Best strategy for BH

LARSON7

I recently decided i was going 2 play 20 £11 BH so (£220 spend total), these are my results to date; *It includes 1 main event so why it says 10 games played.

Total games 10*, Total Spend £132, winnings £83.01, Profit -£49


I know it's a small sample size, but still think i should be atleast break even by this point.

I would say i've generally played pretty well and just not ran pretty good, i've lost most flips. And a few times late on around the bubble i've lost 2 70/30's for  a big stack, lost AK />AQ and AQ /> AJ.

I'm just wondering what the best strategy is for these, without fail every single hand is limped multi-ways (early doors). When it is raised even to a big raise, 90% of the time the limpers make up. In my opinion it is quite hard to deal with, i'll give an example below of a hand that despite winning, i don't know if i played it well at all.

My second question, what is the optimal way to play deep in these games. As they are a turbo format, around the bubble/ late on, most players are quite low in blinds, with maybe 15/20 bb's being the average. It's a lot harder to get the blinds 2 fold for example. Back to point one people still love to call even though they are short.

Ina  regular deepstack freezout MTT it's a lot easier to apply pressure around about the bubble, but i can't seem to do this in BH'ers. It's maybe something i'm doing wrong.

Any help appreciated.

LARSON7

Hand 1, i don't think i played this very well,

Pre flop, i think i need to rasie bigger, what is optimal like 160/70? It's scarey such a big raise pre, but clearly the raise i made had no effect.

Tbh, i'm bricking it, top pair top kicker, against 4/5 villians. A bit happier when it is HU to the turn.

Beautiful card on the turn, even if i was behind/ raggy 2 pair atleast now i have outs.
Prob a mistake but decide to just jam, people will call down really light any ace is calling here, just fingers crosed he's not got 2 pair. I know the jam looks bad, it probably is. Thoughts on this hand?

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
LARSON7	Small blind		10.00	10.00	1970.00
snookery	Big blind		20.00	30.00	1920.00
	Your hole cards	A K
neelyj	Call		20.00	50.00	1920.00
Bram2727	Call		20.00	70.00	2190.00
LABBY2009	Call		20.00	90.00	1920.00
mental	Fold
LARSON7	Raise		90.00	180.00	1880.00
snookery	Call		80.00	260.00	1840.00
neelyj	Call		80.00	340.00	1840.00
Bram2727	Call		80.00	420.00	2110.00
LABBY2009	Call		80.00	500.00	1840.00
Flop
		5 A 7
LARSON7	Bet		250.00	750.00	1630.00
snookery	Call		250.00	1000.00	1590.00
neelyj	Fold
Bram2727	Fold
LABBY2009	Fold
Turn
		3
LARSON7	All-in		1630.00	2630.00	0.00
snookery	All-in		1590.00	4220.00	0.00
LARSON7	Unmatched bet		40.00	4180.00	40.00
LARSON7	Show	A K
snookery	Show	2 K
River
		2
LARSON7	Win	Flush to the Ace	4180.00		4220

DoubleAAA

Yes I would raise more pre, ~150-160 and bet more on that flop.  Going with how you played it pre, I would say to bet ~375 - 390 on the flop so we set it up to get it all in on the turn.  These early levels, they cannot fold top pair or a flush draw, so let's charge them the maximum.

GaryQQQ

Stay out of the wild gambling often seen in the early stages. Keep it tight/aggresive to profit from the maniacs.

Don't squander chips unneccesarily chasing head-prizes. You should be ignoring bounties in at least 90% of situations. Focus on trying to win the tournament instead, treat it like a freeze-out for the most part.

Every table is different, adapt your style accordingly.

Bully tight short-tacks relentlessly as the bubble approaches, particularly those who haven't won any head-prizes. Unless you have a read to the contrary be less inclined to bully players who've already locked-up more than their buy-in on the bubble.

Engage your killer instinct in the late stages. You're in it to win it, not to meekly blind-out in the hope of laddering a few spots.

Run well.

hhyftrftdr

In Response to Best strategy for BH:

I recently decided i was going 2 play 20 £11 BH so (£220 spend total), these are my results to date; *It includes 1 main event so why it says 10 games played. Total games 10*, Total Spend £132, winnings £83.01, Profit -£49 I know it's a small sample size, but still think i should be atleast break even by this point. I would say i've generally played pretty well and just not ran pretty good, i've lost most flips. And a few times late on around the bubble i've lost 2 70/30's for  a big stack, lost AK />AQ and AQ /> AJ. I'm just wondering what the best strategy is for these, without fail every single hand is limped multi-ways (early doors). When it is raised even to a big raise, 90% of the time the limpers make up. In my opinion it is quite hard to deal with, i'll give an example below of a hand that despite winning, i don't know if i played it well at all. My second question, what is the optimal way to play deep in these games. As they are a turbo format, around the bubble/ late on, most players are quite low in blinds, with maybe 15/20 bb's being the average. It's a lot harder to get the blinds 2 fold for example. Back to point one people still love to call even though they are short. Ina  regular deepstack freezout MTT it's a lot easier to apply pressure around about the bubble, but i can't seem to do this in BH'ers. It's maybe something i'm doing wrong. Any help appreciated.
Posted by LARSON7

Why do you think you should be break even? You could play 100 BH's perfectly and have naff all to show for it, or play 15 awfully and have a boatload of cash. Just the nature of the tournament beast, Henrik.

Pick your spots carefully in the early stages. Start turning the skrew as the tourney progresses. Whilst it's difficult to iso the limpers initially, as everyone tends to come along, start iso'ing in position much wider as the blinds increase, vs players who will call fold nearly all flops. 

Generally get called lighter when all in in BH's. Careful not to blind down and lose your fold equity. All well and good picking up AK with 5bb, but chances are you'll get called by more than one person. 

Lambert180

+1 to Harry

It's nuts to draw a single conclusion based on results from a sample of 10 MTTs. You could be the best MTT player on Sky by a country mile, and it still wouldn't be that surprising if you played 10 MTTs and were making a loss over that period.

As for playing BHs, just play poker and adapt. Sometimes you get a table full of stations who won't fold pre, but sometimes you get that in a freezeout too. Like any MTT, see how everyone else is playing and exploit it.

CraigSG1

I agree with GaryQQQ. You have to be tight and VERY aggressive. Dont worry about telegraphing your hands, makes no difference. Treat it like playing 4nl. In hand above, raise to 150/199 and then bomb flop. Your never getting away if you are behind so charge all the hands you are ahead of full price, believe me no ace is folding, no draw is folding. 

And as for your sample size, its far too small. What harry says is so true. An example is ive profited very well from £5BH's but the last fifty I have played have seen very little return. I just cant run well even though 80% of the time I have got my chips in ahead (most of the time well ahead) only to bust. It just happens. To get a true reflection a 1000 minimum is needed. 

I say that, but there are some great, great players that a 100 sample size is good enough for! 

All you can do is play as well as you can in every situation you are in. The best MTT players play one hand at a time no matter what. Every variable from positon, hand, players, stack, blinds, MTT situation and history is used to make the best decision for that particular hand/situation they are in and then see what happens.