I would like some advice from some more seasoned tournament players on the following: I recently played in a HE tournament with the structure as outlined below:
$100 buy in receives T2000 in chips – one $100 re-buy gets T4000
20 minute rounds as follows
25-50 blinds 50-100 limits
50-100 blinds 100-200 limits
100-200 blinds 200-400 limits
200-400 blinds 400-800 limits
BREAK
500-1000 blinds 1000-2000 limits
1000-2000 blinds 2000-4000 limits
2000-4000 blinds 4000-8000 limits
4000-8000 blinds 8000-16000 limits
5th – 10th pays $200 – remainder is 50% 1st, 25% 2nd, 15% 3rd, 10% 4th.
Changes to no limit at final table…
After playing I felt a bit disappointed, not necessarily because of my performance, but because of the structure of the tourney itself. Note the HUGE jump in blinds/limits from the round immediately before the break to immediately after the break. (200/400/800 to 500/1000/2000). In my particular case, before the break I had played well and had managed to build my stack up from T6000 (initial buy-in + rebuy) to about T10, 000. However, immediately after the break, I realize that although I am 2nd chip leader at my table, I still have enough to barely play 2 hands to completion. In my opinion this took any room for skill out of the tournament and turned it into little more than a crap shoot (i.e. Let’s see who can catch a lucky hand right after the break…). Ironically enough, I busted out a few hands later when the blinds had moved up to 1000-2000, and I had only T2000 left. I was 2 hands away from being blinded off when I got “Jesus” suited (Ac-9c) and went all-in, only to get called by, you guessed it, A-Q. My prayers weren’t answered, however, and I went down with the board of 7-8-J/6-2. So my QUESTIONS for everyone:
a). Would you those of you who consider yourselves to be good tournament players invest in this tournament, or is it too much luck and not enough skill?
b). what strategies work well when almost the whole table is short stacked?
Answer 1:

One of the most crucial skills in tournament poker is the ability to make good decisions at the critical time when you have chips to play between 1 and 2 1/2 pots. The skill in this is HUGE. Do you play 44, A9, a player raises you have KQ, passed to you on the bottom with 98s…. bad players make bad decisions. There is still a lot of skill in what you describe, and over time the good players get the money. The correctly playing players get the money. Obviously this structure has a lot of luck to it, but it also involves a lot of skills because crucial decisions will take place *all the time.* Play.

Answer 2:

I was going to reply to your question, but Badger has already said what I wanted to say. I agree with him fully. Also, playing these little tournaments is valuable practice, experience never hurt anyone. You still have a better shot at winning than the average player, it’s just not as big an advantage as a regular paced tournament. When you do play a big tournament though, you’ll welcome the change.

Answer 3:

You played the hand the only way you could. When Badger said you must sell your soul to AJo, you may have misunderstood. He was talking about situations late in a tournament like that, where certain hands become automatic. First one in, you can’t fold the AJ, but if it gets raised that doesn’t mean you have to call. What Badger is saying here, is that in order to WIN these types of tournaments you’ll have to gamble. You won’t get A-A and K-K enough to let you coast to victory. All you can do is put yourself in position to get lucky. Once you’ve done that, TRY to get lucky! Don’t just sit there and let your chips dwindle away because of the blind increases, go to war!! If you keep blasting away, one day it might be your day. Nobody can consistently win a tournament like this, like you said it is a crapshoot…so roll the dice!