some general questions(no need to answer in length)

[RED FACE]

1) If I'm short stacked early(say less than 1/2 starting chips) how should I be playing? ramjam any draw any chance I get and pushing pre w any pair all the time and same w AK and AQ? and how about having sc's in late w many limpers should I be raising about half my stack to try to make a huge pot w the intent of pushing a flop with almost any kind of a draw(either getting a big stack or knocked out)?

2) ok, just 1 question for now.

I know Sklansky's TPFAP suggestes playing normally until very short stacked but I think that is close to the bubble which is not what I'm asking about.

How about A9o in the bb w 2 limpers to you early in a tourney having a very short stack-30% of starting chips, level 3. I pushed got called by 33 big stack and lost which is fine but I'm just wondering if my action was out of line or not.

thanks a lot

[webmonarch]

There are two schools of thought, that I've seen: Wait for a big hand til 5x BB or look to get back in it immediately with a coinflip.

I think the latter is definitely best in rebuy tourneys, and the former may be in freezeout (no rebuy) tourneys. It's basically your style of play.

ALso, refer to your stack in terms of BB, because you may have only half the starting amount, but are in no trouble at all because the blinds are so inconsequential.

Stack size relative to starting stack size is less important than stack size relative to the current blinds. Just because you lose half your chips in the first levels, you don't have to panic. When your stack starts getting to be less than 10 BB, then pushing marginal hands becomes more reasonable.

If you have to call a preflop raise for a third or more of your remaining shortstack, and you have a hand you don't mind racing with (decent PP, AK/AQ), a push early is reasonable.

But there's no reason to be open-pushing 500 chips into a pot when the blinds are at 10/20 or 15/30 or something along those lines. You can still fold the flop and have 10-20 BB left with a standard 3/4x BB raise at those levels.

[ QUOTE ]
1) If I'm short stacked early(say less than 1/2 starting chips) how should I be playing? ramjam any draw any chance I get and pushing pre w any pair all the time and same w AK and AQ? and how about having sc's in late w many limpers should I be raising about half my stack to try to make a huge pot w the intent of pushing a flop with almost any kind of a draw(either getting a big stack or knocked out)?

Don't panic. Half your stack early still means you have over 20BB in most situations.. fact of the matter is a lot of people here when they win come back from bad starts or when they're down to far less to win tournaments, have patience and wait for your hands

Yes, the how many BBs you have is the determining factor in how your play should change. I don't panic when I'm short. It leads to bad decisions such as pushing your chips in with Ace-rag trying to steal 2 BB when you've got over 20.

</br>
When you start to approach 10BB, around that area then maybe you look to start stealing a bit more, forcing medium stacks to call your 10BB raise. Since there really isn't much to do with 10BB besides moving in, aside from a limp when you know you can see a flop where your implied odds are large.

Like everything else in poker its all in the situation. What kind of table your at, what type of tourny it is..etc.

1) Use the 10xbb rule, not starting stack size. If less than 10x the blinds for that level, you may be pot committed with any hand and should just push preflop.

2) A9o vs 33 was a coinflip but you didn't know that. I think pushing any flop would have been better as a modified stop&go play.

yea the stop and go is one of my favorites. It really puts people behind you in a bad spot. Gotta use it sparingly ofcourse

[RED FACE]

Awesome, thank you all for the great replies. In my A9 situation I did have ~10bb's so I guess it wasn't too bad and I do know about the stop and go and how good it can be but just didn't think of it.

thanks again(I'm new at the MTT's as you can tell and will post mentioning bb's left in the future).

[JohnG]

[ QUOTE ]
1) If I'm short stacked early(say less than 1/2 starting chips) how should I be playing?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's irrelevant what you have lost compared to your starting stack. Depth of money is what matters.

[ QUOTE ]
ramjam any draw any chance I get and pushing pre w any pair all the time and same w AK and AQ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Depends on the depth of money.

[ QUOTE ]
and how about having sc's in late w many limpers should I be raising about half my stack to try to make a huge pot w the intent of pushing a flop with almost any kind of a draw(either getting a big stack or knocked out)?

[/ QUOTE ]

You should stop determining strategy based on how much of your starting stack is left.

[ QUOTE ]
How about A9o in the bb w 2 limpers to you early in a tourney having a very short stack-30% of starting chips, level 3.

[/ QUOTE ]

How deep is the money? Who are the players? It doesn't matter whether you have 30% of your starting chips or 100%. It's how the stacks compare to the blinds that matters.

[ QUOTE ]
I pushed got called by 33 big stack and lost which is fine but I'm just wondering if my action was out of line or not.

[/ QUOTE ]

Depends how deep the money was.