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Server Time: 3/17/2010 3:56:06 PM PACIFIC |
 How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, Bart Mann, 23. Sep 2003 06:20 | ||
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| Hello All: I posted this in "Strategy and Psychology" yesterday, and have yet to get a response. Maybe it fits better in here. Anyway, I was wondering if there is anyone out there who has a successful studying or training routine for live NLHE tournaments. I've got one coming up in a couple of weeks, and was hoping to get some hints and tips on preparation--both from a mental perspective and a skill perspective. This is the third live NLHE tournament of my career, and as each one approaches I'm realizing the importance of "being prepared." Before the last tournament I made a conscious effort to prepare in advance. I re-read several tournament poker books and select parts of Super System, played online in some of the higher-limit Freeplay areas (where people actually play tight poker), and spent some hours at the local card room--working on picking up tells from other players, eliminating my tells, and practicing odds calculation. I also studied the odds tables (from several books and the Pokerstove software) and I finally started a Poker Diary to document strategy, helpful hints, bad beats, lessons learned and so on. So my question is, do any of you do something similar that seems to work? Do you have a routine, training regimine or technique you would like to share? Or am I just wasting my time putting in all of these extra hours? It feels like it's helping, and I've progressively been improving my tournament placement. I can only assume that many of you pros out there don't just walk up to the table and rely on your God-given poker genes to win--but I could be wrong. Thanks in advance for your help. - Bart - | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, SmellsLikeVictory, 23. Sep 2003 07:04 | ||
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| One thing I'd say to do is get some rest. These things can be marathons. I usually play in Stars $50 tourneys and they last 4-5 hours and that's not a big deal so I don't make any special preparation for those. But when I played in the $330 Party 100K guarantee last Friday I was ill prepared for the marathon it became. Started at 10PM EST and didn't end until 8AM! I made it to the 7th table and it was 3AM when I was eliminated and I was dead tired. There was a part of me that was happy to finally get to bed with some cash when my Kings got cracked by an A on the flop. That's not a good attitude to have when you're in the money and in contention for a 70K top prize! Wish I'd had real good rest the night before and taken a nap a couple hours before it started. Bigger tourneys, like the multi-day majors, are a huge grind. You have to be mentally prepared for the fatigue and get good rest. Know in advance how many will be playing. The more there are, the more you need to keep issues like fatigue and rest in mind. | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, Brent, 23. Sep 2003 07:04 | ||
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| Well Bart, I am a rank amature that mainly plays in home NLHE tournaments. But, here are some things that I have found help me go into a game feeling prepared and aware. I start about a week before the tournament and review all my notes from past games and I skim some of the books I found to be helpful. I then play a few small games to get the feel, even dealing out ghost hands and going through in my head what each would 'probably' do and watch for traps that I could walk into. I usually stop playing any cards a day or two before the game. I make sure I end on a good note then spend time just thinking about stratagy. Get a good nights sleep and on the day of the tournament I try to excercise a little and do something that has nothing to do with cards. By the time the tournament starts my blood is flowing, I'm relaxed and focused. Everyone has there own thing that helps. But I found that going over my notes early in the week so that I will think about them all week helps me the most. Good luck and I hope this help. | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, Jacob, 23. Sep 2003 07:55 | ||
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| Hi I play a lot of tournaments so don't really prepare in a special way for these routineTours. Yet when I join a major event I tend to stop smoking the day b4 till the tournamant starts. The lack of nicotine makes me jumpy and full of energy and when I smoke a few cigs throughout the Tour I really feel great. I know it won't help u much if a nonsmoker;) yet that and exercise r my basics 4 preparing...skill and theory is backbone material in my case. | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, noiseboy, 23. Sep 2003 09:14 | ||
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| I will reread both Super System and Cloutier and McEvoy's Tournament Practice hands (Just the NL section), the night or two preceding the tournament. I'm not trying to memorize how they play, that just helps me get into the right frame of mind. They have some very different ideas on how to play, and having that clash of ideas helps me think about how I am going to play. Having different opinions on how to play helps me to change gears as well based on my image at the time. I will also play a bit, but I'm playing all the time, so really, I think if you are playing ring games all the time, you probably need a break from that before a tournament. I'm not one of those who thinks that sidegames hurt your tournament play, but I think you do need a bit of separation from ring game style play before you get into a big tourney. Another good thing is to play a bunch of one table satellites to simulate final table play. You might also try to play a heads-up table online, and buy in for a certain amount (whatever the opponent has at the table) and pretend that they are tournament chips. I hear Tournament Texas Hold'em software is good to simulate tournament structure, but I haven't gotten around to buying that. I think playing with real people is probably better anyway, even if you can't exactly simulate the tournament conditions. | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, stdioh, 23. Sep 2003 09:50 | ||
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| In terms of skills, learn how to play no limit hold'em tournaments ... get practice, read the theory ... there isn't much to say that you don't already know. In terms of mental preparedness, make sure that you gt a lot of sleep, don't drink any alcohol or take any drugs for a full day before, have lots of coffee in the morning, eat a healthy breakfast and make sure that you eat enough so that you aren't hungry. Drink lots of water so that you won't get dehydrated. Clear your head. If you need to, pray or meditate or whatever you do to centre yourself. | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, Jav, 23. Sep 2003 10:48 | ||
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| But what if you need alcohol and drugs to center yourself, lol. I think I agree with everything you say except the coffee. If you're the kind of person that drinks it every day then you should probably keep doing it, but too much caffeine can make you jittery and give you tunnel vission if you're not careful. | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, Bart Mann, 23. Sep 2003 10:10 | ||
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| Do any of you guys find that watching other tournaments on tape does any good? I've got six of the WPT events from last year on tape, along with the whole 2003 WSP. Sometimes it seems like it hurts as much as it helps. All of the footage is usually "Final Table," where a hand like JJ carries much more weight than it does at a table of 11 people with 230 left in the tournament. And watching guys like Gus Hansen play . . . there's no method to the madness. | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, shorn, 23. Sep 2003 10:12 | ||
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| I re-read Sklansky's tournament book and the select chapter's from Championship Pot Limit and NL Hold'em (I don't play limit tourny's). Then, I make sure that I get plenty of sleep the day before a long event and try to clear my mind of anything outside of poker. Good luck. | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, chasepoker, 23. Sep 2003 10:43 | ||
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| Maybe i am doing something wrong as i just rock up and spend 20 mins slipping into poker mode. Of course i dont drink/ take drugs before an event but i would say that unless you have trouble concentrating for long periods of time there isnt too much you can do to prepare for tournaments apart from get lots of practice / make sure you have read all the good books. Once the cards are dealt i am focused on the event and only the event ! Chasepoker | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, Brent, 23. Sep 2003 10:54 | ||
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| One other thing that I do that I'm sure is going to get torn apart immediatly after I post it is first thing I do when I sit down at the table before play is get a beer. I have one beer to sip on and one beer only. I find it calms my play and relaxes me. I tend to get to excited to play and having a beer makes me slow down. Ok, now on with the threads about how bad this is. | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, Jav, 23. Sep 2003 10:56 | ||
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| I doubt that a single beer is going to have a bad effect on you. In fact, if it helps you relax then it might be very helpful. I doubt anyone could argue that you would be a better player if you were drunk; but having a beer shouldn't be a problem as long as you have the discipline to not open five more the first time you have a bad beat! | ||
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| Re: How Do You Prepare for a NLHE Tournament?, noiseboy, 24. Sep 2003 09:10 | ||
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| I experience this playing music. I actually do better playing in front of people with 2 beers or so in me. It just helps me settle down. Haven't really tried it much with poker however. I think 1 beer is probably fine, but most players who drink too much start to play bad. Some players seem to do just fine drinking a ton of beer while they play, Scotty Nguyen and Layne Flack for instance, but I would say that's probably the exception rather than the rule. Over the weekend, I had a chance to play some 4-handed Pot Limit Hold'em with a former Tournament of Champions winner and a frequent local tournament winner. It was smaller-stakes type home game action, so I was mainly there to have fun, and drank a bunch of beer, which I usually don't do. It was free, how could I pass up? Overall, I think I played pretty well, although perhaps I was even more aggressive and likely to bluff and semi-bluff than normal. I left even, which I consider a success considering the competition, so maybe beer isn't so bad. I still won't be drinking when I have serious money on the line. | ||
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