Darryll Fish on How to Approach “Extended Play” Tournaments with Longer Levels
On Saturday, the 2015 World Series of Poker kicked off Event #42: $1,500 Extended Play No-Limit Hold’em, taking its standard $1,500 structure for NLHE events and adding 30 minutes to each level in an attempt to offer a tournament with a little more play.
While the change may be a subtle one, 2015 WSOP Circuit West Palm Beach $1,675 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event winner Darryll Fish says adding time to levels definitely changes how a player should approach such an event.
“It’s not a massive difference, because you don’t get that many more hands in, but it does add a little to the structure,” Fish said.
With 24 cashes and two final tables on his WSOP résumé, Fish knows his way around bracelet events, “Extended Play” or otherwise. PokerNews decided to ask him for his top five tips when approaching events with longer levels, and Fish was kind enough to provide them.
Tip #1: “Wait longer for better spots”
According to Fish, the extended levels will allow players to be more patient and wait for better spots to get chips in the middle. Patience is the key.
Tip #2: “Try to conserve your chips”
Fish says there’s no point splashing around in an Extended Play event. Saving your chips for those key moments when you are a huge favorite is the best approach.
Tip #3: “Develop solid reads”
The longer levels mean more chances to study your opponents. Fish points out that you have the time to develop more thorough reads on other players, so you should use it.
Tip #4: “Play tighter preflop”
A tournament with longer levels — like the 90-minute levels of the Extended Play event — provides the perfect opportunity to wait for premium hands to play before the flop. The blinds aren’t going up anytime soon, so Fish says you have the time to wait for premiums and should be less eager to mix it up with less than stellar holdings.
Tip #5: “Don’t be so worried about your Day 1 chip stack”
Says Fish, making Day 2 in a tournament like Event #42 is a lot more important than what you have in the bag at the end of the first day. The Extended Play event only played through seven levels on Day 1, and Fish says that will leave players plenty of time to accumulate chips on Day 2.
Thanks to Darryll Fish for taking time to talk Extended Play strategy with us and sharing tips which can apply as well to other slow-structured events such as the WSOP Main Event with its two-hour levels.
Meanwhile — speaking of making it to Day 2 — from a starting field of 1,914 there were 543 who survived to today’s second day of the four-day Event #42, with Fish among them having bagged an above-average stack to sit just inside the top 100 in the counts.
Continue following coverage of that event and everything else going on at the 2015 WSOP here on PokerNews.
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