Trouble finishing multi-table tournaments

[HighRolla81]

I have been playing multi-table tournaments for a few months now, and have been improving almost every time i play. The problem I have been experiencing is winning when the number of players really trims down. For example, a few weeks ago i played in a tournament of over 2700 players, and for the first two hours of the tournament i was ranked in the top 5 in chips. However, I ended up finishing in 90th place, despite good play most of the day. Another tournament, I finished 15th out of 160, but just couldnt seem to place in the money (out by just five spots). In the time before I got knocked out I had about the average stack for the players remaining, yet both times I was unable to make good plays down the stretch. I came across a few real bad beats, but I wouldnt say that was my ultimate downfall.

Does anyone have any suggestions when the field narrows, or what their strategies are when the field begins to get tight. Its been really frustrating so far, and I believe I have played well enough to at least place in both tournaments. I understand that your strategy should change as the tournament progresses, but I am not sure exactly how. Please help. Thanks in advance.

[FletchJr.]

At the begining of a tournaemnt players All types of players are in the tourney still so you should play only the nuts and seek action from loose players. in the middle stages of a tourney u should hope to get lucky and build a stack by making some big hands.(playing similar to how you'd play in a NL ring game) IN the middle/late stages of a tourney u should be playing like the middle stages but picking on smaller stacks, by this i mean picking on their blinds if they are tight players. In the later stages of the tournament the majority of the loose players will be knocked out so just before the payout starts u should almost turn maniac/aggressive by raising probably up to double the amount of hands u normally would, this is because USUALLY your table will become ultra-tight because of everyone is afraid of going out right before the money. This strategy is designed to pick up a lot of chips in order to make it in the higher paid places on the payout structure. U will bust out before the payout more often then ur opponents though.

[M.B.E.]

My general view is, don't worry about whether you finish in the money or not. In most cases, squeaking into the money will get you less than 1% of the prize pool, sometimes much less.

There's a lot of variance in multi-table tournaments; you really cannot draw the conclusion that you're doing something wrong just because you have not yet made a money finish.

Your strategy throughout the tournament should be to try to increase your stack size by taking advantage of your opponents' weaknesses. That doesn't change when it gets close to the bubble. If your opponents are trying to survive (as many do), take advantage by stealing their blinds.

If you haven't done so read Sklansky's book Tournament Poker for Advanced Players. Also use the search function above to read old threads on this forum. For example, you could search on the term "bubble" to find many threads giving various viewpoints on how you should play when it gets close to the money.