MTT Early Tournament Approach/Strategy – General Game Theory
 

MTT Early Tournament Approach/Strategy – General Game Theory

I’ve been playing regularly both live and online for over four years now with some relatively consistent results. I have cashed in numerous mid level tourneys, and have won (4) mid-level tourneys ($110+ buy-in/200+ Players) outright. That may not be hugely successful for some, but for me, I am playing with the houses money and my bankroll is stable – so I consider it a success.

Throughout this time period, I have been successful with numerous different overall strategies and approaches while my skills continue to evolve, I read new books, digest info., etc., etc……

I’ve found myself in quite the rut lately and can’t seem to find myself anymore in terms of what my general style is or what my approach is to particular tournaments. I seem to have hit a wall where I can’t seem to break through and find my comfort level anymore. I find myself either too concerned with chip stacks early and getting into trouble in marginal spots, or playing too tight and getting blinded to death – negating my ability to capitalize when good situations do come my way.

Needless to say, I’m finding my ROI dwindling in the past few months and it’s causing me to re-think some of my early tournament strategy.

My questions are:

1 - Early in large-field tourneys (150+ players) – what have you found to be successful in the early stages?

- One strategy is to play a wide variety of hands in different positions early on because: (a) it’s cheaper to see more flops and better your chances to build a chip-stack without too much risk. (b) more of your opponents will play tighter early on – giving you good opportunity to scoop uncontested pots (c) you can play more pots against potentially weaker opponents.

- Another strategy is to play relatively tight early on to: (a) allow the fields to thin out a bit. (b) allow the blinds to become more meaningful, thereby allowing you to find spots to use aggression to your advantage and play pots with meaning against meaningful opponents (c) look to play premium hands against weaker opponents as the field has yet to thin out.

…………………While I’ve been successful with both strategies, what do you prefer and what approach do you take and find to be more successful?


2 - I’ve heard many highly successful tournament players say that “good tourney players never allow themselves to get too short-stacked in a tourney. They always keep themselves in a position to win the tourney or they go home”.

- When do you consider yourself “short-stacked”? Example: Level 6 – 150 players remaining, Average stack: T$10,300, my stack: T$6200. If I’m somewhat card-dead, should I be getting desperate here? Should I be getting more aggressive to build a stack, or can I still be patient and what for better spots? At what point do you decide….I need to gamble here a bit to get in a better position?

- Should I be more concerned with building a large stack or staying alive early on?

Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas would be greatly appreciated. I’m floundering a bit here and need some advice to get back on track. Thanks in advance……


- Stuck in mid-level hell…….. feeling like a donkey…….

Re: MTT Early Tournament Approach/Strategy – General Game Theory
 

Oh well -

Not the right forum for discussion?

Re: MTT Early Tournament Approach/Strategy – General Game Theory
 

Yea wrong forum Yo. One of the MTTc mods will have to move it.

Re: MTT Early Tournament Approach/Strategy – General Game Theory
 

Thanks Bond -

Where Should I post stuff like this?

Re: MTT Early Tournament Approach/Strategy – General Game Theory
 

[ QUOTE ]
Oh well -

Not the right forum for discussion?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is probably suited better for one of the strategy forums.

[ QUOTE ]
When do you consider yourself “short-stacked”? Example: Level 6 – 150 players remaining, Average stack: T$10,300, my stack: T$6200. If I’m somewhat card-dead, should I be getting desperate here? Should I be getting more aggressive to build a stack, or can I still be patient and what for better spots? At what point do you decide….I need to gamble here a bit to get in a better position?

[/ QUOTE ]

Depends entirely what the blinds are. If they're 400/800, you need to start pushbotting. If they're 100/200, you're in ok shape even if your stack is below average.

Re: MTT Early Tournament Approach/Strategy – General Game Theory
 

General thoughts on "hitting the wall/mid-round hell". May be more of a variance effect rather than chronic defect in play. Without hard data, one obv can't analyze cause-effect. You may be adjusting properly to differences in table line-ups, cards, situations, etc, and still hit the wall. So, elements out of our control will prevail for a while despite of our best efforts during play, and post-mortem analysis. But, for me, maintaining self-honesty in examining one's game is important. Early tournament career success could be just as much due to variance as later failure.


1 - Early in large-field tourneys (150+ players) – what have you found to be successful in the early stages?


A. I personally prefer small ball approach in deep stack/long round/large field events & long ball in short round/smaller events, but, think it is more of a question of adjusting to player mix at table: weak/tight; stations; lag; tag etc etc...

2 - I’ve heard many highly successful tournament players say that “good tourney players never allow themselves to get too short-stacked in a tourney. They always keep themselves in a position to win the tourney or they go home”.

- When do you consider yourself “short-stacked”? Example: Level 6 – 150 players remaining, Average stack: T$10,300, my stack: T$6200. If I’m somewhat card-dead, should I be getting desperate here? Should I be getting more aggressive to build a stack, or can I still be patient and what for better spots? At what point do you decide….I need to gamble here a bit to get in a better position?


B. Believe that aggression and not desperation is the primary driver...my goal is to do whatever I can to stay well above 30bb's...drifting into the low to mid 20bb zone in these $200-300 events with fast rounds is obv not where you want to be. In the middle/ante rounds with 50-60% of avg stack, we likely have less than M 10, so, are we doing much limp/fold; raise or call/folding? So, positional/situational shoves become top of mind for me. Longer rounds of say, 40 - 60 minutes - different story - ups the patience factor