How do you play early-on in a MTT?

[HoogusTheChef]

In a: A. 200 Person MTT
B. 750 person MTT
C. 2000 person MTT.

How do you play early in these scenarios? Are you surviving, building, playing LAG Pre-Flop to catch a good flop? How do you alter your strategy early and when do you decided to open up?

[ssnyc]

playing based soley on my table...never like to get too nutty early and with a low buyin I stick to value plays rather than bluffing type moves...

[levAA]

exactly - forget about all the gazillions of other people in the tourney. switch off the lobby and concentrate only on your table and adjust to it.

[eBo]

I look for any edge and I pound on it.

[Sherman]

I play goot.



Edit: Okay, seriously. I've been doing a bunch of writing on early SSMTT play. I'll finish it one of these days and post it.

Sherman

[shyturtle27]

I'm very tight with raising preflop. I limp with a lot of high implied odds hands first level or two depending on the sturcture then move to raise/fold. Value bet hard on multiple streets with TPGK or better. Practice pot control with less. Hopefully double up before break. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[HoogusTheChef]

Thanks to all of you for your responses. When do you open up and try to start building your stack? Is there a particular level?

I feel that my late level game is pretty good. I attack when the bubble is nearing, re-steal when I think I can pre-flop, and take a lot of shots of taking pots on the flop. In short, I feel that I am a good big stack player, but it is usually card dependent on whether I become a big stack.

Should I open up more in the middle to build my stack.

[benneh]

i play like in a cash game

[aislephive]

I play pretty solid, opening playable hands with position, cold calling some raises with stuff like suited connectors or one gappers, and small/med pairs. I also don't 3bet stuff like AK/AQ or TT/JJ much early in tournaments for the most part. The big difference though for me between early in a tournament to the middle or later stages is I'm trying to exploit situations later on in the tournament when the blinds and antes become more significant, where as I'm really just playing my cards in the beggining.

[BarryLyndon]

[ QUOTE ]
I look for any edge and I pound on it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I try to create an active image without losing a lot of chips and then I take advantage of it. I have no problems raising to 2.5x from early or 3x -3.5x from late, and base my flop play on who calls me and from what position. I don't c-bet as much as I used to because I think that c-betting during the first hour is basically an invitation to a minraise or a loose call that will leave me hopeless. OTOH, I still c-bet K high and A high flops that are harmless because there is still plenty of fear from opponents on those boards.

I hope to god that I actually get some cards within that first hour so I can take advantage of my image. I rarely 3-bet unless I have a very strong hand.

If things go terribly for me with my active image portrayal, then I slow down while the blinds are still decent and try to take advantage of my image. I'll wait for a strong hand.

I avoid playing SB as much as I can. It is just a totally [censored] situation so often. First the pot is 90 at 15/30. Then it's 210. Then it's 400. Oh, there goes 1/3rd of my stack and I have no idea where I am in the hand.

I punish MP2 - CO if they limp and I have position. I hardly ever do this to UTG or UTG+1. I usually wait a little to do this - like the third level, 25/50.

I try to limp in with odds as much as I can.

I find that you will spend the most time at your first table when the blinds are small (you don't get moved), so being active and accumulating chips that first hour is so essential. I know a lot of players advocate a "play tight" approach, but honestly, I hate having 1700 chips at 50/100 at the end of the first hour. Maybe it's Full Tilt 20s - just a ton of retards and nits - but if you don't open the table up a little yourself, you find that you aren't going to get any action playing tight and waiting for AK.

Stealing in SSMTT tournaments at awkward stacks is just a terrible predicament these days at beginning of the second hour - you don't know which limper has QQ or will call you down with A10 or which player is apt to have absolutely no respect for your steal. That cool thing you can do when 3 people limped at 50/100 and you have 1700 chips so you push with Qd10d doesn't work anymore. KQ snap calls. And, you really can't afford to play too tight with 17BB because, in larger tournaments, there are just too many players who already have 4K plus chips. If you whittle down to 1300, you are gonna get moved to a table with 5 guys with 3.5K plus and it's going to suck.

I'd rather be one of the guys with 3.5K plus or firing up another tournament.

Of course, all of this is within reason. I mean, if I'm getting 29o for the first hour, you won't see me in pots. I try to have a reason for everything. But, I'm not at all afraid to pick up 4s6s from UTG+1 at 15/30 at raise it to 65 or 72 or something like that. Because if I dip to 1200 and hit a rush, I'm very likely gonna be at 4K+ by the end of first break, which is what I need to continue to be a threat during the second and third hours

Barry