Moving up in MTTs

[rudefella]

I've been moderately successful playing $2-5 MTTs for years ($5,000 in 5 years), thinking about moving up to playing in $10-$20 range, since I now don't have to take all my winnings off to pay past debt. Have noticed that the players are less wild and don't knock themselves out so easily in the first hour of these higher buy-ins.

My success at low levels has really depended on accumulating chips early from the awful plays of really bad people. Basically, I just play ABC poker, trying to keep pots small most of the time, and wait for someone to stack off with a worse hand. I often end the first hour with 2-8 times the starting chips. There are so many bad players (often 1/3 to 1/2 are gone in the first hour) that this is pretty easy. Later in the tournament I manage to keep pace by stealing blinds, or shoving and re-shoving light if I'm short-stacked around the bubbles.

A few recent attempts at these bigger buy-in events have been unsuccessful. I haven't been able to accumulate chips early, and have just stalled from there. I noticed that only about 1/5 of the player are gone in the first hour. I haven't been able to get much above my starting stack in the first hour. What adjustments should I be thinking about in order to accumulate chips when there aren't soooo many awful players?

[sk8r_daniel]

I feel the same way. It was much easier when I was playing lower buy in tournies when people donked off their whole stack for no reason. My advice is to observe the table, make notes of every player and play according to each player's style. When you notice some calling stations, go in value betting mode (ABC poker). With maniacs you want to trap them when they decide to make ridiculously large 3 bets preflop and continue on the flop and turn.

With tighter players like mice, rocks and sharks you should look for weakness and exploit it by stealing pots. With cautious players you gain more value from fold equity than showdown equity. This allows you to open up your range of starting hands in late position.

If you notice some good sharks or bombs who are continually stealing pots when they notice weakness, use that information to your advantage by trapping or bluffing them. It takes time to find the right spots because the game is much different when playing against better players but it can still be profitable. My answer is fairly vague because I'm only an above average player and much of what I know I find hard to transcribe into words.

[sk8r_daniel]

I doubt anyone is going to give you a grand poobah post but I would suggest going through the stickies and reading through soupie's advice and all the rest are great too. Then experiment by becoming more aggresive. With 10 dollar buy ins there are still alot of bad players so I wouldn't worry about changing your style too much.

[baudib]

Um, the players in the higher tournaments are still awful.

Play tight, don;t donk off your stack. If you notice a complete idiot or three at your table, you might want to get into some implied odds hands against them in position. But in general, play better hands than the opposition and play them aggressively. Always be mindful of position; it makes a drastic, drastic difference as you move up -- more players will punish you for limping in EP.

It's a mathematical certainty that if you play better hands than your opponents and use position to your advantage you will be more successful than them.