reaching final tables in large tournaments

[hunkyrabbit]

Hi everyone,

I've been playing online now for well over a year now, but have only recently started playing large tournaments. I seem to do pretty well but can never survive to the final table of large (1000+) tournaments.

Quite often it reach's the last 40 people with me well above average in chips.. the problem is that I'm still only sitting with 30xBB and within 2 or 3 hands I find myself eliminated. Okay I realise the reason is that my bluff attempts have been unsuccessful, but with a large stack surely I need to steal the occasinal blinds to maintain my stack?

I have also played the final stages of a tourney extremely tightly, just to find my blinds slowly being eaten up and then finding my self in a coin-flip all in sittuation.

Can anyone point me too, or give any advice on how to go on from here and reach a final table?

[THEOSU]

1) get good cards
2) have your favorites hold
3) be able to come from behind
4) win coinflips
5) don't miss the fold button when you want to fold. (Grrrrrrrr)

Hope this helps!!!

[Marwan]

Most formats will not allow you to see a flop, turn, and river and bet on all rounds in the late stages.. for example, I was the chip leader in the stars 25K last night with about 15 left and only had 10X the pot (1 million chips, 30/60K blinds)

You can't possibly make it through the large blinds and survive by playing tightly and waiting for hands, remember that the blinds force the action.. you must win lots of pots without showdown Preflop to maintain a stack or you'll just get eaten up.. this involves timely raises.. I like to try and steal the blinds at least once per orbit late if not more if I have the stack to do so.. target those who have similar stacks as yourself and who haven't shown a willingness to defend their blinds often.. don't overdo it, but remember that 90% of people in the final 30 are going to be playing much tighter to try and move up the ladder.. take advantage of this and loosen up.

Remember not to steal from people who are desperate.. they will tend to call or raise with less, and you'll be forced to call with pot-odds with marginal stealing hands that are probably a dog.. same goes for big stacks.. good big stacks know what you're trying to do and will raise you off of a hand.

Oh, and winning coinflips doesn't hurt, either.

[Holdemphile]

You probably play a few too many hands, a bit too aggressively, in somewhat poor position. Try staying away from trouble hands like AJ/AT and KQ unless you're on the button and fold small to medium pairs preflop in most situations. You have to fold these to reraises to players with stacks that can hurt you. Obviously at a certain level of chipstack you have to start pushing these, but I think alot of intermediate players, like myself, play too many big pots with "trouble hands." They're ok for stealing from late position and playing small pots, but if you go to war with them on a regular basis you won't make too many final tables. I've been focusing on this recently and it's helped my game tremendously.

Holdemphile

[Green Kool Aid]

try posting trouble hands instaed of asking for really vague advice.

[hunkyrabbit]

[ QUOTE ]


You can't possibly make it through the large blinds and survive by playing tightly and waiting for hands, remember that the blinds force the action.. you must win lots of pots without showdown Preflop to maintain a stack or you'll just get eaten up.. this involves timely raises.. I like to try and steal the blinds at least once per orbit late if not more if I have the stack to do so.. target those who have similar stacks as yourself and who haven't shown a willingness to defend their blinds often.. don't overdo it, but remember that 90% of people in the final 30 are going to be playing much tighter to try and move up the ladder.. take advantage of this and loosen up.



[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks some advice here is really helpful.

I do often succesfully manage to steal blinds, and try to pick the right position, opponent and of course the cards to do this. The problem is when any action happens and someone plays back. Not ordinarilly a problem, but when the blinds are so huge relative to your chipstack, you have to make some very tricky decisions. It is this that is my major downfall.

I suppose my real question is, how do you play unsuccesful blind steals?

Obviously this dependent on many factors, hand strength, position, opponent, etc.. So I'll give some rough examples of some decisions I make that often knock me out.

I'll raise 3XBB preflop, 1 away from button with JJ. BB (a loose player with half my chipstack) pushes all-in. I call. His A-6 hits the board and am left with an unplayable chipstack.

...Same sittuation against a very tight player. I fold and lose a hefty chunk of my chips. It is often these folds.. which I feel I have to make against the tight opponents that eat away at your stack and within 2 more hands leave me in a coinflip luck position.

Another position..

I raise 3xBB with AK, all fold, BB calls. Flop misses completly. BB checks and I bet.

Is bluffing the flop at this stage a bad idea considering how much it will cost if it fails?

OK. so BB pushes back. I fold and lose half by stack and am then forced again into coinflip decissions.



It's doing my head in!!! [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]