[Yo'Maha]

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…….