MTT Question
I'm having trouble in this area of my game. They say not to play any hands when the blinds are small and early. I basically try to avoid coin-flips. I will play AA, KK, maybe QQ if i'm in proper position hard to avoid suck outs. But I can't get past the Mid-Level of the tournament. Small stackes get desperate, and push all-in, and then the larger stackes move over the top to isolate. For Example: I'm looking down at AK suited, i'm in middle position, I raise 3 x the BB small stack makes an all in move. The there are at least 2 chip leaders at my table who have me covered and they push all in.
I folded in the past, and just waited to pick up a better hand, but I bust out when I wait too long. I finally made a stand and called with AK suited.
Short Stack didn't hold up with a small pocket pair
Chip leader went all in with A rag suited and hit his rag card
How do I let go of these hands, and how do I avoid coin-flips late into tournaments, without the blinds eating me up.
Please advise.
I folded in the past, and just waited to pick up a better hand, but I bust out when I wait too long. I finally made a stand and called with AK suited.
Short Stack didn't hold up with a small pocket pair
Chip leader went all in with A rag suited and hit his rag card
How do I let go of these hands, and how do I avoid coin-flips late into tournaments, without the blinds eating me up.
Please advise.
Comments
Do not attack the small stacks as they will find any reason to push all in and try to double up. Act the mid stacks who limp and play position off of them.
I try to ensure anywhere from 3rd from the button to the button I am raising with any hand I would normally call with if no one has called. Don't be afraid to put out continuation bets after the flop especially when it is checked to you.
Simply put....stay aggressive....its scary but once you get used to playing that way MTT tournies are straight forward and the only way you won't cash is if you run into a bad beat or lose focus.
Good luck...
I try to keep my stack at 30-50 BB at all times, however once you get close to the money in any tourney you can be 6th out of 20 left and any serious bet will be a good portion of your stack. At this point I try and get away with min raising. I dont' feel I'm that good of an MTT player yet, but that's one area I"ve been working on right now. Fortunately my cash game is financing my learning curve on this one, but I've been cashing regularly on the 180's on stars. MInd you, it's not a lot until you get into the top 4 or so.
loose games: pickup dead money from callingstation. don't bluff or do anything funny, not worth it.
middle
aviod getting kill, no coinflop, not to aggressive. stay alive.
I have lay down AK, TT, AQ, AJ, even KK (since people will not call your all-in without at lease 1 ace, if ace show up, you die)
final
After bubble burst
Utlra aggressive. it's all-in or fold. no other way
A-X
packet
KQ,KJ,even KT
Play smart, if two people already all-in preflop. and you hold AK. lay it down, since the higher rank, higher $$, let them kill each other.
i am having not bad MTT tournment result but I know it's not the best, and I did like to see how other people do it.
I'm going to be compltely honest with you here. It'll be harsh.
Throw away this entire line of thinking. It reeks of weak-tight play. When the tournament starts, you've got the chance to take chips off the very bad players and grow your stack. You are cutting yourself off from this big source of early chips. If you assume that in cash games, money flows form the bad players to the good, then this applies to tournament too. The longer you 'sit out' from the tournament, the more chips are going to the solid players. That puts you at a disadvantage. Think of your M level as your ability to apply your skill to grow your stack. When it's a large number, you have all the clubs inyour bag. When it's a low number, you are stuck playing with your putter on a par 5. Why would you choose to do this to yourself?
You said you also want to avod coin flips. My response: 'why?'. If you are playing at a level where the buy-in is a good sum of money and important to you, then you are playing over your head. Step down. If it's pure bankroll money then you need to be able to go for any sliver of edge you can find out there. It may involve making some ugly pot odds calls down the road, but you can't afford to pass them up. No one can. Why do you think that *YOU* are so special that you can afford to pass up coin-flips or slight edges? I think it's a valid question. We all think we're the best player in the world, but c'mon. If that was true, we'd be on TV and millionaires already.
I think what you WANT To say is "I don't want to play big pots early". Its harder to be able to confidently play with without the nuts due to the lack of reads. That's understandable. This means that you have to be conscious of pot size throughout the hand. Maybe you need to give away that free card or flat call instead of check-raise. Don't you hate it when you have QQ and some guy flops two pair on you and you bust out early? Yup, I hate it too. But dont you love it when you flop two pair on someone and bust their hand? Why limit yourself? Step outside your safe zone of play. Tight, conservative poker was the way of the 60's. Today it's selective ruthless aggression. If you aren't somewhere on that aggressive poker scale, you are being left behind.
Another thing, maybe something happened in the past that caused you to play like this. Maybe you recall having a lot of guys suck out two pair on you or river you or whatever. Is it possible that you are just focusing on the pain and ignoring the pleasure? Don't you remember all those times (more than the losses) where it worked to perfection? Focus on that. There's no monster under the bed unless you put one there.
Anyway, there's a rant for you. It's not personal, it's just a random collections of ideas that popped in my head from what you said. Feel free to ignore it, or feel free to try and improve on yourself. It's up to you.