MTT Strategies

[Msogard]

How do you guys play in the early stages of a MTT? I play the 10+1 on PP. Blinds start so low that I find myself playing most everything. This includes: 67s, 108s, Q9s, k8s, Axs, ect. Am I asking for trouble? Isn't there a bigger upside to hitting with these hands than calling a $15 and folding to a missed flop? It seems like I always need a big hand in the early stages in order to make the final table with a reasonable stack. If I don't get that hand, I'll crawl into the final table where I'm already at < 10xBB. So do you need to take risks, and see more flops in the early stages to make a comfortable stack, or do you just play solid throughout.

Also, any advice on keeping your focus and playing solid while playing different MTTs in a day? Someone said to pretend you have a table cam on your hands.

[David04]

Well if the blinds are low in comparison to stack size it is usually worth it to see some flops with drawing hands(suited connectors, and low PP played for set value) play these with a lot of limpers and good position. If you don't hit the flop, fold. Don't call raises with this junk, if you limp and it's raised just give it up.

[zaxx19]

Look, firstly most the people on here play larger buyin tourneys from me and you(they like 30 and up) so some of the advice you are gonna receive WILL vary.

Ill take flops with suited connectors 67 and up ALL Axs, pp, AK AQ AJ KJ KQ and a10 in unraised pots. I ll almost always take a flop in a raised pot with a baby pp bc if yu hit your set you GET PAID BIG TIME IN LOW BUY IN TOURNEYS. KQ QJ KJ K10 are playable but dont get too cute with them up front in ep KJ J10 Q10 J9 are also playable but not usually for a raise unless my J10 is suited. Hands like 10-8 5-7 6-8...etc etc may be playable in mid to late postion IF THERE ARE ALREADY SEVERAL CALLERS. Basically in the first hour Im just looking to double up in these low buyin tourneys and these are the type of hands that will do it for you.

I NEVER fold KK and AA and almost never fold QQ or AK preflop. Play JJ and QQ strongly and BET OUT ON ALMOST ANY FLOP IF YU WERE THE RAISER. I choose not to get really cute with AK or AQ...other players on this site will advise to be more aggressive with them...and this may be proper early in higher buyin tourneys but those arent usually hands I wanna be all in with until MID to late tourney or if I get low on chips. Be pretty aggressive with the big 2 AA and KK...but if the pots are constantly being raised at your table and yu pick up one of these 2 hands in EP try a limp reraise sometimes. Sorry this isnt more organized but I feel as though I told you the basics of early MTT play in low buyin situations here. Above all else, DO NOT GO FOR THE BIG HUGE BLUFF or even semi bluff in these low buyins early bc there are some horrible players in these and they will just call you down. Look for nuts or huge hands preflop and trap, that how you are gonna double through. As for mid tourney advice search for posts by emarkm...he is a great poster.

[Msogard]

Thanks for the post, Zaxx, wish I would've seen this earlier. I'll search for Mark's posts right now.

Is there a big difference in the play between small and large buy in tournaments? $10-20 : $50-100?

What is a good winning rate for the $10-$20 buy in tournaments on PartyPoker? Is there a fixed number to determine a winning player?

Do you reccommend PokerStars for the $10-$20 tournaments?

Sorry for firing all these questions at you. Any response will be appreciated.

[zaxx19]

Big difference(OK well Ive only played in like 4 X 100+ tourneys 1 live-4th place BTW-) from what I can see is ALOT more limping is allowed in low buy in tourneys especially early. Some people in higher buy in tourneys will simply pop any stray limpers if they are on the button or even CO. People tend to play mid pairs for more value from what I ve seen in bigger buyins. They consequently will make raises and reraises with hands like 8-8 9-9 and 10-10. In smaller buy ins people shy away from raising with 9-9 etc... bc donkeys will simply not fold their AQ AJ QJ KQ KJ... and then they wont respect the preflop agression post flop rather with TPTK they will simply call you down. So basically much more of the higher buyin tourneys are preflop games, and the lower buyins are post flop games..sort of. Also bc people will simply call of their chips more frequently hands like AXs and baby pairs are worth playing even for a modest raise bc if they hit there is a good chance you will get paid in a smaller buying tourney.

So to review--Big Buy in--- MORE AGGRESSIVE PREFLOP AND JUST GENERALLY.

Small Buy in-- More passive preflop and MUCH MUCH more calling.

[woodguy]

If you really want to play these hands make sure of 3 things:

1) Position
2) Position
3) Position

Most of the time you will not have the flop hit your hand hard, but often it will hit it partially, and if you do not have position on the field you will bleed chips trying to make your draw.

I also have a personal rule never to limp away more than 10% of my original starting stack. So if I start with 1500, as soon as I hit 1350, I tightened and start to only play raising hands.

By only limping in position (usually CO-1 or better, and never opening a pot with a limp) you will bleed less chips out.

Personally, my game really improved when I decided to play a few tourney's without limping. If I wanted to play a hand I had to bring it in for a raise.
The first two times I tried this I made the final table with only seeing 8% of the flops (including blinds).

Limping early can help you hit a monster, and its always nice to double up early, but more often than not its just a chip leak.

Be smart about it.

Regards,
Woodguy

[zaxx19]

Wow I started MTT play just like 7 months ago and was ROCK TIGHT. Id see flops with any PP though looking for set value. 8% sounds amazingly low. I would end up at like 17% personally.

[tiger7210]

I agree with Woodguy about never open limping into a pot. I'll limp behind a couple other limpers with a drawing hand but I'm raising everytime if I'm 1st into the pot so I can always represent high pair or an overpair if the flop misses me.

Before you play any hand, the biggest consideration to me is position, position, position. Way more important than your actual cards.

As far as sites go, I mostly play on Pokerstars but UB is great for $5-20 tournies if you want low buy-ins. Competion in my opinion is much weaker and the blind structure much better than pokerstars. UB changing to 1500 starting chips makes a big difference with their blind structure giving you plenty of room to play throughout the whole tourny where as Pokerstars becomes a push or fold fest in the later stages.

[woodguy]

[ QUOTE ]
8% sounds amazingly low. I would end up at like 17% personally.


[/ QUOTE ]

It was back when I was playing Paradise a lot.
The first final table was in the $30 rebuy, then second was when I won my WSOP seat.
I only played when I had a group 1 hand or a group 2 in late position and it seemed that I was getting paid in almost every pot I played in so there was no reason to get involved with sub-optimal hands.

Now that I *know* a lot more about poker I'm usually in the 17% range, but I've won with 25% and with 8%, I think every tourney ends up being a little different based on what cards you get in what position. Sometimes you just end up playing more hands.

Regards,
Woodguy

[randommuppet]

as a relative new comer to MTT (and therefor to this particular forum) i think this has been an excellent string

i do remember reading elsewhere though that "winning" players tend to be in the 20-25% range of hands played - ive been interested to read your stats though because in the few MTTs ive played so far my best results have been playing sub 20%

i had assumed the larger the field the fewer hands to play would make sense?