Poker Minefield Attacks

The minefield in poker usually starts when the ante begins. It's when aggressive players start to really attempt to steal the blinds and generally lasts until the part of a tournament where non-aggressive players would be blinded out of a tournament or the bubble period begins.

Minefield attacks are used in poker tournaments and are based on stack sizes, used primarily for stealing pots with moderately strong starting hands or B+ to A- flop textures. [see Flop Textures]

Big stacks attack Short Stacks, Medium Stacks attack Big Stacks and Short Stacks attack Medium Stacks.

Playing a medium stack in a tournament minefield is more dangerous than playing a short stack. A medium stack will be 50 to 60 big blinds. With tournaments now going to games with a Big Blind ante, stacks take on a different strategy. 60 big blinds have a utility of about 40 hands depending on the blind change interval.

Many tournaments have 20 minutes between blind changes. At 2.5 big blinds per orbit, you're looking at your stack going down to 15 big blinds when the deal gets back to you, as the blinds, and ante have tripled . Most live games have about 30 hands per hour, that's only 10 hands per blind change. Short stacks, 10 Big Blinds or less, will be going All-in for the rest of the tournament.

If you have a medium stack, you must increase your stack by 20 % every orbit, or double up each hour. In order to be competitive, you need to play about 20% of the hands you are dealt, that's 6 hands per hour. Each hand will cost about 7 to 10 big blinds to get to the river.

Picking playable hands is crucial in the Minefield, but you can't just play premium hands to survive. You have to learn how to use the Luck Factor as a skill. Learn how to play marginal hands in optimal situations.

Advanced Poker Tournament Strategy 2, by Arnold Snyder.

[caption id="attachment_11" align="alignnone" width="248"] Mr Lucky Poker[/caption]

Hollywood Park Casino Daily Tournaments

This one from Hollywood Park Casino is on a Saturday at 7pm. $3,000 Guarantee. $60 Entry Fee and one $60 rebuy/add-on. They need at least 81 players or entries, including rebuys, to meet the guarantee, as only $37 of the entry fee and/or rebuy/add-on goes the prize pool.
Their set-up sheet shows one on Sunday @ Noon for $150 entry and a $12,000 guarantee, with $30 going to fees and $30,000 in chips, no rebuy? We'll get to that one later.

Unlike many of the low limit Texas Hold'em cash games, this looks looks like it isn't on the fast side, with 20 minute blind changes, only due to the deep starting stack.

The $60 entry fee will get you $10,000 in chips and the rebuy/add-on will get you another $15,000 in chips, so it's pretty deep stacked at 250 Big Blinds (M), depending on if you added-on (rebuy) or didn't. If you didn't take the early re-buy, really an add-on if taken early, then you're very limited on your attack strategy. Some aggressive players like to hedge their ROI by trying not to add-on early. This puts your luck factor at about 90% and severely limits your playability. So if you are an action player you are most likely up against Tight Aggressive players who only play about 30% of their hands. The Minefield starts about a hour after the Tournament starts, so you have a little time to build your stack off the Tight Passive players. The tournament could run about 4 to 5 hours.

With an M of 250 to start, when you reach the Minefield at about Level 4, you'll be down to 83 Big Blinds, if your average win/loss rate is 50%, but with the ante kicking in, you have only about 37 hands left before you have to play a Kill Phil kind of game. The Minefield should end about Level 9, where you will need at least $42.000 in chips to continue to the Bubble phase.

The Minefield is fairly deep, which means that's where most of the action is going to be as players try to improve their stacks. At level 6 and 7, about 2 hours into the tournament, it should start getting exciting as short stacks are going All-In and medium stacks get cautious.

You have a little over 3 hours to Double Up your stack, which means you can change gears several times to maximise your play. At the Blind Off Level, level 9, you need about $264,000 in chips to make it past the bubble to where you're In-The-Money.

Being a tournament more geared to Luck, at about 53%, than Skill, at about 48%, Tight Passive players are still likely to get run over, but this one could go for 5 hours or more. Haven't seen the results, I don't think Hollywood Park Casino publishes them.

I NEVER BLUFF

Big "O" @ Hollywood Park Casino

Big "O" is a 5 card Omaha poker game that is gaining popularity with card players in the poker world. Depending on which Google search comes up, it could be a regular high only game or a high/low, Omaha-8-or-better game that's usually a limit game, but sometimes a pot limit game. They're spreading the Big "O" cash game at Hollywood Park Casino, 3/6 limit. I observed a few hands of the Big O cash games prior to the new casino completion, but didn't play any. It's a fairly popular 3/6 limit game and appeared to have lots of action each hand, but not a loose aggressive game. Sometimes they have a couple of tables running.

I finally took in the Big "O" tournament at Hollywood Park Casino, my first venture into 5 card Omaha. They had a 3/6 Limit cash game running, with a few names on the waiting list. Limit poker is a River game as opposed to No Limit poker which is usually a Flop or even a pre-flop game and Pot Limit poker which is usually a Turn or River game.

It's usually on a Saturday at 3pm. $2,500 Guarantee. $60 Entry Fee and one $60 rebuy/add-on. They need at least 63 players, including rebuys, to meet the guarantee, as only $40 of the entry fee and/or rebuy/add-on goes the prize pool. It's kind of on the fast side with 15 minute blind changes. The $60 entry fee will get you 10,000 in chips and the rebuy/add-on will get you another 15,000 in chips, so it's pretty deep stacked at 250 to 500 Big Blinds (M) depending on if you added-on (rebuy) or didn't. As a limit game, your "M" is discounted from the first hand you play and compounded with 4 blind changes per hour, so if you are an action player, it could cost you 30% of your chips, or more, in the first hour, if you didn't rebuy. Fortunately there are no ante levels, so the Minefield won't start for at least an hour, of course the Minefield Level will be different depending again if you added-on (rebuy) or didn't. The tournament could run about 4 to 5 hours.

With an M of 250 to start, you should reach the Minefield at about Level 8 and that Minefield should end before Level 10, where you will need at least 40.000 in chips to continue.
With an M of 500 to start, you should reach the Minefield at about Level 11 and that Minefield should end by Level 12, and you should be in the bubble level of the tournament.

I came in late, about level 6, about an hour and a half late, so my entry fee, still at $60 + the $60 rebuy, gave me an M of about 41 to start. From the first hand I found out that it's a Omaha 8 or better game, which was OK since my favorite game is Pot Limit Omaha and I occasionally play Omaha 8. With 5 cards to start instead of 4. I wanted to see how the players played and how the action progressed. I luckily didn't have to play any of the first 6 hands, so I got a flavor of the table, which showed it's an action game where 5 of the 8 players usually see the flop and 3 to 4 players go to the river. Not overly loose aggressive until at least the bubble. I made the final table, but it only takes losing a couple of hands to seriously deplete your stack as this is where it gets more aggressive as they attack the small stacks. We all agreed that the 7th and 8th players would at least get their entry plus add-on back, they took it off the top 2 players, so we played on. I ended up in 6th place, where they chopped, which was OK with me, since it was a win/win for me. If I saw the next hand, I would have to go all-in anyway and still been in 6th place or another couple of rungs up the ladder and a higher finish. It was a much more pleasant experience than I expected for my first time playing Big O.
I'll most likely play in more of these tournaments.

I NEVER BLUFF

46th Annual World Series of Poker Schedule Unveiled with 68 Events on Tap for 2015

Updated 2/11/2017
Rio® All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to Host Poker’s Most Popular Festival from
May 27 - July 14, 2015

May 29, 2015, Marks Debut of the “Colossus” $565 buy-in, $5,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
The tournament has been dubbed “The Colossus” for good reason as organizers expect it to set new records and become the largest poker tournament ever in terms of field size. In fact, while all is speculation at this point, several WSOP insiders are setting the over-under at a whopping 20,000 entries.

Las Vegas-based pro and New Jersey native Matt Stout, who offers one-on-one poker training through his website, says his basic advice for players entering a huge field event like Colossus is to avoid thinking too much about the big numbers.

“Take it one table at a time and don't overwhelm yourself with the thought of trying to beat out thousands of players” advises Stout. “If you just focus on what’s going on at your table, you “Take it one table at a time and don't overwhelm yourself with the thought of trying to beat out thousands of players” advises Stout. “If you just focus on what’s going on at your table, you won't believe how fast the competition seems to disappear.”

“Don't trick yourself into thinking that you need to drastically change your style in order to accumulate because the field is so big or anything like that. Just play your game and focus on what you can control.”

A number of players will come into the Colossus with a plan to fire multiple bullets, looking to gamble early to build a stack or reenter in a later flight if things don't work out. Stout says there are a number of factors to consider first before taking this approach.won't believe how fast the competition seems to disappear.”

“Don't trick yourself into thinking that you need to drastically change your style in order to accumulate because the field is so big or anything like that. Just play your game and focus on what you can control.”

A number of players will come into the Colossus with a plan to fire multiple bullets, looking to gamble early to build a stack or reenter in a later flight if things don't work out. Stout says there are a number of factors to consider first before taking this approach.

It’s a real minefield out there in big field events and luck and variance play an even bigger role than normal. But Stout says that’s not something with which players should concern themselves too greatly.

Huge Increase in Starting Chips! Who doesn’t love more chips to start play? New for 2015, the WSOP has significantly adjusted upward the starting stack for all WSOP events that have a buy-in under $10,000. The new starting stacks for these events will be as follows:

$565 buy-in: 5,000 starting chips (Colossus, new event; 10 times the buy-in, same as last year’s Monster Stack)
$777 buy-in: 5,000 starting chips (new buy-in level this year, treated like a $1k event) – 100 big blinds
$1,000 buy-in: 5,000 starting chips (increase of 66% over 2014) – 100 big blinds
$1,500 buy-in: 7,500 starting chips (increase of 66% over 2014) – 150 big blinds
$2,500 buy-in: 12,500 starting chips (increase of 66% over 2014) – 167 big blinds
$3,000 buy-in: 15,000 starting chips (increase of 66% over 2014) – 200 big blinds
$5,000 buy-in: 25,000 starting chips (increase of 66% over 2014) – 250 big blinds




UPDATE:

World Series of Poker’s ‘Colossus’ tournament sets record with 22,374 entrants
WSOP officials said Sunday the $565 buy-in “Colossus” No-limit Texas Hold'em tournament drew 22,374 entrants at the Rio Convention Center, easily surpassing the 2006 Main Event, which held the old mark with 8,773 entrants


WSOP officials said there were 25,571 paid entries for the “Colossus” event, but the official number came down due to no-shows, voids and players who survived after buying into multiple starting flights.

The winner of the “Colossus” will earn $638,880, and the total prize pool of $11,187,000 is more than double the $5 million guaranteed by tournament officials. The minimum prize is $1,096 for 2,241st place.

I NEVER BLUFF

Hollywood Park Poker & Ponies 10k guaranteed

Updated 2/11/2017

OK, now the Racetrack is gone, but the casino is still there and going thru some type of transformation. Haven't been there since the racetrack closed, so I'll have to update this if and when I go back.

The tournaments there were mostly based on LUCK, not really too much skill involved. In other words, this tournament was not “Kessler Approved.” Then again, none of the tournament anywhere were. Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler is a Team Pro for Ivey Poker. He is considered one of the most consistent live poker players with dozens of cashes and numerous final table finishes.

Kessler has become a voice for players, demanding more chips, more play, extra levels, and more. Providing further evidence that his opinions on tournament structures are valued, the fledgling Mid-States Poker Tour went as far as to Kessler out for input and now advertises that its structures are “Chainsaw Approved.”

They had a poker tournament there called Hollywood Park Poker & Ponies 10k guaranteed

This was a crap shoot.
But I actually won a couple of them and finished in the money a few times.

Patience vs Speed and Utility

Low Patience Factor makes it a fast tournament and Low Utility limits your skill.

In an aggressive game, the teaser 1st level may give you one or two hands to try to make a good play. After the 1st level you are down to 30 or less Big Blinds if you haven't doubled up. Starting the 3rd level you are down to one or two playable hands! The Minefield started at Level 5.

Good Luck, because that's what you need to make it far in this crap shoot.

The poker room at Hollywood Park Casino has made some great changes since the racetrack was torn down. Looking for greater games and tournaments yet to come.

I NEVER BLUFF