Loosening Up

[silverfist]

I've been using Harrington on Hold 'Em as my guide book for one-table SnG's, and I've been doing fairly well. However, I've been having trouble adjusting it for larger tournaments. Harrington suggests that I loosen up and be more aggressive as I descend into the Yellow Zone, and one-table SnGo's make this easy. As the blinds go up, there are also less players, I will have position more often and, more importantly, I will be in mid-/late position with no one entering the pot yet. As such, I'm raising far more with things like A8 from "first" position (which is now two off the big blind).

However, in larger tournaments, I'm having trouble knowing how to loosen up properly. The problem is that I can't figure out how to loosen up properly when there is still a full table.

What hand selection should I use when I'm entering the yellow zone, but I'm still at a full table? I know Harrington suggests dropping suited connectors and 66-. Should I then be raising with 77+, any two face cards and ace-anything? What cards should I call with?

Any advice would be appreciated. I'd like to be able to play at full tables with a lower M.

[orbital]

well, first of all if you plan on loosening up, specially in mtts, make sure you build up a stack that will allow you to pull of some agressive/loose moves. if you have achived that goal in first place, then you can begin playing the cards you feel are right. i wouldnt follow any "by the book" rule for starting hands but make sure you understand which hands play well in multipots and which hands you need to limit the players in the pot.
loosening up for me atleast, doesnt mean you need to play QJo from EP, thats just plain stupid (in 90% of the situations). just treat loosening up as agressiveness. there are many situations to deal with so i could address one general advice for you preflop: raise with the hands you would normally limp with and play position VERY agressively with hands like Ax, and high pps, or even gapped connectors. I made this a rule for me in most hands. theres a point in the tournament , if im well stacked, where i just dont limp in with anyhand execept suited connectors which work best with more people in the pot...(i even call raises with them), with other playable hands...i just raise flat from mp to lp...

hope that helped. try to make your own standards for loosening up
cheers

[Sed]

Some other ideas...

Raise from only 4 positions without a premium hand ( BB/SB/Button/CO (somtimes CO-1)) Steal a lot from those positions and learn when you can resteal from a Button or CO raiser to take a nice pot. Know that you will have to push steal at times (with up to 20BBs) into an aggressive bigger stack who may try to resteal off of you. Whatever you do, do not camp for big cards. You have to keep up the illusion of an action player to get action on your big hands.

Think of it as increasing your aggression, not your looseness. Aggression is what wins MTTs.

- sed

[chardrian]

Harrington suggests that I loosen up and be more aggressive as I descend into the Yellow Zone. However, in larger tournaments, I'm having trouble knowing how to loosen up properly. The problem is that I can't figure out how to loosen up properly when there is still a full table.

What hand selection should I use when I'm entering the yellow zone, but I'm still at a full table? I know Harrington suggests dropping suited connectors and 66-. Should I then be raising with 77+, any two face cards and ace-anything? What cards should I call with?

Any advice would be appreciated. I'd like to be able to play at full tables with a lower M.

When your M gets low it's all about aggression - but selective aggression. You are focusing on your cards too much by focusing on "loosening" up. Basing you decision solely on cards won't work all the time - e.g. even if you have JQs on the button with an M of 8 but you have a limp, a raise and a reraise in front of you, it's usually best to toss that hand. However if you have just one limper in front of you, pushing there is a great play.

[DoGGz]

I'll just come out and say it. I disaggree here. The more chips you have the more laggy you should play. Only when your M drops below ~5 should you start open pushing medium hands, in position.

Everyone else here has a hardon for Harrington and are not going to agree with me, but that's cool.