Tournament Strategy

[rustynail43 0]

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride….I have been playing a lot of on-line tournaments and although I am generally in the top 20%, I have only made the final table in a tournament once (placed 9th out of 2000). I would like to know others general strategy for playing tournaments. Gamble early and use your chips to bully the table?Play each hand as it comes regardless of the field? Do you worry your not leading in chips? Do you protect your chip lead or attack?How many times will you go all in pre-flop? Post-flop?I generally like to play lots of hands when blinds are low or I have a large stack. I tighten up as the blinds increase or if I become short stacked. I normally find myself ¾ through the tourney in average or below average chip position. If I change gears at this point, things generally unravel. If I tighten, large stacks will punish me till I am making bad decisions. Any help in how to play the last quarter of a tournament is really appreciated.

[KKsuited 0]

First thing I would say is, if you're playing many 2000 person tournaments, you're not going to do very well that often. It takes a lot of luck to make it through that many people.My late tournament strategy is pretty aggressive, but not stupid. I think that is something many players struggle with. Being aggressive without being an idiot can be tuff.There will be a time where you have to gamble.It would take me forever to describe my strategy. It's not some long drawn out process, it just really depends on to many factors to write on a message board.

[Smasharoo 0]

Stack building I play fairly loosely pre-flop and very tightly post flop when the blinds are small relative to stack size.When I have a big stack I try to apply unrelenting pressure to smaller stacks and stay out of the way of bigger stacks that can hurt me.I think most people play simmilarly in large tournaments.

[JFarrell20 1]

You cannot tighten up as the blinds go up. I learned this lesson. The moment you start to tighten up is the moment you are conceding first place. Once you start to tighten up, you will find yourself playing against the ropes till the end. Nobody wins 1st playing against the ropes. it's just not feasable. Even Harrigton only made it to 4th in '04. He was on the ropes for a while, but never in the drivers seat.