Today I have decided that I will spend most of my time playing poker tournaments on PokerStars. I have just entered a scheduled tournament. I play these tournies often. It is a $5.50 entry tournament. The entry carries on for an hour after it starts so the field gets pretty big. I joined after 12 minutes and there were 1400 entrants at that point, there are now 1800 entrants and 300 have already been knocked out and it is only 22 minutes in. From experience in these $5.50 tournies I can predict that there will be between 3000 and 4500 entrants by the end of the tournament.
I've not started off well, everyone starts with $3,000 chips and I'm already down to $2,600. It isn't really a big deal at the moment though as the blinds are only $25 and $50 so my stack relative to the blinds is absolutely massive. My stick relative the the two big blinds is 2600:75 this ratio is called your M ratio, which when worked out properly is 34.66. The M ratio is probably the most important number in poker as it determines the way in which you should play. If the M ratio is above 20 then there is room to make a few errors in judgement and play can be a little looser. When the M ratio dips under 10 then it is time to play a lot tighter. Less gambling and less flops seen. When the M ratio goes below 5 then there is only one style of play that should be used. Whatever hand you have, when you are first to act put all of your chips in the middle, go all in. Hopefully everyone will fold and you will steal the blinds. Either that or someone will call you and you will hopefully have a 40% chance of winning the hand. The chance will be 40% if the opponent that calls has two random cards that are higher than yours. At this stage though if you have managed to get yourself in a position with such a low M ratio then you should just be hoping for a bit of good luck to get you out of that position. Time for another tournament update I think.
The first break has just finished after an hours play. I had got my stack back up to $3,000 but just lost $500 in a hand a second ago. The total amount of entrants was 2895 and there are 1500 players left. The top 414 players will get paid and first prize is $2281.45. The only other prizes over $100 are on the final table, so there is only one real aim and that is to get to the final table. I just had a couple of good hands, doubled up with AQ versus Q10 and got up to $3,900 chips, then I knocked someone out with 1010 against KQ and built my stack up to $6,500, have $6,000 now and the blinds are up to $100 and $200. My M ratio is about 20. Time to concentrate on the poker for a bit and take a break from writing unless something exciting happens. Bad hand just now.
Down to $4,200 after getting my KK8810 beaten by KK88A. I'm going to have to take a few more risks now. Some preflop raises in order to steal the blinds and the antes. The blinds and antes are $600 in total now and I need to steal this a few times by going all in. Hopefully noone will call these raises and I will get a few more thousand chips.
I've just been knocked out in 850th place :-( I went all in with 88 and happened to come across someone with KK and they knocked me out. Better luck next time I guess. I think the next tournament that I attempt will just be a 27 entrant $5 tournament. They normally only take about an hour and a half and there is a good chance of winning $50 for first place. Wish me luck.
I've not started off well, everyone starts with $3,000 chips and I'm already down to $2,600. It isn't really a big deal at the moment though as the blinds are only $25 and $50 so my stack relative to the blinds is absolutely massive. My stick relative the the two big blinds is 2600:75 this ratio is called your M ratio, which when worked out properly is 34.66. The M ratio is probably the most important number in poker as it determines the way in which you should play. If the M ratio is above 20 then there is room to make a few errors in judgement and play can be a little looser. When the M ratio dips under 10 then it is time to play a lot tighter. Less gambling and less flops seen. When the M ratio goes below 5 then there is only one style of play that should be used. Whatever hand you have, when you are first to act put all of your chips in the middle, go all in. Hopefully everyone will fold and you will steal the blinds. Either that or someone will call you and you will hopefully have a 40% chance of winning the hand. The chance will be 40% if the opponent that calls has two random cards that are higher than yours. At this stage though if you have managed to get yourself in a position with such a low M ratio then you should just be hoping for a bit of good luck to get you out of that position. Time for another tournament update I think.
The first break has just finished after an hours play. I had got my stack back up to $3,000 but just lost $500 in a hand a second ago. The total amount of entrants was 2895 and there are 1500 players left. The top 414 players will get paid and first prize is $2281.45. The only other prizes over $100 are on the final table, so there is only one real aim and that is to get to the final table. I just had a couple of good hands, doubled up with AQ versus Q10 and got up to $3,900 chips, then I knocked someone out with 1010 against KQ and built my stack up to $6,500, have $6,000 now and the blinds are up to $100 and $200. My M ratio is about 20. Time to concentrate on the poker for a bit and take a break from writing unless something exciting happens. Bad hand just now.
Down to $4,200 after getting my KK8810 beaten by KK88A. I'm going to have to take a few more risks now. Some preflop raises in order to steal the blinds and the antes. The blinds and antes are $600 in total now and I need to steal this a few times by going all in. Hopefully noone will call these raises and I will get a few more thousand chips.
I've just been knocked out in 850th place :-( I went all in with 88 and happened to come across someone with KK and they knocked me out. Better luck next time I guess. I think the next tournament that I attempt will just be a 27 entrant $5 tournament. They normally only take about an hour and a half and there is a good chance of winning $50 for first place. Wish me luck.
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