This is a style I've been toying with for a few weeks now. Negreanu mainly plays by it. There was also a recent article by Thomas "Thunder" Keller describing it, www.cardplayer.com. Beavis really turned me onto it by mentioning its advantages in freerolls. I used it in the Latest NP PFO freeroll, and had a commanding lead with it most of the event.

The theory goes that early in an event, you can see A LOT of flops (in the NP event I saw 42% until the final table) cheap. Position loses a little importance, but you still have to be mindful of it. Pretty much any hand that you wouldn't mind getting in the SB is playable. Suited aces, '20' hands, 1 or 2 gap suited connectors, suited K's and Q's (These if you can get in late). Notice, most of the hands I'm playing here are suited, thats add enough equity to them (IMHO) to make them playable. I have been limping in with these alot. And to keep my image about the same (as in "I have no clue what that guy has"), I limp with a lot of the stronger hands that usually get raised PF, such as AJs, AQo, JJ. The bigger hands I will usually raise just to keep their "playable" equity up. Yes, this gives away the strength of my bigger hands, but early in the lower buy-in MTT's, people dont seem to notice that much. Of course, with these weaker hands, I mean only limping. If anybody has shown strength before me, most of these hands are not playable, and the ones that are usually require a reraise. Same with reraises behind me, I do end up folding a good portion of these PF to a late raise, depedning on odds and what the hand is.

Flop play is where you really need some experience to play correctly. You have a crap hand, and you have to play it as such. If I miss, it gets folded pretty quickly. But if you come in with from MP and the flop comes then that crap hand just gained a lot of equity (poker stove puts at about 50% vs 3 other "playable" hands). Yes, that's a very specific example, but quite often the flop comes all rags. The problems arise when you talk about kickers, overflushes, and other similar issues. You must read the other players and draw the right conclusions about what they are holding. Thats why people like Negreanu, Deeb, and Hanson play this style so well (Well ok, Gus is a bully too), they can read people very well.

Ok, some of you are going to argue that variance will eat you alive eventually. Possibly, but the thing is with this style, you are not commiting large amounts of chips to any hand unless you have a made hand. Early in MTT's you usually have 100+ bb's in your stack, and usually have at least 75 for the first three levels or so. Limping and then folding a lot of these hands is far offset by the few that you do hit, and stack other players doing so.

Later in the events though, the blinds are getting too large to do so unless you have been able to build a large enough stack (which is the point, but that always doesn't happen). The biggest enemy to this style late is the actual environment changes at the table. People are no longer limping PF, usually pots are no more than 3 way on the Flop. Playing this style gets absolutely clobbered later in events. You will be limping and folding way too much to make this profitable at a semi-aggressive+ table. When this time arrives, you must fall back into a more 'classical' style of tourny play; folding most of your hands, and raising the rest. But by picking up a lot of pots earlier in the event, you should have amassed a decent stack when you hit the back stretch of the tourny.

Ok, opinions?

HAHAHA!!!! Welcome to The Alex. I'll go further later, but not too far. I might see you at the table.

looks interesting Marm...

I must admit that my hand selection in tournaments is the same as ring. All I change is my all-in criterion/limits.

eg: starting off: QQ and AK preflop are all in, tptk is all in on flop- this is justified by the abundance of semi/total bluffers balanced against the opportunity created for AA/KK with a bigger stack.

As my stack hits the lower/mid quartile of the distribution I will be going all-in preflop with class 2 and 3 hands.

In the lower quartile I will all-in with anything pretty.

To my mind the only way you can systematically reduce the number of all-ins you make is to maintain stack and be prepared to go all-in with riskier hands.

In the WSOP sat' I won last Saturday I only wsd with 3 all-ins with marginal hands. I only played one bit of 'poker' and that only won me a few BB. All the other all-ins took the pot without contest.

If you look at the cash flows in tournaments the majority of chips move around because of all-ins. Loose play merely equalises the stacks of those who indulge in it and on average puts them at a disadvantage.

In ring games you're forced to play for Top pair - because if you don't you throw away the opportunity to develop your cards into powerful hands.

In most tournament times scales you can't wait to hit a full/house/ flush and the payoff is generally too small in the short term to make 'correct' betting of tptk worth it.

I also find that a willingness to be seen to go all-in prevents ppl from having a go at your blinds..

Maybe its too aggressive a style for some ppls appetite -but I'm not sure how you can defend against this strategy.

I like it pretty much Marm!

If the environement is passive enough sunday, I might gie this a go!

In fact I'll play a few MTT until then using this strategy. Should'nt be very hard for me considering I'm alredy pretty loose but more agressive than what you describe.

Very interesting...

KJ

I have tried a similar approach a few times. The problems I have with it are the Qx suited and Kx suited. It leads you into dangerous territory so often when you limp with these hands. If you dont hit a monster you never really know where you are kicker wise. Also you can limp with as many of those marginal hands as you want, but you are still waiting for a very strong connection before you can really continue on. What if that connection doesnt come? I have gotten myself fairly low on chips because I got a bunch of hands that fall within your category of limping with, only to end up shortstacked before I could actually make it pay off. Then when I get in this position I have to try for a bluff, or raise with a weak kicker (semi-bluff), and I often get caught by someone with a better hand.

Originally Posted by Marm

Position loses a little importance, but you still have to be mindful of it.

I use this style a lot in SnGs up to the 3rd level (BB = 20/30/50) however I am VERY MINDFUL of position! Hands I'll limp in from MP & LP will often as not be folded in the blinds or EP - such as Being OOP is just too risky if you're still on a draw although with several limpers I'm assuming most of them are drawing also and the rest are playing small-mid pp.

Beavis also make a good point (he does sometimes doesn't he? ) that if the table is aggressive and playing tighter than 4 limpers, this style is best left for the LP when the opportunity presents itself - otherwise just revert back to a tighter style. Another thing that can upset this style is a LAA who is frequently aggressive preflop! His pf raises makes speculation expensive which is why I limit this style to the first 3 levels of play.
Also I'll abandon the style for a tighter one if my stack gets down by a third (1000 chips in a SnG) I figure I'll need at least those chips to make a come-back and if I get too low say 500-600 my raises become to easy to call or I'll get raised all-in too often. SS lack respect and I hate being picked at by a large stack so try to avoid getting that way. Spectualtive hands have to wait until my stack is more of a threat.

That's my 2 cents worth - with tax that comes to $1500.00. When can I expect payment?