How to be aggressive but still survive ????

[BingBangBoom]

I am a winning cash player, but am still relatively new to tourney play. I have gone deep in a few 20 to 30 dollar MTTs, and had some firsts in the 180 person tourneys on stars, so im not completely clueless. I have been struggling lately getting deep in tourneys, and I believe it is due to my mid tourney play. I tend to be able to build a stack early in a tournament without much problem, but in the mid stages of the tourney I tend to get comfortable with my stack size especially in the orange/green zone, and I think tend to tighten up too much. I guess what im wondering is what to do when a flop bet and cbet would pretty much cripple my stack if its met with resistance. Usually this is an issue if I have 10-20 bb and dont feel shoving is my best choice, but need to be playing pots to accumulate chips.) Also I see players like annette, playing pairs and AJ+ super agressively in the mid-late stages of tourneys, and see them get into alot of races. I am confused on how often to accept races in situations like restealing or 3 bettin in position with 66-88 and A-j+ hands to unknowns. I know this is vague, but I am doing my best to put my problem into words. Sorry if this has been covered in other posts, but I have searched and havent found advice that directly relates to this problem. Any input is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you.

[4CardStraight]

Heres a quick tip. You know what your doing. Don't over analyze this problem, just allow yourself to get into more coinflips with an edge.

Any time you can fight for stacks with about a 10% edge, take it. Players like Annette are pushing AJ hard at the point where other players are willing to felt hands as bad as KQ or Any Ace. If we are fairly sure our opponents will be pushing hands as bad as 44, then we take our 88 to the felt against them, and accept the fact that often we are up against two bigger cards and are flipping for a double up.

So tip one... Always be willing to take a coinflip if you think you have an edge. Are you slightly better than their range, felt it.

Secondly, we want to maximize our ability to win without a showdown. This comes with stealing and restealing. We need to be aggressive in both cases. With stacks in the 20-30 big blind range, we can steal and fold to pushes from medium stacks, and steal and call pushes from short stacks... with hands we might normally open super deep stacked. We can resteal in this range as well, putting 9BB over anyone that steals with a 3BB range when we know their raising range is wide, and their calling range is tight. At 12-20BB our far best play is restealing or stop and go. We shove over a 3BB steal again when their raising range is wide but their calling range is tight. We find these spots by being observant to player tendancies and stack comparative sizes. Stop and go is flat calling out of the sb/bb and pushing all flops (or all flops without a A or K on them)

12BB and less, we open push. We want to continue to be aggressive, perhaps more so than most people realize. Players call far too tightly in general. Many times we can open push a hand and turn it face up and we are still +EV. Most people dont realize how wide a range it is. Heres some examples, maybe you didnt know but should check the math on. At 10BB with no ante we can push any of these hands from 3 off the button (5 players behind us) with no ante, and TURN IT FACE UP and were +EV (so our opponents can call us perfectly:
66+,A9s+,ATo,KQs
On the button, 10BB, no ante, and we can push all these and turn it face up and its still +EV:
22+All aces, K9s, and any two cards both T+.

Those are an aweful lot of hands. Now. If we can open push that many hands and turn them face up and be +EV, surely we can also push a few more, if our opponents are calling us too tightly. It ends up being a lot of hands we can push preflop, many more than some think. Some of the hands at the bottom of these ranges, I see players open raise, and fold to a push. That seems pretty exploitable. If I know you will raise at 12bb and fold to a push, I will probably push on you with ATC.

So my general strategies:
Over 50bb: Speculating with hands that can make monsters, from position, in small pots. Raising for value good hands, cbetting, and getting it all in with monsters vs TPTK.
30bb-50bb: Playing pretty darn tight. Speculating with pocket pairs to hit sets. Stealing with a fairly tight range from late position (22% from button maybe). Looking for perfect resteals to punch to 9 or 10bb over a loose stealer.
20-30bb: Rock tight. Not speculating with anything. Looking for resteals from loose stealers. Raising a pretty tight range for value.
12-20bb: Massively looking for resteal opportunities. Refusing to allow my opponents to resteal on my by not stealing super wide from late position. Possibly stealing some from early position instead where I can safely fold to a 3bet.
12bb and less: Preflop All in using +EV charts. Just slightly wider than what I could push and turn face up. Pushing over any raise with hands I would have pushed if I were in their chair, only slightly tighter.

Good luck to you!

4Card

[cheburashka]

4Card, you should turn this into an article.

[JoeyJoJo Shabadu]

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4Card, you should turn this into an article.

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Ya I like it all too...except the stealing from EP.

[RonFezBuddy]

4Card...brilliant, just brilliant. Your strategies are super solid and anyone relatively new or unfamiliar with the concepts owes you a big thank you because this is gold.

I'll add that just reading this will not make you a winner though. To get better you must practice these ideas over and over again. You will screw up, but you will hopefully learn over time and this becomes second nature. Then one day you realize that they play this way naturally. At least that's what it was like for me. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

However it took hundreds of tournaments to play this way. It has to become instinct/mindset and that only comes with practice.

Once again, great post.

[BlueEcho]

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4Card, you should turn this into an article.

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Ya I like it all too...except the stealing from EP.

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UTG is the new button I swear it!

[hagbard celine]

no, no ... UTG is the new CO

[LS1GOAT]

Very good post 4Card.

[udbrky]

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4Card, you should turn this into an article.

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Ya I like it all too...except the stealing from EP.

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I dunno, a steal from EP with a semi-decent hand that has some strength to fall back on isn't bad. I did a lot of stealing early the other night with hands like A3s, KTs, 66, and it helped me accumulate a lot of chips. Only do it against blinds that will fold more, and at a table where people aren't re-stealing.

[checkmate36]

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4Card...brilliant, just brilliant. Your strategies are super solid and anyone relatively new or unfamiliar with the concepts owes you a big thank you because this is gold.


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Thanks 4Card! Im just getting started in MTT's and this will get me off and running for sure.