Problems Building A Stack In A Mtt

[Wheel619 0]

One of the great things about poker is the progression of the game. It almost seems like every week I seem to be learning some new about the game. Lately, I've been trying to work on my MTT play. One of the frequent problems I'm running into is building a stack. When it gets to the fourth or fifth level, I'm usually on the short stack waiting for a big hand. Ideally, I'd like to be trying Daniel's approach of small ball poker but most of these internet tournaments just aren't tailored for such a strategy. Generally speaking, should I be playing more flops early on in MTT's or playing ultra-tight in the first hour? Currently, my strategy is to play most hands from the button and late position while folding almost every hand early position. Of course this all amounts to the cards I get.

[Marc-O 0]

Read:Harrington on Hold Em' Vol: 1

[aucu 3]

Read:Harrington on Hold Em' Vol: 1

Yep then Vol:2What you are asking for is a whole tournament strat, and we would have to write you a book to cover that, but just our luck Dan Harrington wrote 2 of them and they are by far the best info out there to get you started.There are many concepts like stack size and MTo get you started, early in a tournament with a regular PStars structure, there is no need to play many hands early, play it tight, as the blinds go up in relation to your stack then you have to change.One of the strong points of HOH 1&2 are the example hands and how well things are explained, try reading them and posting more specific questiond in the MTT forum.Try reading the 180 SNG thread, it's pined in the MTT forum, it has excelent beginer info.

[Sluggo 0]

Go all in.

[Actuary 3]

Yep then Vol:2To get you started, early in a tournament with a regular PStars structure, there is no need to play many hands early, play it tight, as the blinds go up in relation to your stack then you have to change.

See, now lots of others would disagree and say play looser at first and see some cheap flops while your stack can withstand it.

[navybuttons 15]

you mentioned internet tournaments not being ideal for small ball poker, which to some extent i agree with. i would have to disagree, however, that this style of play is not ideal for for internet MTT's.i wonder if perhaps you may not fully understand the concept of small ball tournament practice.it means limping preflop or putting in small raises (position being of the utmost importance) even with huge hands. primary goal of the tournament: not to get knocked out. Because small ball players (playing effectively) are not going to risk their life on top pair there is probably less of a chance of them being stacked off by tricky play. secondary goal of the torunament: to acquire chips. your small raises with steal a lot of blinds without much risk. but calling re-raises by tight players with KJ is a no-no. by entering a lot of pots with position against players you can outplay after the flop you are giving your opponents an opportunity to make mistakes against you. Poor players will just assume you are being loose and will not understand that when all your money goes in you have more than just top pair or nothing. thus, you are more likely to get paid off in a big way when you have a monster.small ball (and entering a lot of pots) also requires a huge amount of concentration and focus. because you will have a lot of difficult decisions you need (ABSOLUTELY NEED) to be able to put your opponent on a hand. you do this by following the action on every hand.there is no correct strategy for how you should play in tournaments (late vs. middle and so on). however in a weak field typically found in online MTTs, mathematically the correct strategy is to play really tight for the first few rounds. say you bought in to a tournament with a $1000 prize pool for $20 and there's 50 players. if you walked away from your computer and came back 30 minutes later you will have given up a relatively small portion of your stack (assuming the structure is good) but now there might be only 30 players left giving you a huge overlay in equity without having done anything.but generally i just play fast and loose pretty much the whole time during the first few levels because i want to accumulate chips or get knocked out early.

[aucu 3]

See, now lots of others would disagree and say play looser at first and see some cheap flops while your stack can withstand it.

That strat can and does work, but for a newcomer I would recomend a more HOH style first, then start seeing some more cheap flops on spec trying to get a big stack.Eventualy take them into an RB slugfest.

[Wheel619 0]

Thanks for the replies. One of my housemates has HoH vol.1 but he's reading it right now so I'll have hunt down the second volume.

[The Bwaves 0]

HOH1&2 are both great books. The best part about the books is they are extremely well written.Concepts:Stack sizes vs. BlindsHand ranges vs. Stack sizeEtc.You'll see it's everything you need for tourneys. Just prepare to read for a good couple weeks or few nights if you're quick.

[TB17 0]

Am I theonly one that wasn't really impressed by HoH? It seems like you are forced to get good hands in order to build a stack. There are some times where you will be card dead, and other times where you don't get enough premiums to build a stack. I prefer to get my chips early, so that I dont have to depend on premium starting hands. Since you should be playing to win and not to cash, I dont see why people love HoH so much. You are completely dependant on winning races or being on the right side of coolers to build a stack...

[caribstv 0]

(sorry to cut your post but quoting a long piece is overbearing for some.. I aggree with everything you said. its worth while for the person reaading this will go back and read your full post!)but generally i just play fast and loose pretty much the whole time during the first few levels because i want to accumulate chips or get knocked out early.

+1 WELL SAID!!!!!

[ChrisRichey 1]

Am I theonly one that wasn't really impressed by HoH? It seems like you are forced to get good hands in order to build a stack. There are some times where you will be card dead, and other times where you don't get enough premiums to build a stack. I prefer to get my chips early, so that I dont have to depend on premium starting hands. Since you should be playing to win and not to cash, I dont see why people love HoH so much. You are completely dependant on winning races or being on the right side of coolers to build a stack...

For beginners, it is important that they first learn position, bet sizes, etc. so a TAG approach makes the game a little bit simpler, because you find yourself in situations where it's fairly easy to make the decision. You simply don't play hands like TPWK, which can sometimes be profitable but it takes a good player to not overplay it. As you advance, you simply cannot have success with this approach, because it is borderline weak/tight which advanced players will begin to attack, and is fairly easy to recognize. That being said, you have to start somewhere.

[pragtyro 0]

you mentioned internet tournaments not being ideal for small ball poker, which to some extent i agree with. i would have to disagree, however, that this style of play is not ideal for for internet MTT's.

[navybuttons 15]

ideally you would play small ball poker in a big stack tournament with a really great structure. most online tourneys don't allow for that huge amount of play.but playing really tight and making huge re-raises from the button with AQ in online tourney's is still not the way to make your way through in field.i could try to explain it better, but the head hitting the brick icon doesn't ask any questions.

[MasterLJ 0]

See, now lots of others would disagree and say play looser at first and see some cheap flops while your stack can withstand it.

it's also a function of the stakes. Most of the books written assume fairly reasonable players. The play at the $5-$30 buy-in MTT is sickening. AK is the ****ing nuts, whether or not it actually hit anything on the flop.To play good small-ball poker when you're seeing a flop for 1/50th of your stack you need people to be able to lay down hands and it's very hard to tell who can and cannot do this at a low stakes game. Nothing worse than holding 10 8os and bluffing at a player you know has AJ-AK on a 692 flop and getting called all the way.I'm blowing the dust off my tournament game as we speak and I've experimented with trying to play some small-ball poker to accumulate a stack, and it just doesn't work as well as just waiting for a decent hand. Today for example, I hit a set (77) on the flop (478) out of the SB, I check, BB bets 1/4th the pot with 2 callers, the board was kinda scary so I made it 1000. UTG pushes. I figure I'd be sick if a player UTG limped with 56. To make a long story short, he had AJos.At least at the low stakes in tournies you should focus on value betting and methods to induce bluffs when you flop a monster because you get action a lot.

[Wheel619 0]

it's also a function of the stakes. Most of the books written assume fairly reasonable players. The play at the $5-$30 buy-in MTT is sickening. AK is the ****ing nuts, whether or not it actually hit anything on the flop.

The tournaments I have experience in are around the range of buy-in you mentioned. Perhaps I should take advantage of the sattelite system Full Tilt has to get into the bigger tournaments. I think the biggest buy-in tournament I've played was $26 and came close to cashing only once in it.

[MasterLJ 0]

The tournaments I have experience in are around the range of buy-in you mentioned. Perhaps I should take advantage of the sattelite system Full Tilt has to get into the bigger tournaments. I think the biggest buy-in tournament I've played was $26 and came close to cashing only once in it.

Yes, yes you should.The $6 6-man tourny can give you a $24+$2 token. I can win about 40% of these. I dunno what you do for a living, but when I have time sometimes I spend all day collecting those tokens (I get them for roughly $15), then use them to satellite into other events.But at the same time, if you can't beat the worst of the worst, you can't beat the best. The $24+$2 are pretty easy to go deep in.Just last night I played the $20k guaranteed on FTP ($24+$2). I raise 4.5xBB with AK suited, a small stack goes all-in for just about double my bet. The table donk and big-stack smooth calls. His range is GINORMOUS, so I push against him. He insta-calls with A2os... A2os... I couldn't believe it. It's just another example why you should play ABC-tight poker for the first 1-3 hours of a tourny (depending on size). You ARE going to get calls with big edges to double up.