Strategy for when you are card dead?

[DawnToDusk]

My general strategy for when I first start in a tournament is to play a conservative but strongly when I do enter a pot. I want people to know that I play only premium hands and when I enter a pot they are going to be put to the test. This image works well for me when I play at the local casinos where there is an abundance of weak players in the tournaments. But what do you do if you are card dead?

If I get card dead in the first few rounds, thats not a problem. I am folding most the hands anyways to stick to my starting strategy and creating my image. But what about in the later rounds when the blinds start creeping up on you? Do you go into a superaggressive mode and take any two cards and try to put a move on your opponents/outplay your opponents? Or do you just sit around and wait for a hand to make a move?

I am having a hard time to know what to do when you are card dead. How should my strategy change if for example I have a medium sized stack in a tournament that is about halfway through and the blinds are creeping up to the point where I have to decide to push or fold preflop?

[bholdr]

I feel that one of the benifits of the tight image is that when you are not getting cards, you get a couple easy blind steals when you need them to stay afloat...

but, there really is no substitute for catching cards.

[IHateKeithSmart]

D2D:

Peep this thread from the anthology.

[DawnToDusk]

Ya. Thats what I was thinking. I have this tight/conservative image, but am aggressive with it at the same time. Should I try to pick up blinds more than anything at this moment? But then what do I do if I have like a LAP in the blinds? Do I just surpass this and then try to outplay people or make moves? Or do I switch gears up big time and turn into a superaggressive and make people readjust to me and rethink of my image. And just when they think that I am now a superaggressive who will take any two cards, I hit them hard with actual good hands when I am no longer card dead?

[DawnToDusk]

Thanks mate.

What I typically do is either start off tight and switch to loose, or start off loose and switch back and forth. If I don't get cards for a few orbits, I'll typically switch to a looser style, so that when I do start getting good cards again, everyone doesn't instafold on me.

Lately I've been opening a lot of pots in late position no matter what two cards I have with a 3x the BB range. This doesn't get me into too much trouble and I pick up many pots just chopping away and stealing blinds or making continuation bets on the flop. You can't let the blinds eat you up so I think you get aggressive in the cutoff and the button and open pots that haven't been raised. You'll gather respect this way and add to your chip stack.