aggression in tournament

in tournament. people said play aggressive in the early stage to build your chips stack so you dont get bullie. is this true? when or at what stage should we play aggressive so we can collect the chips or should we just solid game avoid getting knockout?

It really depends on the tourney you're playing and what kind of players you're playing with. There's also no "PERFECT" answer for this, just different styles of play.

It's just like semi put it, there really is no way to play a perfect game, but I personally don't like to be to aggressive early on rather then later in the game, yet at the same time that doesn't mean play so tight that when u pick up an actually hand, it gives the heads up to other players so they'll fold and u wont make nothing from ur hand, and also the players that u play against if there tight, then u should be the aggressor, but if there aggressive the u should be tight, hope that helps...

Maybe it's semantics, but I think the idea is that you should always be aggressive when you're in a hand, unless you've got a specific reason for being otherwise (say, you've got a good hand and you're up against a loose player who you know will keep betting into you if you just call each time).

The choice you're actually talking about is whether you should play loose or tight in the early stages, I think. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, it really comes down to what you're most comfortable with.

If you play tight, the general theory is that people will recognise that you're playing tight, and later in the tournament you can play off that image to steal blinds etc.

If you're playing loose early on, however, you might win a number of small pots, but people will start to realise that you can't have a good hand every time you enter the pot, and they'll start to play back at you more often.

The strategy you're discussing here is a somewhat loose one, I think. That's fine, you'll just need to know how to adjust your play when the blinds go up and the rest of the table catches on to your style (ie: when they start calling your bluffs or raising you back, you need to tighten up a bit).

This is subjective. First you should get a read on what type of players are at your table, usually about one round of the button should be more than enough time to get a good read. Then you should adjust your playing style accordingly. Know who you are playing with is probably the best advise here.

Aggression is indeed a key element of tournament poker but like everyone else before me said it's dependent upon many other factors. Are the cards falling your way, are you're opponents loose or conservative, how is your table image?

Often in many tournaments it's not so much the cards you play or how aggressive you are as much as what hands you lay down when you've got the right read of the circumstances.

Poker is an odd duck, you can't dominate every game you play, play 100 tournament games and if you're any good you'll cash in 10 and win "maybe" 1. Experience teaches skill, not only are you playing cards but in poker it's even more important that you're playing people, aggression is important but even more important is knowing when and how to be aggressive.

"Selective aggression" = knowing when and how

When you have a short stack you have to be more selective, when you have the chip lead you can be less selective and more aggressive using your chips as tools to divine what your opponents reactions mean.

Blind aggression = donkey Why push when the donkey will pull you? That's why they are called "donkeys" you hold the nutz and they are betting into you and you just know they will go all-in if you don't push them.

Play lot's of tournaments, use the force Ethan, develop your instincts, patience, experience and selective aggression, or as Kenny Rogers likes to say: "Ya gotta know when tohold'em and know when to fold'em."

I sometimes do play agressive early in a tournament, it all really depends on how the cards are coming to me. It is usually a cheap way to learn about some of the people you are playing against and sometimes easy to built up a chip stack.

I think you needto make further distinction here: Aggressive does not = loose, Tight does not = passive. Remember, you can't win a MTT in the early stages, but you can lose it if you make big mistakes. Chose the hands you play carefully, by which I mean don't play marginal hands out of position,etc., but play the hands you do decide to play aggresivelly.