinds were being increased every 10 minutes. It went from 1-2 to 4-8, to 10-15 within 30 minutes.
This was the first time I was involved in a turbo tournament and wasn't sure what type of strategy I could use. To be honest, I didn't feel any strategy was even involved with blinds moving so quickly. It seemed like the only way to win this type of tournament was to pick up solid cards early. I ended up moving all-in preflop a couple of times with cards I normally wouldn't have pushed with.
The table seemed to be much looser than I'm used to, probably becasue the fact that it was a tubro, so I realized that bluffing with nothing was probably not my best option. I ended up pushing all-in with K9 suited with only 15 chips left with the blinds at 10-15. I was next big blind and figured this was the best move to make before I blinded out.
Pushing all in prefleop seemed to be my only option, get someone to commit w/ a hand (hopefully) worse than mine and hope for the best. Was this the proper technique or is there a different approach to games like this?
Thank you very much for your time,
Ben
Answer: Let me generalize your first question some: When is it a good time to move up in limits? I think the most important factor in deciding when to move up in limits is your bankroll. If you have enough money saved up to consistently stay in the game, like you would the smaller limit, then you are ready to move up. Nothing is worse then occasionally playing in a large game and taking a hit and then having to go back down to the smaller limit to make it up.
I remember reading more than once in poker literature about how the authors thought it was a good idea to occasionally take a stab at a bigger limit. I think that is really bad advice. You don't need to play in the game to watch the players -- so the argument of gaining experience doesn't work for me. Also, the chance of you sitting down and winning enough to comfortably continue playing at those stakes is not doable either. What will most likely happen is you play, get hammered, and then regret losing half your roll.
Next, even if you are good enough play at the upper limit, if your bankroll isn't, you won't be around for long. Poker is hot and cold and if the cold part dips too low into your cash, you won't have a chance to bring it back. I love seeing people sit down at my table with too little money because as soon as they lose their two racks, they won't have a chance to win it back from me. Money management for tournaments is a little different but everything I've mentioned here applies.
For the second question, you've done a good job of assessing the situation. When the blinds in a tourney get raised very quickly, it makes things more of a gamble. You are forced to play hands or get eaten up. You want to play aggressively and see the tourney as kind of an all or nothing. Another way of looking at it is seeing it as your day or someone else's.
Obviously you can't play any two cards and win but, like you mentioned, the person with some solid cards that hold up early on will most likely win. And I like your K9 all-in at the end. A King high hand is favorite over an unknown hand. If you get a chance to play in one of these turbo tourneys again, my only suggestion would be to be more aggressive early on before your all-in raises become insignificant.
You want to put the raises in, even if they are with weaker hands, early enough so if you do win it will give you a chance. I would prefer gambling with a shot at winning versus waiting for a good hand after which I have to double through 4 or 5 times to be back in it.
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