Playing like a LAG maniac the way to go about tournaments?

[trumpman84]

I'm normally a tight-conservative player who protects my chips at all costs. I've never had very much success in touranment play....yea, a cash here and there, but not consistently.

This past week I've been playing like a total loose aggressive throughout the entire tournament. It gets even worse when I get a chip lead. If I have the table covered, I'll open any playable hand from any position on the table and many unplayable ones on the button and cutoff. I thought I would generally be busting out fast in most of my tournaments and perhaps making it deep in a few, but out of the 15 or so tournaments I've played like this, I think I've busted out of 2 before the first break and in the rest I made the top 20% or higher.

Is there anything to this? Or am I just on a card rush or something. There's nothing quite like raising 87s UTG+2, getting a caller and have the flop come 87A and busting someone with AK or AQ. Heh..I remember one tournament, I raise 74o from the cutoff..the button goes all-in. The pot's laying me just enough odds to call as long as I don't think he has a pocket pair which I didn't think so. So, I call and bust his AQ and am BERATED at the table for my poor play..haha!

EDIT: I know some would consider players like Daniel N., Gus Hansen and even Doyle Brunson LAGS, so maybe I'm on to something here...or maybe it's not new information...whatever.

[TheJackal]

I don't understand people. What kind of a question is this? Play however you feel like playing. If you want to play like a maniac, go ahead. You'll either accumulate or bust out. You can't compare yourself to Daniel N or Gus H and how they play because I'm pretty sure their poker abilities are much higher than yours.

[trumpman84]

Well, I can't delete the post any more b/c "time has expired", but why such the negative reaction? This is a tournametn poker forum, so I was trying to start a tournament poker discussion on the best way to approach a tournament. A reply might of been something like "Yes, I think it might be best to loosen up a lot from a normal tight-aggresive cash game strategy in order to build your stack the most. " or "No, you dummy, you're just getting lucky and you're the biggest fish I know...always play tight-aggresive"

And no, I didn't compare myself to those great poker players. Hell, I don't think I'm even on the radar screen talking about them. I was simply saying that some people might consider them loose aggressive in how they approach their tournament play.

[TheJackal]

I didn't mean for it to sound negative, I just mean you have to adopt a style that you are comfortable with. I didn't really mean comparing yourself, but comparing styles. I don't even think you can really classify Dan N or Gus H with a style, because I think just like Phil Ivey has said he plays the situation and doesn't come to the table with a strategy. If you can run over the table, than by all means do it. If you have to tighten up for whatever reason, by all means do it.

[trumpman84]

alright..I guess I wasn't so much asking a question as trying to start a discussion..I'll just let the thread die.

[jslag]

Mix your game up. You want to have several gears and you want to change gears based on how your opponents are playing. In general, you want to play the opposite (counteracting) way your opponents are playing.

It's okay to play "LAG" sometimes, but don't get into the habit of raising trash hands out of position or calling big raises with junk.

I recommend you read Harrington on Hold'em for more info on tournament playing styles and adapting to your opponents.

[Roman]

Personally, I believe you should never have a plan when entering a tourney. I don't know where you play, but there are some sites/some tables where this type of play is very profitable, doing this in like a 10$ PP tourney however is almost always just plain dumb. Basically, as long as the table is right, almost any play style is a viable.