[Closed] MTT >300 players - some hints

Hi,

Last week I played my 6th 100+8 buy-in tournament and finished 10th (previous five have produced positions 1, 4, 17 and two times no money). Smaller tournaments many more. I don't think that I'm a real pro in this subject, but I have had some strategy discussions with two friends who are quite professional online tournament players.

The main guideline for me is like this:

1) Within the first two levels play tight, very tight. Even AK, at least offsuited, should be thrown away quite easily, especially in multi-way pots. TPTK and even an overpair are trash hands with which you shouldn't risk your whole stack. Except when you have read your opponent right.

2) Then you can loosen up your game for a while. Players who were lucky in the start tend to play tight, they want to keep their chips. Those who are with smaller stacks have to push pretty soon with any two cards. If you find a relatively strong starting hand and your position is good, you can start to work your stack up. Be aware of fishes who get lucky rivers. Try to avoid a situation where your game falls if the river is an ace which you didn't want it to be.

3) Then again there usually comes a stage when you should play quite tightly. It's that when the blinds are eating the smallest ones and they really have to push with any two. If you call too many of these you end up loosing your chips more than getting them. Unless of course you win all those coinflips...

4) And the money line is near... depending on your stack, it's either very tight and try to fold your way to the money, or loosen up and build up your stack and get ready for the final table. This way you'll end up going over the money line with a bigger stack and finish on the better positions... or you'll drop off without any money, but the total profit after many tournaments is better.

5) After the money bubble bursts you usually see all the shorter ones pushing very soon. At first rounds in the money you can and you should play strong hands very aggressively, but quite easily let go of the not so good ones. You'll get calls and reraises anyway, so good cards get paid and bad ones beaten.

6) When the final table is getting closer it's a bit like before the money line. Except that most players are a bit moore loose since even if you drop off the tournament at this stage you'll get a prize about 3-30 buy-ins, it's much more than nothing.

7) Congratulations, you have arrived to the final table!

Go see the strategy articles, there is nowadays available some good material about tournament playing. It has helped me a lot.

And in the meantime I wrote this I played a 180 person $4,40 sng (top 18 paid) at PokerStars, position 13. when 18 remaining

-- Z --

I've only read a little about this, but basically there are two strategies:

1) Play tight, especially in the beginning. You have a big stack compared to the blinds, so you can afford to wait for premium holdings.

2) Play relatively loose in the beginning. This doesn't mean you should be a maniac, but be willing to take a coinflip or two. It'll result in high variance, but when you win you normally have a nice stack by the time the bubble is near, which means you can continue building your stack, like stealing with a wide range, without risking a big part of your stack.

Personally I think #1 is more adapted to deep-stacked, slow structure events, where you can really wait for big hands. It's also a style very close to cashgames, so if you're not a tournament player, it doesn't really change much.

I'm not very experienced in MTT's, but I think #2 can be quite profitable if played correctly, not only in standard tourneys, but also in deep-stacked tourneys. Variance will be rather huge, but especially in big events (like PP 300k sunday etc), there's a lot of people playing on scared money, or who qualified for 1$, and who'd rather crawl into the cash than risk their tournament life. So if you have a big stack on the bubble, it can be very useful to pick up pots, and build your stack even more for the later stages.
Concerning the final stages, you'll have to adjust a little, since when it's down to 2 tables you'll go from full tables to shorthanded, and back to full again at the final table. After that, I think there's an article on final table play in the strategy section (at least there used to be one... have a look)

imo early in tournaments exactly equal to BSS cash games.

late play loose ICM.

thanks for your comments...I think all of you are correct, but there is one important issue. Whatever you play in the beginning LAG , TAG or mix the main point is that if you dont "HIT" cards in arround 100 hands then is no use as you will be low stack and when start hitting your cards you will loose more or less always...but anyway i will adopt your comments and i will let you know about the progress:)

Originally posted by drachdudek
thanks for your comments...I think all of you are correct, but there is one important issue. Whatever you play in the beginning LAG , TAG or mix the main point is that if you dont "HIT" cards in arround 100 hands then is no use as you will be low stack and when start hitting your cards you will loose more or less always...but anyway i will adopt your comments and i will let you know about the progress:)

Everyone will go card dead at sometime but you can still steal pots , play position and look for the weak players on the table but I always find if I get one good hand then others will come very soon ,

I dont like freerolls because they are so fishy in the beginnings and lucky players will be able to build big stacks

take to advice from zamwise & swissmoumout , both winners in tourneys & sound advice , playing final tables I tend to play them bit like a deepstack sng and always try to make top 3 where the money is

what is your usual "seen flop" in the beginning of play (first three) levels and after that?

Originally posted by drachdudek
... if you dont "HIT" cards in arround 100 hands then is no use as you will be low stack and when start hitting your cards you will loose more or less always...

Very important thing is to find out how you can win pots without going to showdown. One help for this is to check occasionally your opponents previous results from rankingpages. Non-profiting people will not usually let go of any hand, so be careful with them. Highly profiting people tend to have very strong hand when they want you to call, so be careful with them too

Early stages play super tight thrown in with some small-med pairs for set value and the occasional suited connectors when there is a few limpers and you are IP.

Middle stages loosen up a bit steal a few blinds try a few squeezes, play your good hands fast and get some value.

Late stages (ie just ITM) I tend to play super aggressive as by this time blinds+antes can be a very big proportion of your stack so it is very important to steal. pressure the medium stacks if you are the biggest stack and try not to destroy your reputation by pushing into people who only have 1/2BB left and basically have to call your raises.

gl - btw good training grounds are the $4.40 180 man SNG's on stars.