I seem to have a little problem when it comes to mtts. Nine times out of ten I manage to squeak into the money in a mtt with a field of 1500+. At the start of the tournament I play tight aggressive poker and manage to increase my stack 2 - 4 times the average. But by the time about half the field is left, I have lost a few pots and blinded my chips away to where I'm just trying to hang on.

Do I need to lower my starting hand requirements? Play more reckless tward the beginning to try to get the most chips i can? I just can't keep up with the people who play extremely loose and win massive pots.

Any advice on what needs to change?

Are you playing online? I assume from the starting field of 1500 that its online... what size buy in are you playing? How long are the levels?

MTTs require a constant need to build your stack

This has to be the most frequent topic for a new poster. Your starting hand requirements are probably too tight once the antes start. Also dont worry as much about average stack as your M (stack/cost per round). You need to be more aggressive when your M is starting to dip into the low 20s. Know the players to your left and who you can steal from but dont make too many moves...at those stages one big pot can make you healthy for quite a while (in terms of moving toward the bubble or up the pay scale).

The answer to the second question is no. You should be tighter early then you are later when blinds increase and antes come in. It sounds like you are doing fine here anyway - you can't win the tournament by getting a huge chip stack and then dripping it away throughout the tourny.

The rest, what Copper said.

For me it depends a lot on the tables I'm at. If the table is willing I try to see as many flops as I can with speculative hands for the first few levels. If I've got more then average when antes kick in I just try to look for good spots. I think a lot of newer players make a huge mistake by the time these levels role around as instead of stealing or putting it in marginally they blind down and lose any fold equity they may have.

If cashing in 9/10, play more tournaments.

M is a term coined by Action Dan Harrington in his 3 volume series Harrington On Hold'em which every serious tournament player should adopt as their bible(s). M has 5 "Zones" which Harrington describes strategies for each. Of course as wth any authors advice, a reader must first understand the concepts being presented in the book and then adapt them to their individual style so as to apply the strategies within their comfort zone - i.e not everyone can play smallball aggressive while others find tight-aggressive too slow and predicable - but all will find that sooner or later they must play outside their own style/comfort level and play according to what their M dictates. Put these volumes in your poker library and they'll pay for as long as you play tournaments!

Welcome to the forum

Stay tight early, but you have to stay aggressive and always watch your M. Once your M starts shrinking you have to be willing to make some moves at pots with less than great hands. For example you have an M of 11 an aggressive player opens from the cutoff you have 77 or KQss spots like this just shove. Make sure you think of a tourney as a race just because you have a lot of chips early does'nt mean you can slack off, you have to keep accumulating or you will fall off the pace and lose the race.

Ok I'll be a nit this morning lol. M was coined by Paul Magriel, it was only publicized by DH in volume 2.

I wonder if Im the only person to knock Magriel out of both a backgammon tournament and a NLHE tournament....3 decades apart! Unfortunately I didnt recognize him in the NLHE tournament (he got older, I didnt ) or I would have rubbed it in, lol.

Obv Brag Post


OP, just remember you have to steal blinds in order to survive. You want to stay patient and put your tournament at risk with the good hands, but in order to do so, you have to be willing to steal blinds. I try to steal a blind at least every 2 orbits, hoping to get one every orbit. This is where an HUD comes in handy, because it's easier to pick out who's gonna give up the blinds without a fight.

Guilty as charged. (the he got older I didnt comment, obv)

He didn't "Quack Quack" in backgammon did he?

hmmm, that one is over my head.