The Poker Tournament Formula by Arnold Snyder...

[jackaaron]

I personally think it's easier to divide the tournament into sections (Early, Early Middle, Middle, Late Middle, Late, Final table), and have stack related guidelines for each. I wrote out my very, very, very general strategy for each of those sections, and it took me a long time, but since I've done it (about 4mos. ago) my ROI has increased greatly (too small a sample though, so who knows).

[quadaces9999]

so is arnolds book really bad?

[stevematador]

No, the book is well worth a purchase, it opened my eyes to some things I'd never read or really thought of before. Do I agree with it all, of course not, but no one book should make a players style, you pick pieces and things you like or believe in and incorporate them into your own style/game.

The way I see it, even if I pick up a few "moves" which I did, it's well worth reading because knowledge is power and you can never have too much knowledge.

[bigdaddydrew]

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I think maybe we need another number. M measures your stack/blind ratio at the current instant. We could define two numbers (which someone else may have already defined):

O (orbits) which is M calculated over the rest of the tournament (Basically, how many orbits can you last, taking into account blind increases.)

P (partial) which is M calculated over the next single orbit. If you have a blind increase on the 6th hand (assuming a 10 handed table) you'll get a value that's half way between your current M and the M after the blinds increase. In very fast tournaments, you may even get the blinds to go up twice in a single orbit. As you get closer to the blind increase, this value will decrease towards the value of M you will have after the blind increase.

Neither O or P are exact numbers, since you can't be exactly sure of where the button will be when the blinds increase, but you can certainly get a good estimate. P will always be equal to or less than M. O will always be less than M.

I think one of these numbers might be better to use than M, simple because I don't think you can play the same hand/stack the same way if it occurs in the first hand of a given blind level versus the last hand of a given blind level.

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See, now we're getting somewhere. Now I don't know if that's the right calculation or not, but clearly something like that is needed. Harrington thinks so too. He says things like "Your M is x, but the blinds go up within the next 2 hands." So he seems to know intuitively that his M strategy is incomplete.

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Now this is strictly conjecture, but I have, in faster tournaments, found myself dividing time per blind level from 60 and multiplying that by my M.

I use 60, because I'm reasonably sure that 60 minutes is the fastest blind time that could be used as a "slow" tournament.

EX: 1500 in chips/30 in antes= M of 50
15 min blind level/60= .25

50 * .25 = an Effective M of 16.67

[SonofDjugashvili]

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No, the book is well worth a purchase, it opened my eyes to some things I'd never read or really thought of before. Do I agree with it all, of course not, but no one book should make a players style, you pick pieces and things you like or believe in and incorporate them into your own style/game.

The way I see it, even if I pick up a few "moves" which I did, it's well worth reading because knowledge is power and you can never have too much knowledge.

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The book is excellent, just like HOH is excellent. The key, of course, is not to view any particular book as a poker bible, but adopt ideas from all. Snyder's book works better live than online, simply because the live game is naturally a lot tighter. Snyder provided me with ideas that I intuitively grasped, but couldn't bring myself to implement. I guess seeing them articulated in a book gave me the confidence to expand my game. I just came back from Vegas and I played a bunch of $100-range tournaments. I KNOW I was the best player at every tourney table I played at. I finished no lower than 12th in any one, and took 2 1sts and a 3rd. This is not a brag - I am just saying this is the result of adding Snyder's concepts to my game (which was largely HOH). You have too find your own level of comfort; I still play tighter than Snyder, but definitely more LAG than HOH - the important point is I feel confident and in control - I have found my sweet spot.

[stevematador]

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I KNOW I was the best player at every tourney table I played at. I finished no lower than 12th in any one, and took 2 1sts and a 3rd. This is not a brag

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WOW, this sure sounds like a brag to me, [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] LOL!! It sounds like me, the Poker Brat himself talking. It's all good, just messing with you. By the way, what tourneys in Vegas were the best in your opinion, of the ones you played? I am going out there in a few months.

[BigAlK]

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I KNOW I was the best player at every tourney table I played at. I finished no lower than 12th in any one, and took 2 1sts and a 3rd. This is not a brag

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WOW, this sure sounds like a brag to me, [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] LOL!! It sounds like me, the Poker Brat himself talking. It's all good, just messing with you. By the way, what tourneys in Vegas were the best in your opinion, of the ones you played? I am going out there in a few months.

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I know you aren't asking me, but there was a link in (I think) MTTc x-posted from the B&M forum that had a list of the best tournaments. Not sure what buy-in you're looking for, but Binions and the Orleans are each running a series of medium buy-ins that have sweet structures.

[SonofDjugashvili]

[ QUOTE ]
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I KNOW I was the best player at every tourney table I played at. I finished no lower than 12th in any one, and took 2 1sts and a 3rd. This is not a brag

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WOW, this sure sounds like a brag to me, [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] LOL!! It sounds like me, the Poker Brat himself talking. It's all good, just messing with you. By the way, what tourneys in Vegas were the best in your opinion, of the ones you played? I am going out there in a few months.

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Really wasn't a brag - just trying to say that Snyder made a difference to my game. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] I really liked the Binions $110 ($70 + one-time $40 re-buy). I posted a trip report in B&M - "5 days in Vegas" or something like that.

[quadaces9999]

does anyone know arnold's credentials in tournament poker?

[quadaces9999]

does anyone agree with arnolds rock, paper, siccors, concept?