Am I learning some very bad habits at low buyins?

[Chu]

Hello all, I've been playing SnG's for quite a while and in the last 6 months or so have tried to make stabs at NL Hold'em MTT's. Well, I'm finally getting to the point where I usually place within 20 of the money, either under or over, which seems to be fairly normal for a good player, and so far with 1 win and 2 final tables at the $11-$22 range of PokerStars.

The problem is I am doing this by playing in a way that seems to fly in the face of what the books are telling me. Before 100/200/25 I only get involved in two types of hands, either premium holdings or hands where I think I can steal with anything if the right cards come up.

After 100/200/25, I become VERY agressive at trying to get the blinds. If I think I have a >40-50% chance to steal, I will make a go with any 2 cards. I peg the players who I know only play good stuff, and for everyone else if I hit high pair on the flop in most cases it's going to cost them their stack to see the turn. I will do incredibly bold bluffs with nothing if I think the player will probably fold. If I actuially do have a hand, generally I play it the same way and hope someone tries to take down the maniac, which is my main way of doubling up.

Something I recognize is that this is only really working because players at these buyins generally just do not want to get involved, and will gladly let me run over them. The exceptions are easy to pick out, and are generally no more then one or two a table, and I can just work around them.

My assumption is that as you move up in limits, these passive players that fill the $11 and $22 buyins will probably start to dissapear, which means most of my tricks will no longer work. If I try to move up will this ultra-agressive strategy start to hurt me severely, or is this really an ok way to approach MTT's?

[jojobinks]

i eagerly await answers, as i'm playing this limit too and hope to move up. speak up, folks. let us in on some knowledge!

[vicpanic]

A couple of things.

Firstly, this is very impressive information, that players in the lower buy in MTTs are being so passive. I would think they'd be more apt to call you with weaker holdings.

Neverthless, Aggressiveness should definately a fixture in everyones tournament arsenel and its good its been working well for you in these tournaments.

In bigger buy in events however, it may not be as easy to "get a hold" of the table. There will always be passive, weak players in any event you enter, just pray you get a table full of them.

If not, you'll surely recognize the players that are experienced and also picking up pots, play back if you are holding, wait for your turn if your not.

[Chu]

[ QUOTE ]
A couple of things.

Firstly, this is very impressive information, that players in the lower buy in MTTs are being so passive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe passive isn't the right word, here is what I think is going on.

I think what is going on is that I am stealing a lot of blinds from 2 very different players :

1. Survivalist. They want to make money at all costs, despite the fact that they'll get there with so few chips that they won't do much else. If they play they got a good hand. If they raise they got a REALLY good hand. If they got a short stack they'll wait for the maircle hand to double up rather then start stealing. Really easy to spot these. Sometimes if I got a big stack i'll just call them and fire a large bullet on the flop to scare them off. Usually works.

2. The Gambler. They are looking for oppertunities to double up, but not in the traditional sence of "wait for good hands" but in the sence of gut fealing. Harder to pick out, but become obvious when they make some very odd preflop plays with their stack. Versus these people, they are very apt to call an all-in, very apt to call something that will put them all-in (!), but very unlikely to call a bet that will cost them a large chunk of their stack. If you try to steal from them you'll always get an all-in or fold. These are where the double-ups come from. They tend to wait for these oppertunities which is why I lump them into the "passive" group.

Usually at $11-$22 you have about 4-7 of the above two types at a table. I play off them like nothing else and ignore the other players unless I have a good reason not to. I think almost all poker players have a little bit of one of those two types they wish to expunge, but at these limits I see the exemplification of them over and over again.

[Ross]

The key is to adapt your play to the situation, your basic aggressive stratetgy is right at any level of poker.
From my experience of on line poker at this level and the tone of your posts (I play live mainly up to $1000 buy-ins) I would guess that against better players who are more inclined to trap with strong hands you are making 2 mistakes.

1. you habitually overbet the pot and only get called by the better players when you are dominated.
2. You will go broke overplaying top pair moderate kicker. Learning when to let top pair go in tournament hold'em is the major difference between the good and very good players.

At the level you are playing you will not run into many quality players and even at the higher buy-ins they are less common than you would think, the key is watching the action and being a little bit more careful when you are in a pot with them.

regards

Ross

[vicpanic]

Chu, PM me your email adress, for some reason i cant post long posts on here, and i wrote something just for you.