how should i prepare for the WSOP? (help the cash game donks)

[KRANTZ]

i'm a cash game specialist, you could say. i play and coach a ton of NL cash online, up through 25/50, and plan on playing most of the NL events this summer.

but i'm fairly certain i'm a tournament donkey. i have no idea how to play a shortstack, or adjust to increasing blinds, and it seems to me that there are going to be a ton of guys who play MTT's day in and day out who have a huge advantage over me in technical areas because of the way they think about those things.

i also don't play much live poker. i've played my fair share, but i'm rusty, and reading people outside of bet sizing and pattern recognition will likely be an issue for me.

i've got a month or so to prepare. i have HOH 1+2 but have never read them. i have lots of time on my hands. i would be open to getting coached, as well, but only if it were from someone really, really good at tournaments.

i think i'm pretty +EV right now, but i also think it's retarded to buy in to all these events if i'm not well prepared and trying my best to win each of them.

any help is much, much appreciated guys!

[pacecar86]

my bias/experience is live MTT's around the $2.5K buy-in level, e.g., WSOP-C's, HPT's, Midwest Poker Championship etc & will be playing LV WSOP events for the first time this summer...I would suggest HOH I, II and III, then do a live MTT "warm-up" at, say, at the May 2007 East Coast Poker Championship - Turning Stone + try to hook up with an experienced live MTT coach. Also recommend doing some live SNG's for experience in short stack play strat. For me, HOH was very helpful in understanding "inflection point play", Harrington's view of varying strat depending on stack sizes relative to blinds & antes/tournament structures.

On the human side of situational analysis, take a look at the 2+2 forum on Books/Publications for reviews/recommendations, but, I have found a few useful nuggets in Caro's Book of Tells, Navarro's Read 'Em & Reap, and Schoonmaker on the psych stuff.


GL

[rgold79]

Play a high volume of STT between now and the start of the WSOP. This will give you a quick refresher course on how to adjust to changing blinds.

[Eagles]

Krantz,
I'm just going to list a bunch of random things that come to my head.

1. (Antes + SB + BB)/1.5=effective BB If you have less than 10 you should either shove or fold pf(you can get tricky with big pairs to maximize value).
2. With a short stack you need to tighten up considerably a lot of hands just can't be played profitably.
3. With 15-20bbs 3bet shove against loose openers with a widish range.
4. Remember most of the events are full ring so you need to play nittier than you normally would especially as the blinds get bigger.
5. A lot of your decisions will be very dependent on your table. Some tables will be so nitty you can virtually open any 2 in any position profitably. Others you will need to pick your spots more carefully.
5. This will be difficult because you play cash but Shania is virtually irrelevant in MTTS. Stuff like balancing your range is not something you should worry about. You won't play most of your opponents often enough for it to matter and as stacks get shorter it doesn't matter.
6. And I think this one is most important while reading and getting some advice will help you need to try and play some MTTs one sunday play a bunch of the big ones and see how you do and ask good tournament players for advice on hands. Luckychewy switched over and he had some very big leaks when he first started and is now a very solid MTT player. (One big leak I see with a lot of cash players who move to MTTS is their pushing ranges/3betting ranges are waaaaaaaay too wide.) Against good players (or bad players who make the right play for the wrong reason) pushing too wide is very exploitable.
9. I'll end with my 3 things I think you need to do to win MTTS.
1. Make big folds in spots where you need to do. I hate to sound like Phil Hellmuth but if you avoid going broke in hands your supposed to it can save you.
2. Pick up a ton of money with showdown. You don't want to showdown in MTTs because it means you can go broke so you need to try and pick up a lot of chips without showing down.
3.Win Races. There's a fuckton of variance in MTTS and in order to make a lot of money in them you need to run well. Win a few races don't get any sick coolers etc. It seems obvious but its really important.
10. Just because list of 10 are better than lists of 9.

[IvanXDurham]

[ QUOTE ]
Play a high volume of STT between now and the start of the WSOP. This will give you a quick refresher course on how to adjust to changing blinds.

[/ QUOTE ]

that's what's up.

[Bonified]

Short-stack play is what you need to focus on. Deep stack there's nothing wrong with just playing your normal cash game deep stack strategy, pretty much.

Read HoH 1+2 (I wouldn't bother with 3), and Sklansky/Miller NL the Sklansky-Chubokov rankings section. Have a look through the PokerXFactor tournaments stickied in the MTT Strategy forum. Play STTs yes, absolutely, although I would prefer winner-take-all STTs to the 50-30-20s. The latter are a bit of a class of their own and don't relate so well to MTTs, whereas WTA experience will also come in handy for playing single tables in Vegas. Post questions in MTT Strategy and answer posts yourself (I have often found the later just as useful if not more).

Finally, get your mindset right from the start. Playing "to survive" in tournaments looks right at first glance because the longer you survive in a tournament, the bigger the prize, but in fact, counter-intuitively, it's not. Eric Lindgren's book explains this really well, in fact I recommend that book too. The way to think about it is that there's another tournament tomorrow. If I go broke in a cash game, I reload. If I bust out of a tournament, I try again tomorrow. It's logically the same, it just doesn't feel like it because there's a time gap.

Just make good chip EV decisions on a hand by hand basis. Of course, adjust for how other people are playing (eg when they play tight around the bubble), but basically just make good decisions and let everything else sort itself out.

If you can hold your own at 25-50NL you'll be fine. Hope this helps.

[Bonified]

[ QUOTE ]
2. Pick up a ton of money without showdown. You don't want to showdown in MTTs because it means you can go broke so you need to try and pick up a lot of chips without showing down.


[/ QUOTE ]

Good advice throughout Eagles, I just fixed what I'm sure is a typo in case anyone is confused.

[drewjustdrew]

Timesaver on HOH:

Since it sounds like you are well versed in NL, just read HOH2 chapters on M and Q and inflection points. Skip the problems. Approx 20 pages of reading that way.

Edit: Also, skip the tourneys altogether as WSOP cash games are the best in the world.

[IvanXDurham]

[ QUOTE ]
Timesaver on HOH:
just read HOH2 chapters on M and Q and inflection points. Skip the problems. Approx 20 pages of reading that way.



[/ QUOTE ]

I always tell people who haven't read the HOH books to check them out, even if they just visit the book for a couple of hours every other sunday at Barnes and Noble/Borders while having some coffee. With that being said, I have to be honest when I say that right after soaking up the M/Q/inflection chapters in the book, I now feel that it started fuucking with my play a little bit the first few times. While I was reading the book, it was all crystal clear and seemed like it would be pretty simple to execute. But for some reason within the first few tournaments I played, there was a few key pots that I misplayed or didnt enter at all, when normally I would mix it up in some pretty good spots. I pretty much attributed to my inability to take the HOH teachings and use them properly. Not sure if this can be considered advice, or an admission of ineptitude on my part.

[drewjustdrew]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Timesaver on HOH:
just read HOH2 chapters on M and Q and inflection points. Skip the problems. Approx 20 pages of reading that way.



[/ QUOTE ]

I always tell people who haven't read the HOH books to check them out, even if they just visit the book for a couple of hours every other sunday at Barnes and Noble/Borders while having some coffee. With that being said, I have to be honest when I say that right after soaking up the M/Q/inflection chapters in the book, I now feel that it started fuucking with my play a little bit the first few times. While I was reading the book, it was all crystal clear and seemed like it would be pretty simple to execute. But for some reason within the first few tournaments I played, there was a few key pots that I misplayed or didnt enter at all, when normally I would mix it up in some pretty good spots. I pretty much attributed to my inability to take the HOH teachings and use them properly. Not sure if this can be considered advice, or an admission of ineptitude on my part.

[/ QUOTE ]

Harrington's strategies are mathematically thought out. Your small sample of results would not provide evidence that you misapplied his principles, or that they were good or bad to begin with. Folding small pairs as a smallish-medium stack makes sense from the math view, but there are so many variables such as table image, how others are playing, relative stack sizes, relative talent, etc., that it is difficult to tell when to deviate. I think they provide some decent tourney specific adjustments, but more from a large perspective, vs. just minor tweaks. That's why I think it would be helpful to a strong cash player with major tournament specific holes. Shrinking those holes to 25% of their original size might be enough to finish deep more frequently.