Live tourney Structure, are these worth playing?

[ffbooj]

Several of the local cardrooms in my area have low buy in NLHE tourneys ($40-80). Most start you out with 5000 chips 25/25 blinds. But the blinds increase every 15 mins. and by the first break (1hour) they're at 200/400. These tourneys are usually limited to under 100 players. With this structure I am curious if they're even worth playing, it seems to me that they would be more of a card catching contest than a true test of someones skills. Any input would be appreciated.

[pacecar86]

you probably answered your own question regarding fast structures being at the lower end on the skill vs luck curve. But the "is it worth it" answer for me would be relative to personal objectives. What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to experiment with live MTT strategies that might be new to you, maybe Synders Poker Tournament Formula? Are you an experienced MTT'er, beyond the books and are cashing in deep stack events? Is your cash game win rate decent, e.g, if you want to make money is your time better spent in cash vs fast MTT? Would you be better off on-line? So, for me, I preferred live MTT to cash and when first starting out playing live MTT's/SNG's, I didn't mind the low skill/high luck weekly locals to gain general experience. Now I prefer deeper stack events.

[tribet]

If you are in the US what state are you in? Maybe I can point you to the best tourney

The type you describe is mostly a low skill event and luck will overide skill but they are not a complete crapshot. If you wait to get some quality cards and don't get them you will be making all in moves prior to the end of the first hour to preserve your stack so an aggresive style is a must in these events. In my opinion if these are the best you can find and wish to increase your skill the internet is much better value.

[FireStorm]

This is fairly bad as far as structured live events go, but not the worst I've seen at all. After 4 levels you can play decently and be 20 BB's deep with little sweat. It is essentially a crapshoot, but you will find that almost all live tournaments play in that fashion after an hour or two.

[Yo Adrians!]

Pretty standard for small buyin tourneys around here. I'm guessing it's 25-25, 25-50, 50-100, 100-200 in the first hour, and then goes to 200-400 after the first break?

Sure. Play them. It's fun. Not a waste of money. You'd be surprised how few people live playing in these types of tournaments understand vital concepts of pushing or folding with around 10BB or less ... you can exploit them.

Go for it!

[UnblinkingEye]

What OP is describing is basically the live version of an online low stakes turbo, and in general, turbo's do require a bit more luck than the standard format tournament.

However, I do feel that these are worth playing, especially if you look around and see alot of the runners are old guys who you know play uber-tight. These are often the kinds of players who find themselves eaten by the blinds in a turbo before the Geritol kicks in.

So, in closing, the answer is the same as most questions asked about poker: "It Depends."

~Mike

[Phanekim]

Depends on the juice. But most likely probably not, its crap. First straight up answer.

[chucky]

Don't listen to this guy. He has cashed in these. He just wants them to himself. If they have auto shufflers these tourneys can be a nice way to try out live tourney play before you play deep stack tourneys.