how do you win live donkafests?

robyoung

at my local casino i play a £10 rebuy now and again, it normally gets around 60 runners, and out of them id say only about 15 of them are good poker players

the starting chip stack it 2000 and blinds are 100/100 to start moving on to 100/200 200/400 etc so very shallow structure with not much room for serious play

what gets me angry is that everytime i get knocked out its always by bad play and the villain getting lucky, il use tonights exit hand as an example

my stack was around 9000 with blinds at 600/1200 and i was on the big blind with a 10, the guy utg (who i know is a major calling station and loves to play pots with mediocre hands) limps into the pot and it comes round to another major donk who also calls and its folded round to my blind

now i know my a10 is ahead of both players because both these guys raise when they have premium hands and i didnt wanna play a pot out of position and stacks are too shallow to raise, so i shove. the guy utg calls off half hes stack and the other guy folds, he flips over a 8 against my a 10, and hits a flush to knock me out.


what my question is, whats the best way to play events like these which are full of bad players? i know luck is a major factor when it comes to poker and i can accept bad beats, but the last 5 times ive been there ive been knocked out by brutally bad play getting rewarded, is it best just not to play these and stick to online games where im succsessful, or is there a good strategy to win these sorts of tourneys?

Lambert180

Well you say luck is a major factor but you obviously you wanna have as much skill involved in your game to reduce the amount of luck. But when you play a structure like this, it's always gonna be a bit wild and very high variance. I've never heard of a tourney that starts with only 20BBs.

You say you shoved with A10 cos you didnt wanna play out of position but the fact is, you have about 7BBs so it's ALWAYS shove or fold with any of your hands. You should be happy he turned over A8 cos you were miles ahead, obviously you'll win in this situation much more often than you lose, but that's variance for ya that you lost this one.

My advice would be to not play a tourney with such a horrible strucuture, if you want there to be less luck and more skill involved.

robyoung

In Response to Re: how do you win live donkafests?:

Well you say luck is a major factor but you obviously you wanna have as much skill involved in your game to reduce the amount of luck. But when you play a structure like this, it's always gonna be a bit wild and very high variance. I've never heard of a tourney that starts with only 20BBs. You say you shoved with A10 cos you didnt wanna play out of position but the fact is, you have about 7BBs so it's ALWAYS shove or fold with any of your hands. You should be happy he turned over A8 cos you were miles ahead, obviously you'll win in this situation much more often than you lose, but that's variance for ya that you lost this one. My advice would be to not play a tourney with such a horrible strucuture, if you want there to be less luck and more skill involved.
Posted by Lambert180

yeah the structure is really poor lol theres no good tournements games near me, and my cash game is a bit under par so i dont play cash games live may just have to stick with my online game

Mohican

Have to agree with Lambert and it's the reason I stopped playing in my local pub league every week. Instead, I put the buy ins towards one game in the nearest Casino(Luton) which is just over an hour away. You get a decent structure and it's dealer dealt. You still get the bad play but with it being deeper you can take a couple of bad beats and still be in. By the sounds of it, by not playing the rebuy once a week, you'll have 40 squid at least to put towards a tourney in your nearest Casino.

jugglegeek

That's an appalling structure. They've got some nerve calling that a tournement if you ask me. You start with 20 big blinds and the first blind level is 100/100!?

It would be quicker an probably more profitable to play blackjack or roulette.

robyoung

In Response to Re: how do you win live donkafests?:

That's an appalling structure. They've got some nerve calling that a tournement if you ask me. You start with 20 big blinds and the first blind level is 100/100!? It would be quicker an probably more profitable to play blackjack or roulette.
Posted by jugglegeek

yup no word of a lie lol blinds are 100/100 with a 2000 starting stack for an hour then 100/200 for an hour, then add on period and break, after that blinds go like 200/400 300/600 etc every 15 mins, and with the croupiers slow and miss dealing, makes it even worse lol

won the tourney one of the 1st times i went there think thats how i got sucked into going, think il not go back now and stick with good ol' sky

IDONKCALLU

theres no skill in this is there u start with 20 big blinds its pretty much shove or fold on the 1st level its a crapshoot no skill just luck of cards if u dnt pick a hand u could easily be blinded out or looking for spots to shove and staeal the blinds 2 survive but yeah the structure is awfull i play my local pub start with 12k in chips and blinds start at 20/40 and blinds go up every 10 mins thats a good structure the thing is in 10 minutes only get about 4 hands playe not even half a orbit because of old players being slow but atleast its a good structure 

robyoung

In Response to Re: how do you win live donkafests?:

theres no skill in this is there u start with 20 big blinds its pretty much shove or fold on the 1st level its a crapshoot no skill just luck of cards if u dnt pick a hand u could easily be blinded out or looking for spots to shove and staeal the blinds 2 survive but yeah the structure is awfull i play my local pub start with 12k in chips and blinds start at 20/40 and blinds go up every 10 mins thats a good structure the thing is in 10 minutes only get about 4 hands playe not even half a orbit because of old players being slow but atleast its a good structure 
Posted by IDONKCALLU

yup, certainly no room for 3 or 4 betting people lol think the only skill factor is basic poker skills, like knowing where you are in hands etc

IDONKCALLU

yeah well with 20 big blind no point raise folding might aswell pick certain spoots play tight and look see whos the tight palyers and the aggro players if u got 2 tight players next to u eveerytime they small blind and big blind id raise or even all in depending on your stack everytime 

The_Don90

bribe the dealer

laffn

In Response to how do you win live donkafests?:

at my local casino i play a £10 rebuy now and again, it normally gets around 60 runners, and out of them id say only about 15 of them are good poker players the starting chip stack it 2000 and blinds are 100/100 to start moving on to 100/200 200/400 etc so very shallow structure with not much room for serious play what gets me angry is that everytime i get knocked out its always by bad play and the villain getting lucky, il use tonights exit hand as an example my stack was around 9000 with blinds at 600/1200 and i was on the big blind with a 10, the guy utg (who i know is a major calling station and loves to play pots with mediocre hands) limps into the pot and it comes round to another major donk who also calls and its folded round to my blind now i know my a10 is ahead of both players because both these guys raise when they have premium hands and i didnt wanna play a pot out of position and stacks are too shallow to raise, so i shove. the guy utg calls off half hes stack and the other guy folds, he flips over a 8 against my a 10, and hits a flush to knock me out. what my question is, whats the best way to play events like these which are full of bad players? i know luck is a major factor when it comes to poker and i can accept bad beats, but the last 5 times ive been there ive been knocked out by brutally bad play getting rewarded, is it best just not to play these and stick to online games where im succsessful, or is there a good strategy to win these sorts of tourneys?
Posted by robyoung

well you'll feel right at home on this site..............i've just closed my account down....i know about bad beats and big stacks calling short stacks and winning..........but on here the worst hand winning is the norm........hopefully other sites have got the balance right !!

Lambert180

Yeah other sites get the balance right cos when you set up a poker website, what you need to do as owners, is change the fundamental laws of probability.

I hate all this rubbish from people who essentially just cannot handle variance.

Wake up and smell the variance!