Building a big stack early

[jpg7n16]

I've been trying to keep to the whole play tight early on and wait for the blinds to rise to loosen up. I always have a short stack getting to the point where I'm supposed to be able to try and muscle people around sooo....

What technique do you use to build a large stack early on?

[MLG]

gamble when you have the best of it (even slightly) then hope you win.

[WVMountainSnake]

It really depends on the table. Since most players are very loose at the begining of tournaments try to limp in with drawing hands, like Ax suited or connectors because you'll often be getting the correct odds to play those hands and you'll have great implied odds at a loose table if you make your hand.

At a very tight table, where it's constantly being folded to the blinds, go into what I call, Kleptomode at L2 or L3. Yes, the blinds are small, but if no wants them then you should be happy to take the $75.

Also, getting lucky and catching cards always helps. Remember that Hold'em is a fight for the blinds and in tournaments it's even more important. If people want to avoid confrotations because the blinds are small, take advantage of that at a tight table. Also, most players won't think you're trying to steal because it's just too early in the tournament to start that kind of play.

Just my advice.

[barycentric]

This may sound like stating the obvious, but it tends to work well unless the table is tough. At the beginning of the tourney, watch for a bit and for each opponent, come up with a plan that you think is the best way to take his chips. Then adjust your style and put your plans to action. If some donk limps a lot and plays badly postflop like overplaying middle pair or always overbetting the pot, limp into some more flops with hands that have good implied odds. If the table has quite a few maniacs, you can probably wait for big pairs. This is only a start, but like in chess, planning helps a lot.

[Colombo]

i rarely bust out of the gate with a huge stack, but after the 2nd hour, if im not bust im at the top. Don't worry too much about building a stack early, it will happen if you just play solid, tight poker. If you go card dead for the first hour and find yourself with a sub-par stack, don't worry, theres still plenty of time to build it quickly.

[barycentric]

Yes with PP structure especially, it's much worse to be card-dead second hour than the first.

[JC_Saves]

a huge stack I am sure is very nice, I can't say that I really know what that is like, but then again it only matters at the very end as far as I am concerned.

I usually don't have a nice stack until the blinds get higher up 100/200, 200/400 so on. At this stage you can start making moves and stealing blinds. I have one many SNGs where I was short stacked majority of the time, and I have won some MTTs where I was way behind as well until the final table and then started collecting chips.

I was down 9 to 1 HU in a MTT match and still won by playing selective aggression as my opponent won 3 pots to my 1 pot, but every large pot I won.

Play your cards and don't worry about the chips. When you have position use it. When you have good hands try and get the most out of them. Learn to let go of hands where someone shows a lot of agression and you think you are beat. Don't just call down with over cards to your PP. This will save a lot of chips.

My son when he plays usually gets a pretty big stack, but he rarely sniffs the money, because he doesn't keep that big stack late. You need to adapt to the conditions of the table and play accordingly.

Good luck, and if you figure out how to build a huge stack early let me know. .