MTT General Strategy Question

[closer2313]

Background: I've been playing mostly limit hold'em but over the last few days decided to try to play some of these $1 MTT Tournaments on Stars. In my first 2 I didn't do so well, but last night I managed to get 24th out of 824 players. I read HOH a while ago, and I play pretty tight and solid in the first couple of levels just trying to build up my stack. I usually kept up and was above avg stack wise for most of the early tournament.

Here is my question. When the blinds become so high that no one really has more than 10-15BB at your table, is it now correct strategy to move all in to just steal the blinds? I was moving in with complete junk many times when everyone folded to me just to pick up the blinds which represented 20%-25% of my stack. I managed to survive this way until I could pick up legitimate hands and doubled up.

Is this proper strategy? or am I just a maniac?

Ill post one hand where I did this, and you guys tell me what you think.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t800 (8 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

MP1 (t2810)
MP2 (t8030)
CO (t7240)
Button (t6045)
SB (t8088)
Hero (t4440)
UTG (t7751)
UTG+1 (t10320)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif, Q/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
<font color="#666666">6 folds</font>, SB completes, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t4440</font>, SB folds.

Final Pot: t5190

[mayesie]

Hello Closer,

In similar situations, did the Small Blind have a history of just limping in a pot w/ a strong hand in an attempt to trap? Taking that &amp; the type of player the Small Blind appears to be into consideration should answer whether or not your play was too risky.

Having said that, I defintitely think it's wise (IMO) not to get too frivilous w/ stealing blinds at this stage of a tournament (you leave yourself too open for a trap), and to be more selective to keep yourself out of trouble. I know that HOH stresses the aspect of having a hand w/ some promise when attempting to steal (although you may need to bend this rule at times if you have good information on the player(s) you're trying to steal from).


Take Care, and Best of Luck

[closer2313]

Most of the players when they limped would fold to a reraise. I never saw anyone limp with a big hand.

Does anyone have any threads that have good recommendations for stealing requirements? Any threads on general stealing?

I was trying to use the search function, but it returns like every reply to every current thread. I dont know whats wrong.

Thanks in advance.

[CardSharpCook]

you mentioned that you play limit hold'em. When the action is folded to you in the CO, what hands are you stealing with? In tournies, you can start stealing with these hands as early as MP2. However, I recommend extreme patience when your stack falls btwn 6-10 BBs. Yes, your only move is AI. The hand you posted is good. I make that play often, but you don't want to fall in love with it. Also, you can obviously be more liberal with your steals on the button and in the SB. A recent interesting thread "Interesting piece of trivia" by poster A_plus may offer some other insights. For the most part, it is terrible to be stealing with any two. I call it "jumping out of an airplane w/o a parachute."

CSC

[JC_Saves]

this is really the only way to survive when you have a small stack compared to blind levels.

The hand you posted was the totally correct move.

When you have around 8BBs left it should be push or fold as any raise will leave you pot committed anyway so you have max FE if you just push your chips in.

When you are in the BB and the SB limps this is a perfect situation to go all-in to take it down right then. When you have position and there is a limper in the pot, you could even try the steal of the blinds and limper with almost any two cards.

Obviously, it is nice if you have an A so you can win with your high card, but at this stage people are worried about getting crippled callin your all-in with anything but a premium hand. I would not try this move if someone else had shown any strength in the hand, unless I was totally short stacked and had at least one face card.

Push with any PP less 8BBs. People will expect you to be pushing with any two cards and you may get action. If you min raise, people should correctly put you on a powerful hand that you want action with.