Multi Day Tourney

[Doc_H]

So by the grace of God, someone actually staked me a ticket to our big local tourney (1M USD GTD!) 3 Day 1s, Day 2, 3, then final table at our gaming expo. Barry Greenstein is here to play, and actually played in our biggest cardroom and played ALL the low stakes tables (around .10-.25 approximate, despite the fact they arranged a $10-$20 approximate table for him) just to interact, shake hands, have pics taken and sign autographs! Great guy!

Anyway, I'm 1 out of 3 cashing out in a multi-day MTT. Better percentages with our weekly MTTs. I'd appreciate any tips for playing a multi-day MTT. I'm personally more of the bent of playing to win (Chip Accumulation) and barring card slumps, bad beats, and The One Bad Play, it does well for me.

Thanks guys!

[Tim]

Hey, nice job getting staked. When is this event? How many runners do you expect?

Tip 1: make it through day 1
Tip 2: make it through day 2
Tip 3: .....

Okay, being serious now. This reminded me of a post from last year about Donovan (great guy who wrote some of the lessons on this site), who was playing some WSOP events. There's a link to his blog post where he made some excellent notes to stay focused and play his A game. Here's the quote:

What were my keys to success? Going into the event, I wrote down a few rules for myself in order to stay focused:

1. I will remain calm, focused and aggressive
2. I will make my reads first, then consider my cards
3. Each player will be a faceless, nameless body with patterns and tendencies
4. I will not bring baggage to the table
5. I will not force the action
6. I will be fluid
7. I will fear no man
8. I will make plays that I have confidence in
9. I will change gears and adapt to table dynamics
10. I will make decisions based on my reads, not based on what a book or forum says I should
11. I will not worry about what others think about my play
12. I believe that I will win
13. I will play to win without fear of busting out
14. I will always be conscious of how many chips are in the pot
15. I will trust my gut feeling
16. I will accumulate chips on the bubble
17. I will have fun

DP's Poker Reads: 2009 WSOP Results

[Queso]

Cool blog. How come we never hear from this fellow around here?

[DangerMouse]

Can`t really offer any advice as I`ve never played a multi-day event. But GL for the tourny, TID

[Bigevil19]

I too can't give you any advice but GL TAKE IT DOWN and bring home that money money yea yea that money money yea yea lol but i have heard it a marthon not a sprint.

[Donovan]

Hi Doc,

I'm the Donovan that Tim was referring to (thanks for the kind words Tim).

A few other things that have really helped me in long multi-day events are:

1. Pack nutritious snacks - Keep your brain focused by bringing along granola bars; fruits, etc. The big casino meals will leave you tired and sluggish; leading to bad reads and impatience.

2. Fall into a rhythm, but don't over fall - What I mean is to get into an emotionally detached zone, but because it is a long day don't get so robotic that you miss crucial spots to pick up chips. It's easy to fall into a rhythm of just playing your cards in these long days, so be conscious of the table dynamics in every hand and don't be afraid of pulling the trigger.

3. Don't be afraid to get up from the table if you are tilting. If things aren't going your way, there will be tons of hands coming up so take the time to relax and re-focus if necessary.

4. Make friends with the people to your left and right. Since you will have the time you should ask them questions and be friendly. You will be amazed at how many times you will get a walk or respect for a raise/re-raise. They usually say something like "you're lucky I like you".

I hope those help. Good luck.

Donovan

[Donovan]

Originally Posted by Queso

Cool blog. How come we never hear from this fellow around here?

Hey Queso,

Thanks. I'm going to start posting more. I usually lurk on forums but I plan on becoming more active.

Donovan

[Tim]

Some great tips there Donovan.

Originally Posted by Donovan

Thanks. I'm going to start posting more. I usually lurk on forums but I plan on becoming more active.

Nice to see you popping in, and hope to see more of you on here. Posting is more fun than lurking!

[Queso]

Originally Posted by Donovan

Hey Queso,

Thanks. I'm going to start posting more. I usually lurk on forums but I plan on becoming more active.

Donovan

You definitely sound like the go-to guy when it comes to live tournaments! I'll be looking for ya.