late tourney problems...

[WyattErb]

i do have a problem! I am playing quite some NL holdem tourneys lately, and i am usually doing quite well, but it seems like my game is getting worse as the tourney proceeds.
there are ormally about 150-200 players in the tourney. often i am among the top 10, early in the tourney and i can stay there a long time, but as the stakes increase and players drop out, i lose my chips. I dont have reasonable hands anymore(ok, i play it very tight) and when i do have a reasonable hand somebody raises and i have to fold!
When somebody raises preflop, i fold hands like ATo and less, also KJs and less. do i have to loosen up my play?

[Ignatius]

You fail to properly loosen up yoour play when the blinds begin to represent a significant part of your stack. I'm not advocating making loose calls, although you usually should defend your blinds with AT or KJ if a small stack moves in on you, but more importantly, you need too make aggressive raises with subpar hands when you're first into the hand. Late tourney play is all about stealing blinds and avoiding having them stolen from you.

[CrisBrown]

Hi Wyatt,

I suspect the question is less one of what you're folding after someone else raises, and more one of missing steal opportunities of your own. Once the play tightens up, you can steal from any position, with almost any two cards, especially if you've already built a stack. If you're always waiting for late position for your steal raises, you won't get many opportunities, because someone will probably have put in a steal raise ahead of you.

Yes, when you steal-raise from early or middle position, you run the risk of someone reraising behind you. But that shouldn't keep you from trying, and a reraise behind you shouldn't mean you automatically tuck your tail and muck your cards. Every so often -- not every time, but every so often -- you must defend your steal-raise, even if you were stealing on trash. Otherwise, good players will spot that auto-muck-if-reraised and play back at you with pure trash just to get your chips along with the blinds and antes.

You can defend by calling and trying to steal the hand on the flop, or by reraising all-in pre-flop. Oddly, it's been my experience that the simple call tends to make the other player more nervous. If the flop runs all over you, you can move in then. If the flop misses you, depending on the texture of the board and your read of your opponent, you can often take the pot with a check-raise, or a check-call at the flop and a big bet on the turn, or, or, or.... There are no hard-and-fast rules for this; it's a matter of reading your opponent and his hand, what cards he holds and what will make him lay them down.

Again, you're not going to defend every steal-raise. You don't need to defend more than a couple of times before the other players get the message: if you play back at me, it may just cost you.

What's more, doing that just once or twice will add a big pile to your stack, making you appear even more formidable, giving you an easier time with subsequent steals (and also legitimate hands).

Hope this helps,

Cris

[WyattErb]

thanks for the replies. ill try to use your advices in the next tourney!