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 Re: Staying alive in a tourney (smallish stack, last 25%)
 Originally Posted by knoedel
Hi, I am pretty new to MTT tourneys and have some questions regarding my strategy. Most of the time I manage to advance to the last 25% of the field in a tourney. I play tight and aggressive, but here's my problem: Wheras in the beginning I have usually little problem to double or triple up (lots of fishy players) I exprience a slow suckout at later stages that forces me into coinflip situations (pushing AKoff all in, getting called by JJ etc.). How can I avoid this?
I raise preflop only hands that are 99+ or AJ+, even when in position. Is that a leak?
Probably. You shouldnt remain this tight in all situations..early position this line is fine, but mid and especially late position in unraised pots, you can loosen your raising standards. Also, your stack size is very relevant to this question. With a short stack, you must loosen your standards further even more , and raise unraised pots with a pretty wide range of hands- and , most importantly , you must not be afraid of busting out.
I rarely take a hit at a flop that I don't hit ( I don't play very many though), should I?
yes! C bets are a very important weapon that you have at your disposal. Even taking a "second shot", firing a second c bet out on an uncoordinated board is often sucessful, though this one is more tricky, and should be used with more caution. Now you have to be careful of the board with this tactic, a straight draw or flush draw on board that you dont have , is not usually a good idea, nor is C betting into more than 2 opponents..but heads up, if you raised pf with AQ, get 1 caller, and the flop comes 3 8 J rainbow, and are the 1st to act, bet it! not only do you have a great chance to take it down, you also have outs even if called!
I play aggressively after the flop when I hit, getting a lot of folds after the flop (I don't want to give out free cards). I wonder if at a tourney you would play "riskier" and slowplay sets for example to suck your opponent in?
If the board for the set you have hit is pretty uncoordinated, I think its OK to slow play, especially against an aggressive opponent- like check raising or even check/calling. you want to extract as many chips as you can with your huge hands. Its also fine to simply bet it out, especially if , for instance the flop has an A that think has likely hit your opponent
Often I find myself in the middle stages of a tourney with something like 15BB left. After two orbits and a cold run of cards the blinds go up and I I am down to 8BB without even playing a hand. The best hands I am holding are someting like A5off, K7off, 10Joff and the like and I can't see myself raising out of position for a blind steal just to see a small stack move allin after me with AJoff or something.
15xBB you can fold those hands, but on the CO or button, or SB, even then you can make a 3xBB raise and get away from it if you have to with chips left. 8BB, now you probably have to raise these if no one has entered the pot, and you are in late position, and when I say raise, I mean push all in. But not that often, and not against monster stacks or shorties.
To summarize: How do I play in a tourney with a middle/smallish stack when a cold run of cards hits,it seems to happen to me too often... Finally I would get middle pair/ AQ/ AK/AJ/ and move all in and survive maybe once or twice with the blinds up before my 99 gets called by QQ or my AK gets crushed with JJ. I would love to not having to move all in and build a stack earlier in a tournament that would survive a coinflip but a rarely manage...
again read HOH2 for a great strategy regarding that situation. he will explain how to play when in the "red and orange zones" ( short stacked)
In general, you must be aggressive when short stacked, and take advantage of situations that warrant a push or raise, so that you dont get so far behind the blinds, that you dont have a chance.
Any tips appreciated...
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