Semireg - MTT - $5-25 - yeah, already mentioned, but this blog objective is to provide a quick start for newbies in MTT, most intro stuff is already there on first 2 pages in proper order.
From there, in particular:
MTT for newbies - roadmap: High-level breakdown by stages
1) Study basic literature.
"The Harrington on Hold 'em" 3 books about tournament poker. The must read starting point, it is a strategic basic for tournament play. In general it's quite obsolete in many areas, but the central concept of M-ratio (see Vol.2) is fundamental.
2) Meanwhile, it's recommended to build a bankroll for low-limit MTTs in some other poker discipline. 1.5-2k USD is required as start point for MTT.
I won't recommend regular play for MTT micro buy-ins <$5, it's just a lottery and skills got there won't help much. However, you should definitely try them sometimes, just to get a flavour of tournament play and practise some very basic concepts learned from #1.
Most popular choices to build start bankroll on micro-levels are:
a) Micro-limit cash NL5-NL25/50
BSS strategy, Full ring tables cash will teach basic poker play, bankroll management, how to use basic software, etc. Main strength you gain here is strong postflop skills, it will help a lot for non-turbo and especially deep stack tournaments.
That was my way.
b) Micro-limit SNG/MTSNG up to $10.
Should give a lot of practise for tournament specific situations: pushbot, bubles, final tables. Preflop and math related to it (Nash equilibrium, ICM model) will get strong and it will help a lot not just for any tournaments, but fast turbo ones in particular.
3) Tournament related articles and literature should be revisited. Start checking out tournament VODs (may be it's better to avoid mid/high stakes regs). On this stage you should focus on tactics of various standard MTT situations.
Select tournaments to start your career and get prepared for them. Strategy for the selected set of tournaments should be prepared and ironed before you start playing them regularly.
It is crucial to select right tournaments and rooms to start. I recommend to start with GTD ones, 300-800 players, non-turbo, non-deep regular freezouts - they are the simplest. Non-turbo re-buys are very good but should be added a bit later. Forget about satellites for a long time.
It's better to start with weaker rooms, you shouldn't care much about sloppy software.
Stay away from PokerStars, it's not a good place to start your career of MTT reg - their GDTs for Holdem are either huge >2000 field size with unacceptable variance for the rookie or full of multi-tabling regs if they are under 1000, with good prizes and blind structure.
Acceptable blind structure, average field size and weak field are primary goals, you don't care about rakeback and promos, they are not important for MTT. PartyPoker, 888/Pacific are not bad, smaller rooms (like Microgaming, etc) might also be a good choice.
4) So, at this point you got your 1.5-2k bankroll for MTT and ready to start. Start carefully, without much multi-tabling, polish your tactics, follow a strict session timetable. Effects of poor timetable are drastic in MTT.
Normally GTD freezout $5-10 is a start point, a bit later rebuys 1.5-3 USD are added.
In parallel, you should continue with studying software specific to tournaments, polish your tricks and weapon. Keep it simple.
VODs are going to be your main source of information and major factor in skills improvements. Focus on them!
5) Read additional books and go for more advanced concept. Math of Holdem, 2011 by Collin Moshman is a very good one, not just about tournaments, but main modern concepts and practices. PokerStrategy JonathanLittle's MTT book might be useful also. In general, there are few good non-basic books about MTTs, so read everything you can get your hands on.
Revisit old articles and books.
Start your own blog to have clear goals, track results and performance, drilling down own game.
Post your hands for review and discussion, by that time you'll get enough knowledge to make this useful.
Visit open trainings in PokerStrategy for tournaments. It helps a lot to listen and see how someones game is reviewed and typical mistakes are covered.
By the time you get your first MTT victories and your bankroll growing steadily, you can think about adding more various tournaments into your timetable, more rooms (e.g. PokerStars huge tournaments with weak fields can be added as additional ones - it's a very long-term investment, or can be treated as kinda lottery :)).
6) On the next stage, main source of self-improvement is your own analysis of your game and more advanced concepts. The goal is to get to mid stakes and stay there. By this time, you may need to get help from professional trainers, to help to spot something you cannot and give long term advises about further steps.
