Quote Originally Posted by Jayjami View Post
Dan:

Not surprising that you didn't cash after being the chip leader halfway through day one of the $1500 LH event. Unlike no limit, getting an early lead isn't much an advantage. As the blinds go up (particularly on day 2), the stacks seem to equalize relative to the blinds. The difference between a big stack and a small one is only about 3 extra hands. I finished 2nd in the event in 2011 and was the small stack at the start of the final table. I got the chip lead when we we were down to 3, but the blinds were so high, it only took a couple of losing hands to equalize the chips again. I never had an above average stack the entire tournament, until we were down to 5 players. IMHO, it is much more important to gradually increase your stack relative to the blinds through solid play. In a limit event, I couldn't care less if I win one hand in the 1st 4 hours. Eventually you will need to get a rush of cards, but the later in the tournament, the better. In the words of Tom McEvoy, "you have to give yourself a chance to get lucky". You may disagree with me, but I've had a lot of success in limit hold'em tournaments over the past 20 years, mostly playing smaller events.

I wasn't able to play the event the last 2 years, but I'll be at the Rio on June 20. Enjoy your forum. Good luck. I hope you finish second!
Yes, I know that an early lead doesn't have any correlation to big success in these limit events, but at the same time, it's pretty awful luck to be the mid-day-1 chip leader (around 21-27k) and not even cash for three years in a row.

These limit tournaments do have a flaw in that they are VERY card dependent at the final table. Basically, if all of the players are competent, it will come down to who runs the best.

On the flip side, fish are much less likely to cash in limit tournaments than NL tournaments, because they almost always get ground down to nothing by the time 90% of the field is gone.

BTW, I was down to 1500 in chips in the 2005 $1500 Limit Holdem event, when we were at 300-600 blinds. I then got it in preflop with A4 versus AJ, chopped with a double-paired board, and then proceeded to double up numerous times, eventually finishing 3rd. I also had many other short-stack moments in that tournament.