Interesting Style for MTT's

[Sprayed]

I was watching a video by an accomplished player the other day over at one of the poker training sites. His style of play was really interesting. He is a very tight player and doesn’t get too involved in the first hour of play.

He looks at an MTT as two stages. The first stage of the MTT he calls “playing cards”. He calls it this because you simply have to play the cards you are dealt in order to accumulate chips (unless you are a LAG of course). The second stage of the MTT he calls “playing poker”. This is when the antes come into play. He will now accumulate chips with any two by raising 2.5X when on the button or CO when folded to him. He figures that if someone comes over the top he will just fold. Or if called and he may hit the flop or c-bet and win. The whole purpose is to steal the blinds in order to keep his stack healthy until he gets a big hand. The 2.5x raise allows him to let the hand go if he needs to and saves himself some chips in the process. He doesn’t take risks until the late stages of the tourney which is right around the bubble and when he is ITM.

Now I know that you need to steal blinds, but I was surprised that he would do this with any two almost every time it was folded to him in late position. What are some of your thoughts and is this a style that most of you play?

[Toe]

I apply this strategy in low buyin MTTs and have had great results with it. A thinking player will figure you out but there isnt an awful lot of them at these buyins and as you say, easy hands to get away from. Also you dont appear that loose as its not every time your on the button or CO that its folded to you. Mix in the fact sometimes you are playing good cards and i find this strategy very effective.

[aislephive]

When the antes kick in and I have a stack that can absorb a few hits I will almost always raise in late position when it's folded to me. I try not to overdo it or anything as the last thing we want is somebody playing back at us. I never "force" anything and I'm always aware of my table image. If I raised the last two hands on the button I will probably fold a hand I would normally raise with in position, of course when you do pick up a big hand in late position it's always great to watch somebody "take a stand" against my AA.

[Death_Kube_K]

Yes i think thats very effective. Well the beggining you got to play tight and choose your spot and double up so you have some breathing room when ante's kick in.
But in the "Playing POKER" stages, i think its smart to raise the button everytime most people fold to you. Because if u do it constantly people will start calling your raises with mediocore hands. And one of those times your gonna catch a high PP and you will bet your button like you always do and some guy will look at crap like k-10, q-10 and they will call or raise you and you will get paid off huge!!!!!!!!11