MTT tourney question.. (ya ya, but the tournament section is slow)


anyways, I'm going to say i've played a lot of tourneys, and have won my share, and placed in final tables, (most of these were at B&M's)

I've also shown some great finishes online and live.


With online tourneys, and the idea of being able to play another one in 30 mins., people are more at ease with risking their life, and i'm starting to find it a bit difficult to judge when i should push or just raise to draw for money.
If its the end of the 1st break, and 40% of the field is now gone, i consider this "moving day", But am i wrong to think that as soon as i'm below the average stack, i should push pre flop if i'm outside of the blinds? (with a strong hand of course)

This is bothering me because yesterday in the Neg-O, i was off to a decent start, but a 45 min dry run left me sitting at average stack after the 1st break. I found A,J s in the BB and won the blinds after it folded around to SB, then on the Button, i found AK, there was a min raise from UTG, so i came over the top and pushed. Should i have called with below avg stack or was the push the real only play i had?

Your stack relative to the starting pot (M) is more important than your position vs the average stack (Q). If you're below the average stack, but still have a healthy M, then there is no need to push.

Especially in those tourneys which start with you off with deep stacks and slow moving blinds like they have in the WCOOP events, you have plenty of time to make moves despite being a below average stack.

On your AK play, it depends on your M at that time. In my case, if my M was below 10, then the push would be my play. If my M was above 10, then I would just call or re-raise depending on other factors.

I think 10 is too high for a quality hand to be an auto-push, depending on position at the table, what the other stacks are etc. I still want to collect more than blinds here. An increase from 10 go 11 isnt going to impact my tourney chances nearly as much as an increase from say 3 to 4.

I just ordered HOH volume 2,, i hear its a good book

Its terrible, misleading, worse than useless and a waste of money. Tell all of your friends its awful, and anyone who has one should be told to burn it and never read it again because it was written to deceive the hordes and make money for the pros.

:twisted:

LOL.. thanks. i'm starting the fire pit as we speak.

Fire pit? Cool, start up the jacuzzi too so me and your avatar can relax for a bit.

For me, it depends on what my hand is.

Say blinds are 100/200, I have 3,000 in chips. Min-raise from UTG to 400 per Royal's example. Pot is now 700. If I have a high PP like AA-QQ, then I would probably just re-raise to build up the pot.

AK, I might push since that is a more difficult hand to play post-flop.

And of course it depends on when the blinds are going to go up, other stacks, my position at the table like you said.

I start to think about pushing when my M falls below 10 but it's obviously not the only or even the best option.

Yeah , we're pretty much on the same page as usual, though I dont mind raising AK or AQ for value if I'm pretty sure I'm going to be up against no more than 2 opponents.

30% of the time Im going to have TPTK to play, but if undercards flop Ill play it all in anyway. Theres still a good chance they are ahead, an pair may still fold, and Ive got 6 outs twice if they are behind. Overall I think I'm about 60% to win against one opponent and 40% against 2, and should be +EV vs collecting the blinds only. I'm too tired to do the math right now!