Hi guys, two weeks ago I took part in a tournament here in Austria. Overall I am satisfied because I reached the final table. It was my first tournament and although having read Wongs "Casino Tournament Strategy" and a lot of posts on this board I know and feel I am a real newbie to it. The final table was terrible. I finished last and had no real chance to win it. 5 of the 6 other people bet big from the beginning and won hand after hand. 35 hands were played and it was 20-200(!) per hand (1000 to start with; D9-11). After 12 hands I was BR7 with 1140, BR5 had around 1500 and BR1/BR2 2500. I was wondering what to do. I was tempted to bet big but the other players bet big to, so I decided to bet against and stuck with the minimum. It kind of worked out because the dealer got naturals and 20s and won a couple, so I gained ground, but I never got in reach of BR2. Two hands before the end I was BR6 (400 behind BR 4) and tried to at least get BR4 because it was the last money prized position but failed as I lost two max bets. My question is: did I play correct in betting against or should I be more aggressive? I bet the min the first 33 hands and then 2 times the max. It was really frustrating Thanks for your help. I appreciate it Tony
Gotta have luck Tony, you sound like you had a plan going into the finals to just play small and hope the dealer was hot. This is a good plan, but doesn't always work for us. At some point in the round you have to break the small bets and have to chase the others if your to far behind. My rule of thumb is I try not to fall behind more then two max bets for the last ten hands. You keep the DD option open and give yourself some chance at winning. When and if you fall back to much you have to bet bigger and hope you catch some swing bets to make up the differants. You have nothing to lose at this point (you said only top four got money) if your out of the money slam down some bigger bets and go for it, if you lose you weren't getting any money anyway.
Limited DD is the problem Since your DD ability is limited to 9- 10- 11 you have to be more aggresive earlier than normal that was one of your problems.Your other problem was letting them get to far ahead you need to measure the field better.Stay with them by betting with them but less so if the dealers is hot you will be the leader and if she is dumping the rack you at least will be in striking distance.With a 200 max bet you need to stay with the pack
That restricted double down really limits the end play. With 30 hands the ups and downs will even out in the majority of tourneys. You just caught a cold dealer. You were way behind so you should have pushed the chips out way before the second to last hand, bust out so what! You can't cash those funny money chips in at the cage.
Thanks to everybody for your suggestions. I´ll try being more aggressive when falling behind in the future. The next tourney which will be held in 3 weeks. Wish me luck!
