First post, first live MTT, horrible blind structure.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This will be my first post to 2+2. I've entered into my very first live MTT for this coming Sunday. It's a $50+10 NLHE local tournament, 150 players max, starting chips are 1000 and blinds start at 25/50 (!!!).

Basically, I think I'm in for a crapshoot. Either I'm out the first 15 minutes or I'm there for the duration. Here's how the structure will work:

Round 1:
15 tables of 10 players, top 2 finishers of each table move onto round 2. No money for people railed here.

Round 2:
3 tables of 10 players, top 3 finishers of each table move onto round 3. No money for people railed here.

Round 3:
Final table of 9 players. Every player gets money here, starting at $225 and moving up.

My question here, should I just be tight-aggressive here and try to coast to the FT? Or should I be aggressive/maniacle?

I've played a number of SNGs and the aggressive/insane line tends to work well for me about 50% of the time. I've played ring games a little bit, and I tend to be better at the limit HE and I tend to have crazy variance at NLHE.

Any suggestions on strategy? Do you think I could learn ICM in a week? Should I just practice my breathing and mellow out before going in? Should I treat it as a SNG or as a ring game?

HELP!

Pilket

Update, only about 90 people will be playing.

I figure the rounds will be like this:

9 tables of 10 players, top 3 from each table advance.

3 tables of 9 players, top 3 from each table advance.

Final table moneys.

[mlagoo]

oh so its like a shootout.

i would think the SNG forum could give you more tips on this sort of format.

unless you double up early, you will, within an orbit or two, be in push/fold mode (blinds probably raise every 15 min. or so).

i didn't look at your postcount, but you're probably familiar with the 10xBB rule (anytime you have less than 10x the BB, either go allin or fold -- there should be no other action). so just look for good situations and hope your cards hold up (fwiw, it's not always about the cards -- if it folds to you on the button with 800 chips and the blinds are 50/100, and the BB has 700 chips, and seems somewhat tight, I would push here with any two. stuff like that).

when/if you double up, you can try to play some postflop poker. but for the most part you're going to be looking to get all your chips in preflop and have your cards hold =). good luck.

Okay, this is a Triple Shootout with top 2 or 3 from each table moving on to the first round. Do you know whether your stack carries over to the next table or do you start fresh with t1000 and 25/50?

If you play online at all, a good STT (Sit-n-Go) strategy should be effective. Research strategy posts on Party Poker's "Steps" tournaments to see if you can adapt for yourlive play.

HTH, John