If you are a newer player, please don’t be discouraged by the play at the lower levels. Find a way to get your bankroll above 5M and play the higher levels.
I played a 10k and a 50k tournament today just to see what it’s like. It’s pure chaos. There is literally no way to have a significant edge because you can’t make people fold. Also everyone thinks they are clever limping with AA.
Just know that once you hit 100k things get a little better, and at 500k/1M some semblance of poker may even be played!
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@Younguru You’re my brother from a California mother, but I gotta speak on this one…
Somebody got their feelings hurts with surprise Aces and overzealous single big-blind mob attacks.
I think it is possible you’ve gotten a little too comfortable playing alongside a more narrow range of player types, and a much smaller pool of players. Who’s habits you know well like co-workers at the Home Depot, who see each other everyday, and save their extra pickles for each other at lunch.
You are one of the most accomplished tournament players on Replay, who has had to practice good BR management and has also had to make adjustments like any other good to great player for the bigger mixed player fields i.e. when super high-rollers sit down for World Series of Poker events. Helmuth is the only one that barks about unexpected play being “wrong” … omg @Younguru you’re black Phil (in this post) …
It is nice you’re reaching out to newer players, but this post is a tad beneath you, its a bit elitist and undermines proper BR management and patience, which is a must to be ranked as high as you. No one pays $250/12M chips to get where you are- it’s earned. Remember that show, Undercover Boss? Well, sorry boss man, you had to deal with the interns today…and now you have to take out the trash … bro. (Not 100 % about what that means)
Hi @ChinoD! Congrats on making it in to the money on the 50k tournament. I ended up placing first, but honestly I think I just got super lucky.
I think your reply to @Younguru is a bit harsh. I think there is a lot of truth in what @Younguru is saying.
From a common sense perspective, I get the impression (having just joined Replay Poker) that 10k - 50k is not a huge amount of chips. As a buy-in it carries little risk to many of the players entering the tournament and thus they play accordingly. Their ranges open up and they’re willing to gamble hands they wouldn’t otherwise risk when at higher stakes.
I imagine this is only exaggerated by the various leaderboards that are also offering money and notoriety. Tournaments at lower stakes can become somewhat of a slot machine they can spin to rack up leaderboard points.
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@Tycheck For a public posting, it might have come off a little harsh. He and I are actually good friends, and I got a little carried away. But his target audience was “newer players” which includes a minority of advanced/experienced players that just need to work their way up, and a majority number of players that are responsible for his posting in the first place. @Younguru stating “there’s no way to get an edge” was just little dramatic. Basic strategy (which he knows very well) says that when extreme opponents (maniac one end, passive nit on the other), you should do the opposite- tighten up your range against over-aggressive players playing 50% or more hands and BE aggressive against tight-passive Nit-types opening ~15% of hands. He knows this philosophy among more advanced strategies.
With that in mind, the posting just becomes about how " great things are at top". It was all in good fun 
Welcome to Replay @Tycheck
haha yeah ok bro sorry, I will try to be nicer to the plebes from up here in my ivory tower 
but seriously, I played a couple more 10k and 50k tournaments today just to gather more anecdotal data. I’m now of a mind to qualify my original statement: these tournaments can be very volatile, but there are good opportunities to cash for a thinking player.
I think you are right to a degree about getting used to the higher limits - here is a hand I just played where I folded incorrectly:
The Hand
In the player pool I am used to, when the BB bets pot and then overbet-shoves 1.5x pot on the turn in this configuration, a weak king is rarely good. They will have a made flush, some higher-order hand like 2pair, set, or straight, or at WORST the ace of hearts as an ambitious semi-bluff. I barely even considered calling, to be honest.
I keep making this mistake when I play lower buy-in tournaments: I fold when there’s big action and my hand is non-nutted, especially when it’s multi-way and I’m not closing the action. I’m realizing that players at this level are bluffing way too much and chasing against the odds way too often, so some opponents have adjusted by simply overplaying/overbetting their marginal made hands (like villain did here with K8s).
If one is aware of this, I can see how there could still be lots of opportunities to exploit and run up a big stack in these tournaments. That said, the volatility is clearly much higher as a result of the aforementioned tendencies.
@Younguru I see where you’re coming from because I am the monkey playing the middle in this discussion. Not to defend overplay but think about these low-stakes players situationally- they start every session, every day playing from behind so-to-speak. Think about the minimum bank you need, in order enjoy the majority of Replay’s events, tourneys, ring, etc. Probably 10M. Since new players begin with a measly 62k (an average open raise in 5k/10k) you have to FIGHT to the DEATH for that first million. A lot of these new tournament players avoid Ring to build because that’s where the Regs live, sleep, eat. It’s a losing situation for newbies. So ICM pushes these barely aggressive players to overplay…just saying. One Love YG
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ICM should push them to do the opposite tho… I think everything you said in your last comment should have the OPPOSITE effect of what you are saying.
I don’t think it’s about bankroll or ICM. I think it’s just overadjusting to a maniacally loose/aggressive player pool.
Personally Younguru,
I believe you have missed the mark for one simple reason: On any given table there are multiple donks (individuals who either bet the crappiest hole cards imaginable, or they chase the hand to the last card played). In either scenario, the same result occurs:
The donks suck out everytime, even especially with the odds grossly NOT in their favor (think 85-95 percent). This scenario (which occurs more often than not) makes it virtually impossible to get to a million, let alone anything above that total.
If you Really want to help the “plebes” as much as you say, then open up a ring table (private one if possible) and start giving some of your massive chip stack to them to give them a leg up.
I say that about your chip count because you speak like some who ALREADY has countless millions in your bank.
First off, let me be quite unambiguous: I don’t actually call anyone “plebes.” I hope it was clear I was being sarcastic in response to my friend @ChinoD’s joke!
I agree that it’s difficult to build consistently in an environment where players consistently continue against the odds/facing a big bet. Your expected value will go up, but your winrate will drop, and the risk of ruin becomes perilously high. There’s just a lot of variance to contend with.
That said, I don’t think this makes it impossible to make progress at all! I had less than 1M chips at the beginning of this year 
I have 360M now not because I’m lucky, or because I paid for chips, but because I put in a LOT of hours on the site, practiced good bankroll management, and study strategy every week. I take notes on almost every player that I see more than once or twice, and update these notes as I gather more data. This allows me to exploit the mistakes my opponents consistently make.
My suggestion for players trying to build a bankroll is simply to move up stakes as quickly as you can (while maintaining safe BR management) because the lower volatility in higher buy-in MTTs is a great asset when building a roll. I agree that the cheap tourneys are frustrating to play in, but you just need a short run of good variance to have enough to start moving up. That was my point! Sorry if my original post was discouraging; my intention was the opposite.
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I bubbled out on a 1M MTT and AbuseMod was like, whoa dude, you needed those chips, too! We are friends and was like, don’t worry.