First large live MTT looking for advice
I am playing in my first live MTT over the weekend and looking for advice. The tourney has 300 people with a 1st place prize of a grand. 2nd place sees around 200 and 3rd wins a BBQ. The obvious goal is first.
The tourney starts with 3000 in chips and blinds are going up by 100 every half hour. We are playing 6 to a table with a 10-minute break every hour leaving only 50 minutes of playing time per hour. As each player will deal when on the button I think we will see a max of 25 hands per hour. 24 makes some of the math I attempted easier. Blinds are starting at 25, 25 (don't ask why it isn't 25/50 as I have no idea).
My strategy was going to be to cover my blind in each round while winning enough to post my blinds in the next round. Working that out I found I would have to steal the both blinds 11 times per hour to make that work.
Having figured that won't work what should I be doing? Should I be aiming to pick up 1 bb per hour above my blinds so that I am moving up steadily? Or relying on getting people into big pots when I have the best of it and not be so concerned with my stack in relation to the blind levels?
I am also curious about the concept of "M' and how it applies to tournaments. If someone could give me the coles notes version it would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Steve
The tourney starts with 3000 in chips and blinds are going up by 100 every half hour. We are playing 6 to a table with a 10-minute break every hour leaving only 50 minutes of playing time per hour. As each player will deal when on the button I think we will see a max of 25 hands per hour. 24 makes some of the math I attempted easier. Blinds are starting at 25, 25 (don't ask why it isn't 25/50 as I have no idea).
My strategy was going to be to cover my blind in each round while winning enough to post my blinds in the next round. Working that out I found I would have to steal the both blinds 11 times per hour to make that work.
Having figured that won't work what should I be doing? Should I be aiming to pick up 1 bb per hour above my blinds so that I am moving up steadily? Or relying on getting people into big pots when I have the best of it and not be so concerned with my stack in relation to the blind levels?
I am also curious about the concept of "M' and how it applies to tournaments. If someone could give me the coles notes version it would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Steve
Comments
Don't worry about your stack that much in relation to the blinds. Of course you want to keep your stack as healthy as possible, but I think the idea of saying at x level I should have x as many chips isn't a good way of going about things. Depending on what cards you'll get, you could have more you could have less. Change your gameplan depending on how much chips you have. Planning to have this many chips will rarely succeed as you'll rarely have as many chips as you thought you would.
Middle of the tourny to the bubble is a good place to steal chips. People typically tighten up as they can see the light at the end of the tunnel and are just trying to hang on. You should see more opportunities to steal at this point in time.
After the bubble, play for first place. Second is for losers.