New Article Writer Miikka Anttonen Tackles MTT Stack Sizes
In his first article, new strategy writer Miikka Anttonen gives us the lowdown on how to play with different stack sizes in MTTs . We also asked him a few questions, so read on to find out what he had to say.
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miikkaanttonen starts off his article series with a look into this interesting topic. There's a lot more planned from him in the future so this is just the first in a line of great pieces.
He runs through what you should be doing in specific spots when you have a certain amount of big blinds. Invaluable to all players, this training attempts to fix a very basic leak in a lot of player's games. This article is available to all members with Silver status and above.
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The Article
Producer:
miikkaanttonen Topic: How to play with different stack sizes in an MTT Status:
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Interview with Miikka Anttonen
We caught up with Miikka to find out a bit more about him, have a chat about tournament play and find out his goals for the future. You can take a look at the interview below:
PokerStrategy.com: Tell us a little bit about your poker career so far.
miikkaanttonen: I was a losing player for my first six months, until I started studying poker literature. I first played online early in 2008 when I got back home from my travels, and started with a modest $100 bankroll. I played $5 SNGs and grinded it up to $10k or something before moving to cash games.
I played cash until late last year, when I randomly decided to try out tournaments. It is true that cash games are much more complicated than MTTs, but the way MTTs play out just fit my style and the areas in poker I'm talented at so much better.
I've also played quite a bit of live MTTs. In 2009 I cashed EPT Barcelona for $25k and got smaller cashes at the European Masters or Poker and Unibet Open as well. This year I finished 3rd in the PokerStars Baltic Festival, which William Thorson won, for $38k.
PokerStrategy.com: Why did you choose to play only tournaments?
miikkaanttonen: I played cash games almost exclusively for two years before catching the MTT bug. I think of MTTs as a psychological challenge. I've never been a math kid, and I still struggle with all kinds of calculations related to poker.
In MTTs you don't, in my opinion, need math all that much as opposed to cash games, because so much about the game is about bullying people around making them face difficult decisions.
I think I have a good natural talent of recognising what people are trying to do with their actions. In cash games everything just feels kind of mechanical, it's an endless battle about adjusting and re-adjusting to what other people do and balancing your ranges and doing endless equity calculations.
In MTTs you can just relax, go berserk on all the weak-tight regulars by pressing the raise button a lot.
PokerStrategy.com: What are the biggest mistakes you usually see people make in tournament play?
miikkaanttonen: It's definitely not being aware of stack sizes and what they mean. People raise/fold and 3-bet/fold with hilarious stack sizes. Just today I final tabled a $22 freeze-out where some guy kept opening 4xBB with his 10BB stack and constantly folded to shoves.
In general a lot of players don't understand how stack sizes also limit your post-flop play. They keep calling 20BB or 30BB deep with suited connectors and end up in trouble when they flop weak one pair type hands. Another thing is bet sizes, people keep c-betting way too big on brick boards, and they bluff pressing the pot button and value bet with 1/3 pot bets, etc.
PokerStrategy.com: What are your future goals in life and poker?
miikkaanttonen: I want to grind enough money to buy an apartment, a nice car and stuff like that. I've already traveled the world during my crazy backpacking years, so I'd actually like to settle down somewhere. My biggest poker related dream is to win a major live tournament. I'm looking for some kind of sponsorship for next year, so hopefully I'll be able to come up with one and win an EPT or something. A man's gotta dream!
Read Miikka Anttonen's Article ( Silver)
