mid-late game adjustments

[postoakpoker]

I've found that stealing the blinds and antes is more difficult in certain situations in the lower buy in tournament. Does anybody else agree? A big reason that many of these players are "stuck" playing in low stakes is because they play too many hands, or do not understand basic concepts such as vigorish, position, or the gap concept.

Since they ignore basic strategies, you'll generally get less respect from a raise and get looked up more. While this is probably heavily outweighed by your opponents' terrible postflop play, it's hard to steal from someone who doesn't understand the respective value of their hands and the reasons why they should probably fold. If it's harder to steal since these opponents won't fold marginal hands as often, how do you adjust? I've been in several positions where I'm the big stack in the mid-late tournament and my steal and bullying attempts simply do not work because people will not fold. Note that I am not talking about bluffing necessarily, but PF aggression w/ the intention of merely taking down the blinds and antes. A big part of the equity of raising w/ 109s in the CO is the high % chance that the blinds will simply fold (obviously position is also a large part of your hand's value). Thoughts/comments?

[b-komplex]

If a guy is playing too loose OOP then it's pretty easy to adjust your strategy and take his chips the old-fashioned way. Sometimes you need to wait for a hand.

Also in the late game the players are probably going to be stronger and you are going to have to be more creative in your lines or you'll get eaten. Don't think your c-bets are going to get any more respect as you move up.

[AMT]

as touched on, adjusting to the players behind you is important at every level...if the stacks are too deep to push but at too awkward a stage to open certain hands wide, youll just have to wait when you can afford to if the stacks/reads on players behind/tournament situation dictate. unfortunately theres no way to answer this but in the most general way, youll have to look at specific hands and situations.

at a certain point in the tourney the situation/stacks/blinds will dictate shoving or folding only...at this time you can appropriately estimate the ranges to make the decision of which hands youre going to push. Eventually, no matter how hard you find certain hands to play, learning the pushing/folding scheme will take the weapons out of their hands and leave you to exploit them with your pushing and folding appropriately.

note: this skill is learned best in STTs IMO and can be adjusted to fit mtt game factors (ex usually shoving wider bc of value of antes and payout structure)

[McMelchior]

The idea that a big stack has some kind of license to "bully" or "steal" from shorter stacks - or is better suited for it - is mainly a mis-conception, at least during the mid phases of a MTT.

The main advantage of having a big stack is, that you can take a bad beat without busting out.

When you raise from LP, your equity comes from three (3) different scenarios:

A. Your opponents fold PF.
B. Your opponents commit chips to the pot, but fold later in the hand.
C. You have the best hand at showdown.

With short(er) stacked loose opponents in the blinds less of your equity will come from A or B, and more from C.

They'll be unwilling to fold before the flop, and many loose/poor opponents will feel that they're pot-committed on the flop, and not be willing to lay down pretty much any draw, incl. gut shots etc.

But profiting from C (showing the best hand down) with a speculative hand like T9s is problematic against players with short(er) stacks, because you'll not win enough chips to make up for all the times you lose against the typical loose player calling range - A-rag, suited Ks, small pairs etc.

The bottom line is, that if you want to use the threat of a big stack for bullying or stealing you're better off taking on another big stack.

Big stacks have much more to lose than short stacks, and will be less likely to chase with a weak draw after the flop; and if you hit a wonder flop with your speculative hand at least a big stack will have the option of paying you off.

The only exception would be at the bubble or FT bubble, where the threat of being busted suddenly converts into very tangible differences in terms of winnings.