How to adjust when nobody folds preflop?
Dara O'Kearney shares a gameplan for tournaments where no opening size seems to get anybody to fold preflop.
Somebody recently asked me how to deal with the early stages of a live MTT he plays. The starting stacks are 600bb and everyone limps every hand. No matter what opening size he uses, he gets four callers. He could open for 10bbs and still get four callers.
He asked should he be limping to save the bbs, given a raise does not thin the field?
First of all, this is a problem I avoid because I late reg most tournaments. Don't get me wrong, this seems like a very soft tournament and worth early registration for.
I understand the frustration in tourneys where nobody folds preflop. This is what I would do.
The no fold gameplan
I'd limp any speculative hands that play well multi-way. This would be small suited connectors like 54s and small pairs. If you flop a monster you are off to the races, if you don't you are out for the minimum. I would not extend this to really weak hands like T2s or wide suited gappers like 48s, they can get you into trouble.
I'd maybe open to 5x with strong hands that also play well multi-way. Hands like KJs and QTs. These are hands we know from the solvers play well in family pots, but also can often get the job done by making a pair.
With very strong hands like AA, KK and AK, I would test the limits of the preflop calling ranges and open to a very large sizing, 10x or 15x. We want value for these hands, if we can't achieve one of our goals of thinning the field, we can achieve the secondary goal of getting a lot of value for our hand. As this is a regular live game the player visits often, if 15x gets calls, try 20x the next time, and so on.
Finally, I would be telling myself to get ready to fold more often in multiway pots when I see people who clearly like their hands. You need a much stronger hand in multiway pots and it sounds like you could be up against all manner of weird two pair combos you never normally would in this game.
Live games like this can feel like crapshoots, but over the long term they are an absolute gift.
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