Ask Garth!

[maccatak11]

Garth,

i and others have been wondering for a little time now about starting to buy in for some live tournaments, both at the Adelaide casino and or in other places.

Do you have any tips for people making the transition from NPL / low stakes casino poker to bigger buy-in live tournaments?

I feel like i am a much better live player than i am an online player, so although going up the stakes online first is an option, i dont really think it will be profitable for me.What kind of tournaments would suit players like me who are looking start to playing some bigger stakes live games??

Also, what/where was your first big(ish) live tournament? How did you go?

[Garth Kay]

Garth,

i and others have been wondering for a little time now about starting to buy in for some live tournaments, both at the Adelaide casino and or in other places.

Do you have any tips for people making the transition from NPL / low stakes casino poker to bigger buy-in live tournaments?

I feel like i am a much better live player than i am an online player, so although going up the stakes online first is an option, i dont really think it will be profitable for me.What kind of tournaments would suit players like me who are looking start to playing some bigger stakes live games??

Also, what/where was your first big(ish) live tournament? How did you go?

My honest belief is until you want to walk into big casino buy in's stick with the online tourneys. They offer the best value for money, the competition is harder and you begin to pick up on betting patterns and start to educate yourself on the maths of the game before the science. It is also trains you to respond quicker, and think quicker.

Aside from that if you are looking at casino tournaments my suggesting would be to start with a few micro buy in events (50-100) these are generally turbo structured with a semi decent start stack (2000 - 4000). The hand/hour rate isn't as good as online but you will start feeling comfortable playing in a live environment. You can start to find your rhythm at the tables as well as begin to train your observation skills and improve your reading skills.

If you have been successful at the micro buy in's for awhile then I suggest to stepping up to some of the larger buy in's. Does SkyCity offer weekend tournaments still? 5K start stacks with thirty minute blind levels?

Or if you really want to test yourself play one of the prelim events at any of the series held throughout the year. There is also the Melb Champs main event coming up with an $1,100 buy in or Pokernews Cup or Vic Champs Main event for around $3K. All of these series have prelim events that offer value for money but no huge bang for your buck.

I can't really recall my first ever buy in event, Brett might need to correct me here, but I think it was the $100 buy in held on Sundays at Crown. Or was it the Poker Pro toruney? Anyway I think my brother was the first to cash in any of our tourneys we played. I had a few minor cashes here and there.

But in Feb of 2008 I was over in Vic for the NPL $150K champs, the second day of this event was a Sunday. I wasn't needed to work so Nathan and Andre attempted to talk me into playing the $100 event. I was tired and hungover and really didn't want to but in the end when the tournament had commenced I decided stuff it I would play.

I proceeded to dominate my table after having AA cracked and leaving me shortstaked but tripled up when I moved all in with 89s and turned a flush against two opponents. I then proceeded to smash my way to the final table.

At the final table there were two good opponents and it was an awesome time, the most I have ever enjoyed playing. I won that tournament thanks to one tremendous suckout after I had attempted to make a play.

That tournament win is the most memorable, it was my first and it came at a time when I was running so bad and fully doubting my capabilites as a poker player. It was for a little over $2,500 but in the end it wasn't the money it was the confirmation that I could do it and I wasn't as bad as I thought. I continue to run bad and I have my upswings, I now embrace the variance, and I know how many times I get eliminated from a tournament when I am 70% or greater favourite on the flop. I remember that win and my run in the Vic champs and know that I do have the skills and confidence and there's always a payday somewhere ahead for me.

[AceLosesKing]

Variance is a bitch.

I'm thinking of taking my first crack at the 1/2 game at the cas in the coming weeks.

[maccatak11]

Cheers for that Garth, thanks for sharing.

Ill definately look into one of the deep(er) tourneys at sky city and go from there. Im not interested in turbo's currently, ill still play NPL every week, but im looking to get more and more deepstack experience. The plan is to do this so i can play one of the lower events at the melb champs or sky city in the next 2-3 years.

The most fun i have had recently playing poker has been at benny the cunt's and krunchies deepstack home games. Much higher than average NPL standard, and so much more to think about with a deeper stack.

In 5 years i'd love to play one of the lower AM events (or sky city main event), and a dream of mine is to play ther AM main event before i die.

I might be thinking a little wishfully, but its a goal anyway.

[AceLosesKing]

Cheers for that Garth, thanks for sharing.

Ill definately look into one of the deep(er) tourneys at sky city and go from there. Im not interested in turbo's currently, ill still play NPL every week, but im looking to get more and more deepstack experience. The plan is to do this so i can play one of the lower events at the melb champs or sky city in the next 2-3 years.

The most fun i have had recently playing poker has been at benny the cunt's and krunchies deepstack home games. Much higher than average NPL standard, and so much more to think about with a deeper stack.

In 5 years i'd love to play one of the lower AM events (or sky city main event), and a dream of mine is to play ther AM main event before i die.

I might be thinking a little wishfully, but its a goal anyway.

Nice goals Matty, I'd love to do the same myself.

[bennymacca]

at present, i am starting off on stars with a low bankroll, playing the micro states cash games

At present, i am playing 2 6max tables, buying for half maximum. this is working ok, i seem to be making a profit (as well as clearing my deposit bonus)

i was wondering what you thought about short stacking on more tables rather than full buyin on 1 table.

my problem with short stacking is that i am more inclined to shove it in because the losses are more limited - i.e if i have AQ suited or 99 and raise and then someone 3bets me, i find myself tending to shove rather than fold because i only have a small amount to lose, which is obviously the wrong play

my winnings graph therefore shows good increases followed by sharp decreases, although still a general upwards trend.

the upsides of multi tabling are that the micro stakes games are pretty easy, so i think i will smash the game once i fix my leak. in the lobby, i sort the tables by highest average pot, and then i look for games with a players per flop percentage of more than 40%. i seem to be able to keep track of 2 games pretty easily with the help of poker tracker, and it seems to make me play tighter because i dont get bored as easily


my current VPIP/PFR/AF for the games is something like 29/9/2.7, which makes me semi-loose-aggressive preflop, and aggressive post flop according to poker tracker. i have been trying hard to play really tight in early position, and i have probably loosened up in the button, especially as there are normally only 2 or 3 players to a flop in 6max.

do you have any comments on whether you like short stacking, or just multi tabling in general?

[Scotty]

Exactly which micro stakes are you playing?

[bennymacca]

Exactly which micro stakes are you playing?

well at the moment, it is 5c/10c, but i want to move up to the 10/25 pretty quickly

sorry, i forgot about the 1c/2c etc on stars

no point playing them

[maccatak11]

You might cover this in the next few weeks,
but,
when the planned cash game events enter south australia, will they be run as 'stand alone' events, with the only prizes given being the cash payouts from the prizepool, or will the 'regular' points system still apply

i.e. will and cash buy-in event still have a leaderboard and still have players qualify for the NPL champs main event from it??

Obvuisly the structure of the tourney might change slightly (no bad beats, redraws) but it will essentially be a similar tourney, and i think there is no reason why people still couldnt qualify for states.

I do have an interest in this one, as a little birdy told me that my regular venue could/might be on the list for proposed cash buy in events in the fiture.

[Des]

garth, how do you look so sexy in a suit?