Struggling to break through

[andy609]

I've read HOH 1 and 2 and been playing lots of 24+2's on FT. I make it deep, but bust out just short of the money when one double up would have put me in serious contention, ie, I go all-in with a good hand with an m of 4 or 5 when the average stack is 12 and I don't hold up. I seem to always be shortstacked right from about level 3; when I have an m of more than 12 I feel like I'm doing really well, relatively speaking. So what would your suggestions be for building a better stack that gives me more play late than just an all-in move preflop?

[Al Golagnic]

I used to suffer more from this sort of thing. I think I was playing MTTs too much like SNGs, and being way too tight early. Now, I try to loosen up some when I am in position and pots are relatively cheap to enter. Hit a strong hand or two that is well disguised and your stack can grow by leaps and bounds and enable you to take charge of a table.

This is not to say I am a good MTT player, as I haven't cashed high in anything significant, and haven't even played enough MTTs to gauge a skill level, but things have improved since I became conscious of being what I consider to be too tight for an MTT.

[chardrian]

The "I get deep but can't finish, what should I do?" has got to be one of the most frequently asked questions.

And unfortunately there is no clearcut answer.

The mid to late stages of a tourney are where you really need to make plays based on your reads and on how your table is playing. Learning when to shift gears and which blinds/players u should be attacking is helpful tho.

The biggest thing with MTTs tho, is that you simply need to play lots and lots and lots of them. The very best players are making the money between 15-20% of the time in a standard payout structure. That means that over 80% of the time you are going to fail.

As a beginning player I often focused on all these players I saw who were constantly making multiple final tables every week and I was happy to get one every week or two (or more) and wondered what I was doing wrong. Turns out, even though I felt like I was playing a lot, I simply wasn't playing enough.

[andy609]

Thanks for the info. I don't think I've played more than 20, so if I am only expected to cash 4 times at the most, I don't feel too bad about zero. I guess if you count Iron Man freerolls, I've cashed 4 times, but that's easy when 1/3 of the field doesn't even show up. I definately try to figure out whose blinds to go after, but usually, I'm just looking to go all-in, so it doesn't really matter as much. I suppose I should try to steal blinds right from the get-go, not wait til 25/50, 30/60 or 40/80. Another idea is to play more hands in position to try to pick off continuation bets and pounce on weakness postflop. When I started out, it seemed like all my cbets were getting raised. I will definately try to play more implied odds hands in position for cheap early, sc's, suited one-gappers, Axs, Kxs, maybe even Qxs.