SPT

eddie18

Looking to go to my first SPT event in Brighton also my 1st live tourney just abit confused hoping someone can clear few things up for me:

Day 1a & day 2a....might sound daft but if you play day 1a do you also play day 2 or just move to the final day

hotels: if you someone can point me in the right direction on were to stay close to the casino be great..

Thanks

Edward (eddie18)

Tikay10

Hi @eddie18

It can be a little confusing, but Day 2 IS the "Final day".

All survivors from Day 1a (Friday) and Day 1b (Saturday) combine & come together at 1pm on the Sunday, & then they play down to a winner.

Any more things you are uncertain about, just ask, & we'll try to help, or come see me on the day at the Venue & I'll try to assist further if need be.

Are you looking forward to it? Where will you be coming from?

Hotel - it depends if you have a car or not. Plenty of local B & B's, but the Rendezvous is at the far end of Town so you may need a cab if you don't have wheels.

If you have a car, The Downs Hotel, 2 or 3 miles away, is cheap & cheerful, & does a wonderful pub breakfast.

http://downs-hotel.co.uk/

Further afield, maybe a 20 minute drive, is the idyllic Hickstead Hotel. More pricey but very good indeed. It's right near Hickstead Showground, just off the main A23. The AS23 is a lovely bit of road, very well engineered with nice crash barriers.

https://www.classiclodges.co.uk/our-hotels/the-hickstead/

There is a Hotel or two right by the Rendezvous, in Brighton Marina, but they are well pricey.

eddie18

@Tikay10

First off all Thank you for the quick response

Offcourse am looking forward to it , be good to actually see some of the people I've played on the tables here at sky, I'd be coming from Manchester so not the closest didnt really want the long drive then play poker maybe not the best thinking train.

Will check out the downs hotel after all everyone likes a decent breakfast!!

are table 6 people like online?? if not any advice on managing a different sized table be appreciated.

So you only play on one of the days on fri & sat... then the final day

Kind Regards

Edward (eddie18)

eddie18

@Tikay10 there is also a poker night at the downs every thursday says online, more of a reason to stay there

EvilPingu

eddie18 said:

are table 6 people like online?? if not any advice on managing a different sized table be appreciated.

So you only play on one of the days on fri & sat... then the final day

Tables are usually 9 or 10 players live - It's a £££ thing, 6max requires more dealers that need to be paid at least min wage (If you have 150 runners at the start, that's 25 dealers you have to pay as opposed to 15 if you're playing 10 handed) and more tables, so it's often going to not be cost effective for a venue to run a 6max MTT when you can play 9 or 10 handed instead.

Basic tips: Just be tighter from early position. Think about how you decide what hands to play UTG 6 handed - The further away from the button you are, the less hands you play, because there's more players that can wake up with a hand and you're out of position to more players if there's a flop. So if you're UTG on a 9 handed table, super tight is going to be the way to go generally, especially if you're unfamiliar playing from early position on a 9/10 handed table.

Likewise, it affects how you should play against someone who opens from early position - Chances are they're strong, so you need to adjust what you're calling with from mid-late position in particular.

Things like ATo, KJo that you would probably open UTG 6 handed without too much thought are much more likely to get you into trouble when you open from early position 9 handed and get any kind of resistance. Also, some of the hands you might feel comfortable peeling with from mid/late position will get you into trouble when the opener has a stronger range pre-flop.

There's a couple of other things you'll have to adjust to is that you're starting with 25k chips at 25/50 blinds = 500bb starting stack, so I'd encourage anyone who isn't familiar playing that deep to learn the basics of how to play that deep - Things that make the nuts, straights and flushes (e.g. A5s, 89s) become more playable while hands like KJo that are more likely going to make top pair decent kicker, two pair etc decrease in value because larger stacks gives the opponent more ability to make you fold those kinds of hands by the river, or put in more chips with the worst hand. So in level 1/2, I'm pretty happy to fold KJo pre-flop from a lot of seats, and I'm pretty happy to open with, or take a flop with A5s to try to make a wheel or a nut flush and win a decent sized pot.

I believe the structure is 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 100/200/25 for the first 5 levels from memory, because nobody wants to travel for hours, start with 100bb and get coolered and have to drive home. So you're often 100bb+ deep for the first 5-6 levels, and it's a good opportunity to accumulate chips from people who maybe don't know how to play a 150bb+ stack, players who are overly tight because they don't want to make a big mistake early, or players who are overly loose because they've got a lot of chips so they might as well mess around a bit because "it's not going to hurt them much to lose a few pots in the first couple of levels".

Btw, that 5th blind level is 100/200/25 ante - If you've not played outside of Sky before, you'll be unfamiliar with antes, and they make a pretty significant difference to things like how often you should steal and defend BB late in a tournament, because there's much more worth stealing/defending respectively. So again, that's something I'd encourage people to try to learn about before the tournament.

If you're unfamiliar with antes, again that's something that if you get to day 2 especially, you're going to want to know the effect that has on how you should play, and how others will attack your blinds.

If you have an account on any other sites that have 1) Full ring (9/10 handed Poker) and 2) Antes, it's definitely going to be worth playing a few small tournaments on those sites at some point just to get a feel for how things that might play differently at SPT compared to Sky 6max.

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Yes, you only play one of the day 1s (Either 1a or 1b) then you play day 2 if you get through.

EvilPingu

eddie18 said:

after all everyone likes a decent breakfast!!

Food related SPT tip.

If you get knocked out of the tournament, you still get free food at the dinner break if there's any on offer from the casino.

In my first ever live tourney (SPT Brighton 2012) I didn't know this, so I folded a small pair with 8bb in the last hand before the break just to ladder to the free food. I wasn't gonna cash anyway so meh. #Priorities

eddie18

@EvilPingu

What a response!! 10/10

I have an account with 888 that I rarely use but will try out a few tours over next couple of weeks, few people that I've talked to mentioned similar things to me but in as much detail.

Thanks

Edward (eddie18)