Big chip lead after first hand. Then what?

[nips]

My basic question is a very basic one -- how to play at small stakes sit&go tournaments when you get a very large chip lead. Details follow...

I won a huge pot and had 4/10 of the buyins on the very first hand of a 10 person tourney ( I had the nut full house and I don't know why 4 people are stupid enough to call all in, but that's for another post...). My strategy was to play *very* tight and only come in when I really had something. Coincidentally enough, I was being dealt very poor hands, so I sat around for the next 20-30 minutes and 4-5 blind levels until the big blind was 200 (1500 starting stacks) and my stack was about 5500. It was still by far the largest stack (x2). Then I started to loosen up a bit (still pretty tight, but now trying to buy blinds now and then). Nobody would fold to me even when they had bad hands. I lost a couple of medium pots, two players doubled up on other players, and suddenly I was no longer the big stack with 4-5 players remaining. I ended up in 4th and out of the money.

[wiggs73]

I wouldn't really change too much except for I'd be even more of a maniac near the bubble, at least until I took a big hit or 2. Still very tight early though.

[45suited]

Personally, after quadrupling up, I don't see anything wrong with seeing some cheap flops in the first level at least with cards that can make some big hands. Connectors and suited connectors. So it costs you 15 chips, you can afford it at this blind level. If you hit a big hand, you can really accumulate a huge stack. I don't try to bully the table (at the low blind levels) but I'll play hands cheap because of the implied odds and the fact that limping, say 4 times, will cost me 60 chips. Big deal - you just quadrupled up and the rest of the table is probably going to be scared of you anyway.

Just don't double some other guy up with a marginal hand.

[zipppy]

I think I'd still play very tight; I do this not so much to preserve chips but to preserve table image. If I've hardly played any hands and now the blinds are 50/100 or 100/200, it becomes easier to steal. If I've been seing lots of flops (even in just the first level or two), people's impressions of me aren't going to be beneficial when it's stealing time. This obviously depends on how observent your opponents are, however.

[spentrent]

[ QUOTE ]
I think I'd still play very tight; I do this not so much to preserve chips but to preserve table image. If I've hardly played any hands and now the blinds are 50/100 or 100/200, it becomes easier to steal. If I've been seing lots of flops (even in just the first level or two), people's impressions of me aren't going to be beneficial when it's stealing time. This obviously depends on how observent your opponents are, however.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. OP's got 5500 (!) chips on the bubble! Take a 30 minute nap and then let them remember "tight full house dude" on the bubble.

[45suited]

Only problem is that the starting stacks are 1500 chips, not 800 or 1000. If OP takes a nap to the bubble, his 5500 chips might not even have him in the chip lead anymore.

I'm not saying he should be a maniac, but he can still play some poker. Once the blinds are high and the other 9500 chips are distributed among the remaining 3 guys on the bubble, OP's advantage is nice but not overwhelming.

He should not just go into a shell when he can use his stack to his advantage earlier is all I'm saying.

[zipppy]

[ QUOTE ]
Only problem is that the starting stacks are 1500 chips, not 800 or 1000. If OP takes a nap to the bubble, his 5500 chips might not even have him in the chip lead anymore.


[/ QUOTE ]
Why do you say this? If it's a ten person tourney, I'm assuming it's on Party, where the starting stack size is either 800 or 1000.

[45suited]

The OP said that the starting stacks were 1500 chips

[zipppy]

NVM...I see it in his original post. Regardless, he quadrupled up on his first hand, and having 4x the starting stack size after the first hand is the same whether the starting stack size is 800 or 1500.

[zipppy]

Nips, where are you playing?