Live Tournament Question (well, online too)

[Swinggcat]

Hi guys,

this weekend I have 2 Live Tournaments to play. Each one will have something about 50-70 players, I guess.

Question:

How do you guys experienced in tournament play in the early stages?

Do you try to double up in every edge you have?

I love to play when blinds get to level 4 and on (50/100), but it's much more sweet if your stack size let's you comfortable.

I never had any success in MTT. (well, once I got 3rd in a 500 players freeroll lol)

I would appreciate your insights!

Regards,

Swinggcat

[TexTiger]

What are the buy-ins, what are the starting chips, what's the blind structure like? Lots of other factors that go into it.

Normally in a $100 live tourney we have here every month, I employ a tight strategy the first couple of rounds due to the fact many weak players like to see "cheap" flops and will do so with any A, K, Q, any 2 suited, etc. Wait until you get a good hand to play the first couple of levels, then when the blinds hit a level you can steal, then do so. I usually wait until the 75/150 level, as psychologically many weak players can't see putting in 450 to see flops with as weak of holdings as they would see for 150.

TT

[Swinggcat]

Sorry, I forgot to mention the structure:

the blinds goes up every 40 min, and it goes as follows:

10/20
15/30
25/50
50/100
75/150
100/200
200/400
300/600
400/800

etc.......regular structure.

Buy-in $80.

I usually play tight in early leves too, what is just sweet for SnG, but not usually enough in MTT.

The reason is in MTT there's a lot of gambling in the beggining, and with some players doubling/tripling up early.

When blind reach 4th level and on, and If a haven't improved much my stack, it's usually hard to steal in a table with loose players with 2/3x your stack.

That's my experience...but I'm trying to improve.

Guess just if I have any edges in the beggining that could double/triple me up, the risk is valid, as I would play sweet later.

[TexTiger]

Depending on the starting chips, you should have plenty of time to play tight the first few levels. Sure, there is more gambling going on, but with weak players they end up with a negative reinforcement idea of the hands they play early and win with, so good hands will usually pay you off later on.

Here's an example: Last big live tourney I played in, I only saw the flop on 2 hands for the first 2 blind levels (1 hour), while others at the table we seeing many flops. One guy more than doubled his stack during those levels by playing a lot of junk and catching (K4os, Q5os, A6os, etc). I just bided my time, then pulled in AK, raised him, slowplayed my 2 pair on the flop, and ended up doubling through him with his A5 2 pair. He went out pretty quick after that. Watch who the weak ones are, and punish them when you hit good hands.

TT

[Swinggcat]

Again, I forgot to mention.

Starting chips will probably be t1000.

Thank you for you sharing! It's pretty much like I'm supposed to be playing there.