Best strategy in the early stages of a low buy-in tournaments

[miroq]

What is your strategy for the early stages of a tournament? I am referring to tournaments with low buy-ins (freeroll - £5). I am terrified of the nonchalant play of fish, I often drop out in the early blind levels and lose to AI with monsters like QQ or AKs. And I don't want to play AI with marginal hands because it's just not reasonable. I would be grateful for any insights and advice.

 

[veryluckyfish7k]

What is your strategy for the early stages of a tournament? I am referring to tournaments with low buy-ins (freeroll - £5). I am terrified of the nonchalant play of fish, I often drop out in the early blind levels and lose to AI with monsters like QQ or AKs. And I don't want to play AI with marginal hands because it's just not reasonable. I would be grateful for any insights and advice.

play super solid early. Don’t stack off light vs wild players just value-bet your strong hands and avoid big pots with marginal ones. Let the fishes bust themselves, then open up later when the field thins out

 

[thedarkman]

What is your strategy for the early stages of a tournament? I am referring to tournaments with low buy-ins (freeroll - £5). I am terrified of the nonchalant play of fish, I often drop out in the early blind levels and lose to AI with monsters like QQ or AKs. And I don't want to play AI with marginal hands because it's just not reasonable. I would be grateful for any insights and advice.

This is the how long is a piece of string question - how many runners, structure, type of game? If you are playing no limit hold ém or no limit anything, you can be busted out first hand.

How many players reading this post have been busted out first hand with aces, perhaps all-in before the flop? That has happened to me and doubtless countless others.

 

[austral]

I play solid, stay patient, and avoid taking too many risks early on. I use this time to study my opponents and preserve chips for the middle and late stages.

 

[fundiver199]

I am terrified of the nonchalant play of fish, I often drop out in the early blind levels and lose to AI with monsters like QQ or AKs.

If you feel, this is a problem, then you need to rethink the entire way, you approach the game. Poker is a game of calculated risk taking, and if you can get other players to take risks with bad odds - say you are a 60-70% favourite - then you should be thrilled about that, even if you lost that particular hand. Most tournaments these days allow re-entry, so if you bust early due to some kind of cooler or bad beat, then you just reenter and play on.

If this is a problem, then the real problem is poor money management. If you only have a poker budget of $20 for the rest of the month and want to play every weekend, then you should not be buying in for $5 at a time. Instead you should be buying in for something more reasonable like $1 at a time in accordance with your budget. Or you should give yourself a more reasonable budget like $100 per month, if you want to play $5 tournaments.

 

[miroq]

If you feel, this is a problem, then you need to rethink the entire way, you approach the game. Poker is a game of calculated risk taking, and if you can get other players to take risks with bad odds - say you are a 60-70% favourite - then you should be thrilled about that, even if you lost that particular hand. Most tournaments these days allow re-entry, so if you bust early due to some kind of cooler or bad beat, then you just reenter and play on.

If this is a problem, then the real problem is poor money management. If you only have a poker budget of $20 for the rest of the month and want to play every weekend, then you should not be buying in for $5 at a time. Instead you should be buying in for something more reasonable like $1 at a time in accordance with your budget. Or you should give yourself a more reasonable budget like $100 per month, if you want to play $5 tournaments.

Thank you for your tips. I consider bankroll management is quite good in my case. I never risk more than 5% of my total bankroll for single one tournament. Colleagues above @veryluckyfish7k and @austral have written their tips, and I think I need to refocus on the game, especially at the early blind levels, where there are still a lot of fresh and unpredictable players.

 

[miroq]

This is the how long is a piece of string question - how many runners, structure, type of game? If you are playing no limit hold ém or no limit anything, you can be busted out first hand.

How many players reading this post have been busted out first hand with aces, perhaps all-in before the flop? That has happened to me and doubtless countless others.

If you have nothing creative to offer, please skip this post and do not comment. If you did not understand my question, please read it again. Your answer does not contribute anything to the topic, unlike other users like @veryluckyfish7k, @austral and @fundiver199.

Chill out a bit and I wish you high cash.