Most common leak for the MTT'er ?

[tjh]

New to this forum, mostly STT. Play a few MTT and looking to play more and more and more of them ..

Here is the question.

What is the most common leak for the MTT player.

Too loose early on say level 1-5.
Too tight later on, bubble, near bubble and ITM.
Not aggressive enough post flop.
Too aggressive post flop.
Not observant enough, no reads no notes no feel for the texture of the table.
Too tight in general.
Too loose in general.
Not aggressive enough in general.
Inability to shift gears.

I know it is a broad question but suppose you are an expert MTT player and I say I have trouble with MTT's and I ask you to guess what my problem is. What would your best guess be, where would you BET that my trouble was ? Please add any leaks that you feel are common.

Thanks

--
tjh

[valenzuela]

lederer says its that they lose their agression when they get near the bubble.

[Nick B.]

While you are at it, could you please tell me what is wrong with my golf game. Thank you.

[shaniac]

Yes.

[tiger7210]

[ QUOTE ]
While you are at it, could you please tell me what is wrong with my golf game

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ZBTHorton]

[ QUOTE ]
New to this forum, mostly STT. Play a few MTT and looking to play more and more and more of them ..

Here is the question.

What is the most common leak for the MTT player.

Too loose early on say level 1-5.
Too tight later on, bubble, near bubble and ITM.
Not aggressive enough post flop.
Too aggressive post flop.
Not observant enough, no reads no notes no feel for the texture of the table.
Too tight in general.
Too loose in general.
Not aggressive enough in general.
Inability to shift gears.

I know it is a broad question but suppose you are an expert MTT player and I say I have trouble with MTT's and I ask you to guess what my problem is. What would your best guess be, where would you BET that my trouble was ? Please add any leaks that you feel are common.

Thanks

--
tjh

[/ QUOTE ]

That covers everything that could possibly BE wrong.

[mts]

one of my problems is

Not observant enough, no reads no notes no feel for the texture of the table.

i'll make notes on people based on how they play against me but i don't really pay attention when i'm not involved in the hand. This is why i need to start playing live.

oh yeah and i also have some bad habits where i'm semi comatose

[schwza]

here's my recommended fix:

keep notes on every pre-flop action. if they limp, type l. raise is r. similarly for cold-call, blind D, 3-bet, etc. make a / when it gets to your BB so you can tell how long a player has been there. after a while, you'll have notes on someone like

lllc/llcld/cldl

or

r/rrr/3r/rrd/rr

and you should have some sense of them. it's a good way of forcing yourself to pay attention to the pre-flop, and then the post-flop is usually interesting enough to watch.

i started doing this recently (first only at FT's, then all the time) and it's helped my game.

[Dr. Badhead]

this seems like good advice for a limit MTT - might be harder for NL...

[Simplistic]

definitely agree, sometimes i'll two-table a tourney but I find if I just watch the one-table i'll be able to observe alot more, i.e. I'm chip leader with 70k and tightie who has been blinding away pushes with 15k, easy fold with pocket 3s while I'd consider calling against other people in the hope of winning the flip, but I know at best i'm facing AQ-AK, but the most probable answer is i'm facing a big pair, or the guy who has been min-raising my BB the past 3 rounds needs to a pot sized bet played back at him to cool him off

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
While you are at it, could you please tell me what is wrong with my golf game. Thank you.

[/ QUOTE ]

http://www.motioncoach.com/CrazyGolfer.jpg

[CardSharpCook]

# Too loose early on say level 1-5.
# Too tight later on, bubble, near bubble and ITM.
# Not aggressive enough post flop.
# Too aggressive post flop.
# Not observant enough, no reads no notes no feel for the texture of the table.
# Too tight in general.
# Too loose in general.
# Not aggressive enough in general.
# Inability to shift gears.


I think it falls into two categories.

Category A: Scared player.
Too loose OR too tight early
Too passive early
Too passive AF
Inability to shift gears
Passivity at bubble
Inability to "playback"
Doesn't value bet enough
Too tight in general

Category B: The "when in doubt, bet" player
This is the minority player
Too loose/aggressive early
Too loose/aggressive overall
Inability to shift DOWN gears
Too agro at the bubble
Too agro AF
Inability to give up on a bluff/low pair
Not observant of the table/players

Most players fall in category one. I often find myself in category two /images/graemlins/frown.gif If you are new to MTTs, look to category one.

CSC

[DonButtons]

[ QUOTE ]
# Too loose early on say level 1-5.
# Too tight later on, bubble, near bubble and ITM.
# Not aggressive enough post flop.
# Too aggressive post flop.
# Not observant enough, no reads no notes no feel for the texture of the table.
# Too tight in general.
# Too loose in general.
# Not aggressive enough in general.
# Inability to shift gears.


I think it falls into two categories.

Category A: Scared player.
Too loose OR too tight early
Too passive early
Too passive AF
Inability to shift gears
Passivity at bubble
Inability to "playback"
Doesn't value bet enough
Too tight in general

Category B: The "when in doubt, bet" player
This is the minority player
Too loose/aggressive early
Too loose/aggressive overall
Inability to shift DOWN gears
Too agro at the bubble
Too agro AF
Inability to give up on a bluff/low pair
Not observant of the table/players

Most players fall in category one. I often find myself in category two /images/graemlins/frown.gif If you are new to MTTs, look to category one.

CSC

[/ QUOTE ]

It takes practice to get into the second category.

The thing is, most beginners, are so tight preflop, they barely get post flop experience, and it takes a while for them to develop it. So you can't just jump into playing a different style of being very laggish if you don't know how to play 78s on a 893 board, and are scared to bet without TPTK or w/e.

But I'd say, being overaggressive on the bubble isn't a bad thing, as long as the whole table knows its the bubble, and are writing in the chat things like, "2 to go, 1 to go." For most serious MTTers, the bubble is the place, where you can double up without ever showing down a hand, so its never a bad thing to be overaggressive on the bubble. As long as people are playing the incorrect way of trying to sneak into the money, being overaggressive is always going to be +++EV on the bubble.The only problems I really see from category two, is the Inability to shift DOWN gears, for example, you pass the bubble where you double up with without ever having to showdown. Well, now its the perfect time to tighten up, as this is usually the loose period, where all the short stacks which just sneaked into the money are willing to gamble, or there still trying to move up the pay out ladder. But this is where being observant helps to identify who is willing to gamble, and who wants to move up a couple spots. So raising a lot now might not be the best move, but if you pick your spots well, you should be fine.

BTW, I think you should throw in not stealing enough blinds, big blind defense (BOOM BOOM), and heads up play.
You don't get a lot of chances to get heads up in MTTs, but thats where most of your profit comes from, and with the pay outs usually being 2-1 from 1st to 2nd place, its important to learn how to play it from every stack size. Not just playing a heads up cash game, but good practice, might be 2 table sngs, where when you get heads up, the blinds to stack sizes, are similar to the stacks sizes to big blind ratio of a MTT.