Questions and a hand

[sMethod]

I'm fairly new to the MTT community online, I'm mostly a NL cash game player but Iv read Sklanskys Tournament Strategy for Advanced Players and I have about 100 or so under my belt but I don't think my game is nearly as refined as It could be. I was hoping to have some MTT specialists let me know how they change gears throughout a tournament. Is playing conservatively in the beginning and more aggressive toward the end still the basic strategy used by the best pros online?

How light should my open raising range be at 20bbs compared to 10 before I get in the money?

How light should my open raising range be at 20bbs compared to 10 after I get in the money.?

At what point is it better to open for a smallish 3-4bb raise rather than just pushing (How deep)?

This hand my brother was over my shoulder and was like omg how could you call that! He had been watching the whole tournament and never saw me take a single flop with KQ mucking it regularly, now I had cold called an allin pre flop with it. Was I justified because of stack sizes to make this call?




Poker Stars, $3 + $0.30 NL Hold'em Tournament, 2,000/4,000 Blinds, 7 Players-
LegoPoker Hand History Converter

CO: 22,160
BTN: 212,259
Hero (SB): 45,570
BB: 89,702
UTG: 102,231
UTG+1: 119,557
MP: 47,005

Pre-Flop: (8,800) K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] dealt to Hero (SB)
3 folds, <font color="red">CO raises to 21,760 and is All-In</font>, BTN folds, <font color="red">Hero raises to 45,170 and is All-In</font>, BB folds

[jchauvin]

i suck at poker so i cant answer your questions but the hand posted is definitely standard/fine, he's way too short to deserve any credit

[Rocco]

Standard! CO's range should be very wide...

[levAA]

hand as posted is standard

i don't think it's easy to answer your general questions, cause all this depends too much on table dynamics.

basically i don't make very much difference between before and short after the bubble - i have a pretty wide opening range and try to steal/resteal as much as possible.

while some of the players get a little looser after the bubble bursts - most of them keep tight (cause of the payout structure, where you need to get one of the first places to make money).

the real difference in stack sizes is the action you are looking for - steal and resteal.

bond has written a very good thread about stack-sizes, i'm sure you can find it.

4BB and more is mostly only a good opening ammount at the beginning af a tourney - but here you can vary much more like in a cash game - in the middle stage opening 3xBB is mostly standard and in the late stage usually about 2.5xBB - but all this is of course only very gross

[ssnyc]

odd spot...had CO been overbet raising a lot? kind of read dependent but even I how hate KQ like this move...

as to your questions you cannot bottle the answers...stack sizes, table dynamic, reads, blind change schedule all play in...on certain tables I would play my hands and stack 100% different than others!

edit: my bad didnt see CO was all in...then yes call