My Latest roadblock in MTT's

[PokerGoblin]

Here's the situation I've been running into as of late:

I only play Party's NLHE tournaments, $30 to $100 buy in...

I have had no problem getting to the second hour with at least an average or above average chip stack. I've gotten to the point that I can accomplish this without any real great starting hands (although they help).

What I have been running into is, after my table breaks, I get stuck at a table with a super aggressive stealer to my right, and he steals the blinds before I get the chance to (and steals my blinds as well), thus blinding my down to shortstacked status. A lot of times I get stuck at a table that isn't going to break for a long time, compounding the problem.

I am familiar with the concept of restealing, and I do employ it occasionally, but what am I supposed when I am getting cold decked and facing a pot sized bet every time I have position?

One other thing, what to do in this situation and the propensity of the players to your left to fold is rather low? Pretty much wait for a hand?

PG

[Jerrod Ankenman]

[ QUOTE ]
Here's the situation I've been running into as of late:

I only play Party's NLHE tournaments, $30 to $100 buy in...

I have had no problem getting to the second hour with at least an average or above average chip stack. I've gotten to the point that I can accomplish this without any real great starting hands (although they help).

What I have been running into is, after my table breaks, I get stuck at a table with a super aggressive stealer to my right, and he steals the blinds before I get the chance to (and steals my blinds as well), thus blinding my down to shortstacked status. A lot of times I get stuck at a table that isn't going to break for a long time, compounding the problem.

I am familiar with the concept of restealing, and I do employ it occasionally, but what am I supposed when I am getting cold decked and facing a pot sized bet every time I have position?

PG

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, if you have a "super-aggressive stealer" to your right, then start constructing a distribution for him. Figure out just how loose and how aggressive. "Restealing" is such a pejorative term, because it implies that you're doing some kind of stealing. If your hand has +EV from jamming against his distribution and the people left to act after you, then do it. If that means you need to jam when he raises on the button and you have A9 in the cutoff, then you should.

The second thing you should do is if you are not catching cards good enough to do the above, you should wait. Taking -EV actions because you're unhappy with being blinded down to being a short stack isn't a good strategy. Being anxious in tournaments isn't really a good thing, as it leads to desperation play. You should mostly just try to figure out what plays make the most chips and once in a while make some kind of adjustment for the tournament structure.

[A_PLUS]

Start thinking of steals like this.

You KNOW this guy is stealing at least 2/3 of the time he is raising before you. So, pick a hand (I like medium connectors) and PUSH. Now, you get both blinds. plus his pot sized raise. If you are wrong, you can always draw out on him, if you dont. So what? You were going to lose folding every hand anwyay. If your read on the player is right, 2/3 of the time you will pick up a nice pot 1/3 of the time you go bust.

The beauty of this play, is that it goes along with yout tight table image, and you dont have to do it often to keep pace with the blinds. It works, now you have 30 hands to find something you like.

[PokerGoblin]

I like that advice thanks.

PG