2 replies to this topic

[Wily]

Hey all!So I turned a $4 sit and go buy-in at Full Tilt into a satellite tournament token, and I just turned that token into a buyin for to this weekend's $75 guaranteed NL tournament by placing in the top 5 of a satellite tournament. I was at a comfortable 2nd position in the satellite MTT until the last five won out, and then I had a blast going all in every hand until I got eliminated and got the seat The biggest tournaments I've ever played in were $20 to $30 buy-ins, and I've placed in the last month three times in the top five. But this tournament is a $200 buyin, and I imagine that the level of play is higher as well. When I play multis now, I usually play very tight aggressive in the early stages, only seeing the flop with high pocket pairs and AK if the pot is raised. If it isn't, I will see it with lower pocket pairs and some drawing hands (QJs, J10s, 109s) and try to hit a monster flop. Regardless, once the first hour is past I usually loosen up, playing more hands against smaller stacks and overaggressive players who will pay me off if I hit a hand nicely. I'll add Axs, suited connectors, and KQ-KJ to my game at this point, and if I don't get unlucky I will end up with a top 10 stack by the time there is fewer than 30 players. In the last stages, up to the final table, I usually play with more selective aggression than most of the players, who are very intent on stealing every blind or trying to double up quickly. I find that large reraises preflop, or a big bet on the flop if I have a great hand, will cause most of the loose aggressive big stacks to drop their hands. I will never call an all in at this point unless I am sure I have close to the nuts, but I will put myself all in on bets when I am sure I have the better of it. By the final table, I usually have a tighter table image than the other players, and my raises and steals then will actually be very effective as most players fold to me. I'll then go all in with weaker hands to try to aim for the largest stack, as I feel that I should aim for first and not just past the bubble.Of course, these strategies are in an ideal situation, when several players are just trying to limp past the bubble, or are on tilt from having a big stack and being crippled by a hand. I'm sure that in this tournament, the level of play will be much better, and fewer players will just be trying to limp into the money with a small stack or going crazy if lose one hand. I'd appreciate any general advice about how tight/loose I should be in each stage of the tournament, and some specific advice on the following situations:1) AK. There's a few things you could do with this hand I love to hate. a) Try to all in with it preflop. I used to do this quite frequently, but I find that many players are willing to call with mid to low pocket pairs, and a race is not what I want for most of the tournament. I will now only call an all in with it if my opponent has less than half my stack B) Raise with it preflop, and then bet out/raise if you miss. I am a believer in taking one and exactly one stab at the pot if rags show up on the flop. I find that people with AQ or AJ will fold to aggression here, and I think it's overall a good move. Of course, if I get raised I will fold, or if I miss on the turn and river. c) Raise with it preflop, and then bet out strong/raise if you hit. I will almost always go all in if a K or A hits unless the board is very coordinated. d) Limp with it preflop (?) I will only do this if I'm in the SB and the pot is unopened. 2) QQ and JJ. I find that many times the longevity of my tournament life is decided on how I play these hands (and 10 10). a) All in preflop? I will do this against any stack that is less than mine. However, since I don't want to just pick up blinds, I usually just make a 4X raise, which leads me to B) Raise with it preflop, find one or two overs to your pair. I pretty much do the same thing as with AK when I miss - take one stab at it, and if i doesn't work fold. c) Raise with it preflop, find no overs. I almost always will go all in on a flop here. Of course, maybe 1/4 of the time I still get beaten by a draw or a set, but it's a tournament and I can't wait for a more ideal situation that this. 3) AA and KK. I will actually raise a small amount with these, especially if an aggressive player is in the pot or blind. I find that they are very profitable if played this way in a NL tournament, since I do NOT want to just pick up blinds and a limp in. Of course, if I manage to get all in preflop, i'll take that too :)4) Small pocket pairs. I will call a raise with these, unless my opponent doesnt have many chips left. Flop or drop. 5) Blind stealing against small stacks with A10, Axs, or KQ/KJ, or a PP -if they push against me, I will often go all in with them since they could be trying a raise steal, and if not I'm often not far behind. I find that they will often go all in with A6 or something if they are small stacked. When I think of more situations I have problems with, I'll post them. Thanks for reading.Yli

[akishore]

congrats yang, and good luck.your overall MTT strategy sounds great. you know what you're doing, and i like the way you change gears as the tournament progresses. from what i understand, this is your style:early - tight/aggressivemiddle - loose/aggressivelate - tight/aggressivethese are, of course, approximations. i understand that in the middle, you're not lagging it up, but you're definitely opening up your game, right? this is a fine strategy, and if it's been working for you, by all means, stick to it.that said, i think you might want to consider a new type of strategy. i'm no tournament specialist--in fact, i almost hate tournaments altogether and much more prefer cash games--but from what i've read about daniel negreanu's tournament style, might i suggest this style:early - loose/aggressive, key being good post-flop play and good reading ability. old-school thinking like yours dictates survival in the early stages, but new-school thinking like daniel's says that all the fish are dropping off at this point, and you want to be the one collecting all those chips. be extremely careful never to mess with a tight/aggressive player like you (who only plays AA/KK/AK basically) unless you can see a cheap flop and can reel them in with a monster hand. an alternative is to just be average instead of aggressive... limp with many hands and focus on post-flop play to get you the chips. categorize the loose-passives and loose-aggressives, and try to get their chips when you hit strong hands on the flop. the key in this stage is post-flop play, and you can only do that if you're loose. only get aggressive when you have a strong hand.middle - tight/aggressive, reason being that in this stage, most of the "bad" players are gone, and you're only going to be involved in pots with big hands now. unlike the early stages, most people here play very tight, and most pots are heads-up or three-handed, and this is not ideal for a loose/aggressive style. steal more blinds, of course, but shift your play towards pre-flop poker now, since the blinds are also higher and you need to play better hands.late part 1 - loose/aggressive, because after the bubble, people start dropping off rather quickly in most tournaments since they're satisfied with cashing. this stage, before the final table, is all about accumulating as many chips as you can, since you're playing for first now, like you said. key here again involves post-flop play, and although the blinds are high, you want to be much more aggressive than the early stages so that the blinds don't eat you up everytime you miss a flop and check-fold. this is a volatile style, because you're going to be bluffing a lot more, and it's important that you carry through with aggression to the turn (instead of the one-stab-on-the-flop method).late part 2 - tight/aggressive, because at this stage (the final table), the play becomes very tight again, and most pots will again be heads-up or three-handed. you also want to be stealing blinds and taking down pots, and you hit it dead-on when you said a tight image will succeed at the final table.this is a volatile strategy, because you will often face the danger of busting, but if you feel comfortable in your categorization skills (knowing which players are playing AA/KK/AK and which players are playing every hand, knowing who will carry through with a bluff and who will take one stab on the flop and shy down right away, etc.) and your post-flop skills, give this method a try. for this tournament, however, you might just want to stick with your normal style, and try this new style in lower buy-in tournaments later.as for the situations:1. AK - never go all-in with it pre-flop. never limp with it either, even in the small blind. better to make it look like a blind steal and get re-steal action, and if you get the blinds, oh well. unlike AA/KK, i genuinely believe that it's better to pick up the blinds with AK (especially in middle/late stages where the blinds are hefty) rather than get involved in a big pot with them. raise it up, and make about a 2/3 pot bet regardless of the flop. if you sense your opponent is on a draw, bet again on the turn, and again on the river if he misses. if there are no obvious draws and the texture is ragged (e.g. Q82), check-fold the turn if you don't improve--you're probably beat. there's no correct way to play AK, it really depends on the board and your read of your opponent.2. QQ/JJ/TT - raise pre-flop, if pot is heads-up or three-handed, bet out (2/3 pot again) if at most one overcard lands. similar to AK, go by your read... if you sense your opponent is on a draw, carry through with your aggression, but if the flop is ragged with two overcards, etc., lay it down on the turn. never go all-in pre-flop with these... sklansky explains that by going all-in pre-flop with these hands, you turn them into 7-2, since only AA/KK will call, and in those cases your hand is just as bad as 7-2.3. AA/KK - fine.4. mid/low PP - fine.5. blind stealing - fine.overall, i think the biggest advice i can give you is to try to keep pots small throughout the whole tournament. never let a pot get big until you're sure you have the best of it. never overbet the pot--really, never. i can't stress that enough, too many people lose big tourney pots when they overbet to protect their hand. that includes pushing all-in pre-flop if it's way over the top... just don't do it. i like to keep almost all of my bets around 2/3 of the pot (it also keeps me unreadable), and all my raises around pot-size.congrats again, and good luck.aseem

[Petoria]

http://www.fullconta...opic.php?t=5927This article definitely helps.The only thing I disagree with akishore on is mid-low PP, I don't like calling any raises with a PP under 6's, but that's a judgement call. They can be played many ways. In tournament situations, they pose too much risk of being a 2nd best hand against a raise, but like I said they can be played many ways. Remember that you have to change up your play with certain hands, if you play AK the same way everytime, people will catch on and go in with PP. I know one of the betting patterns that I notice online is that random all in's are usually AK, so be careful with that. I've found that people love moving in on semi-bluffs early in large buy-in tourneys, so be careful, take your time, make a read, and good luck.