Advice from established MTT winners would be appreciated.

[B-squared]

Hai. My question is in regards to playing MTT’s early on, with approximately 3xx-4xx people. I’ve researched MTT play a fair bit, and taken alot from the books, sites and videos that I have watched on playing them. However, I still feel that my early MTT play often lets me down. I have noticed that early on, with a medium stack seems to be my kryptonite, but I play very well towards the middle and end stages, particularly with a large or shorter stack.
My general strategy early on (when I haven’t established any real reads players) is pretty ABC: Tight, aggressive, with a small but strong range that I overbet like a maniac on any appealing board. (22-99 is my calling range in almost any position besides UTG-UTG+3), (TT-AK+ I will tend to raise in almost any position, and will generally 3bet preflop with JJ-AA). Might I also point out at this stage that I have no programs like PokerTracker or Holdem manager, just to clear that up.
Now, if i get past the early stages of a tourn, I am generally in quite good stead for the middle and later stages, however, lately i have been finding that I am being eliminated quite early, even if I am ahead statistically. The core of my question really is: Is it ever appropriate to fold post flop, heads-up, when you know that you are about a 60%-40% favourite? I don’t mean for small to medium pots, but rather when you know your opponent is going to pot-commit himself and push? If it is very early in a competition, is it more appropriate to wait for a better opportunity, or to run the risk of a coin toss that is slightly rigged in your favour?
Also, for the readers information, my goals in an MTT are generally to place ITM, as high as I can score, though generally I will value placing in the money over gambling for a huge stack and better shot at top 3.

Thanks for your time, and please let me know if my question needs to be more specific.

[fjuanl]

Is it ever appropriate to fold post flop, heads-up, when you know that you are about a 60%-40% favourite?

Absolutely. A 60/40 edge is very good and you can't expect to find better spots even vs bad players

Also, for the readers information, my goals in an MTT are generally to place ITM, as high as I can score, though generally I will value placing in the money over gambling for a huge stack and better shot at top 3.

Getting ITM shouldn't be your goal because the payouts are so small unless you get to the final table. Your probably missing a lot of spots to chip up on the bubble which hurts your chances at a deep run

[B-squared]

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond .
I think what i'm gleaning from this in the big picture is that i'm probably playing a tad too passively. Since my bankroll has been completely funded by freerolls I have been very conservative with my money, but perhaps to a point where I care about getting my money back as opposed to playing well and running deep.
Cheers again

[drmcboy]

to be clear juan meant no, you should not fold when you're 60/40 ahead.

Or, given that there is usually already some dead money in the pot, when you're 40/60 behind.

[fjuanl]

I think I misread that first question a little (I thought you were asking if 60% is good enough to stack off). There's some debate about where the line crosses but a lot of good players would take any spot above 50% for their whole stack in the early levels

[B-squared]

to be clear juan meant no, you should not fold when you're 60/40 ahead.

Or, given that there is usually already some dead money in the pot, when you're 40/60 behind.

I caught his drift :P. I asked this because I have been becoming tentative to push with those kind of odds lately due to a pretty long dry-spell of bad-beats. Though it is encouraging to know that I HAVE been making the right plays, generally speaking.

Your 40/60 behind comment interests me though... for clarifications sake: If you were the villain in my story, and were holding the nut-flush draw, only to find me push into you, would you call? Or would you only be comfortable with those kind of odds if you were the initial pusher?

Sorry if these questions are a bit newbish, but I have been wondering at what kind of odds you would LIKE to have all your chips in the middle on. I am a break even player mainly, but I have been having trouble realising if this is because I play a range of hands too loosely, or because I play too tight in my attempts to avoid coin-flips.

[drmcboy]

the answer to your flush draw question depends on the stacks, board and your hand. You would almost never fold the NFD + two overs, you might often fold 5h4h on a Jh9hAx board

This article gets right at gambling early:

http://www.cardplayer.com/cardplayer...or-not-to-flip

[B-squared]

That article was directly relevant to my concern. Much appreciated guys, thanks.

[dafu]

How do you guys feel about late registration for tournaments? I have done this before only in low buy in tournaments (not in the tournament i am asking about right now). Late registration for me hasn't been too pleasing. Although I got into the money and got my buy ins back I have not gone deep with late reging.

I would also like some advice on this please. Playing a $2.2NL tournament. Villain is 18/0/35 over 25 hands. I folded because he seemed to be super tight but once he got some chips he was playing 89o even when he had a inside straight draw called flop and turn bet in the hand right after this one:

$2.2 MTT: Payout unknown (Late Registration still available current prize pool: $10,630)

The Tournament Trimmer (v2.0) from http://www.FlopTurnRiver.com

-----Hand 1-----
Hero's M = 139.89
PokerStars Game #39388247641: Tournament #283010557, $2.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2010/02/07 12:17:03 PT [2010/02/07 15:17:03 ET]
Table '283010557 116' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Hero (6295)
Seat 2: pasi771 (3035)
Seat 3: kloeffieklan (1880)
Seat 4: melon rocky (2310)
Seat 5: avp56 (3930)
Seat 6: joss_pkr (2880)
pasi771: posts small blind 15
kloeffieklan: posts big blind 30
Preflop
Dealt to Hero J J
melon rocky: folds
avp56: calls 30
joss_pkr: calls 30
Hero: raises 30 to 150
pasi771: folds
kloeffieklan: folds
avp56: folds
joss_pkr: calls 120
Flop: 7 2 Q
joss_pkr: checks
Hero: bets 187
joss_pkr: calls 187
Turn: 4
joss_pkr: checks
Hero: checks
River: 5
joss_pkr: bets 459
Hero: folds
Uncalled bet (459) returned to joss_pkr
joss_pkr collected 749

[drmcboy]

1) start a new thread

2) I would either bet/fold turn or call river as played.

3) 18/0 isn't tight, it's just bad

4) I'll always late reg if I'll still have 50 BBs or so, less if I think I have a big edge on field. Hopefully Mcat will come by and drop some maths.

[Poker Orifice]

I'd suggest trying to lose the mentality of wanting to just cash & instead to play for the real cash. In most online MTTs you want to take whatever +EV spots you can, ie. in mid-level play it'll seem like you have a decent enough stack to hang around for awhile but then before you know it, with antes kicked in you don't want to be thinking, "Damn.... I should've gotten it in there 20mins. ago with the such & such spot".