How to build a big stack early on in an MTT?

Some friends and I were discussing this last night. We must be tight players because we're all a bit stumped as to how folks accumulate gigantic stacks in early stages of a tournament. I presume it must involve loose, speculative play and bluffing, as well as some luck.

Can someone enlighten me?

Most of the advice I've heard is to be more conservative in early stages of tournaments and ramp up your play later on when blinds and antes are bigger, which is reasonable but seems contrary to stack building.

Usally they get a big hand early and they beat another big hand.
Or they play like a maniac and get lucky.

1) Take big chances.
2) Get lucky.
3) Get seated with idiots.

But really, risking your tournament life on several coin flips early is suicide. For each person you see with 5 buy-ins early on there are 4 others who were eliminated because they tried something similar.

I like this one!

loose early is the best way to play if you want to go late in a mtt...if you build a stack it lets you roll along without getting wiped out on one bad hand...if you want to grind and get in the money then you play tight and hope you dont get unlucky and let all the loose players knock each other out..and then hope you get a good run of cards after your in the money..now getting rolling is the hard part...

loose early is not the way to play! tight aggressive is the way to play early and then opening your range once antes get involved. the bottom line is you dont want to be risking your chips just trying to get lucky early and if you do then your just like the other donks and most likely bust out of tournaments early quite often. their is no reason to be mixing it up by playing loose when the blinds are so small and most pots you will win will only be about %7 of your stack but for every one you dont win and lose if you only pay blind will be loosing %1.5 of stack every time. i dont know about you but i am not lucky enough to get the winning hand every five deals. stay tight aggressive and your results will be consitant.

Easy step-by-step way to getting a big stack early in an MTT

1) Go all in
2) Get at least 5+ callers. The more, the better
3) Win.

well the only way to win chips is to bet at pots and steal and bluff... assuming you arent picking up monsters... but it isnt necessarily that important to pick up a giant stack in mtts.....the chances of you building a gigantic stack increases your chances of busting.. just play your normal game and if you're hovering around the average stack.. you're good to go... when the field gets narrow... maybe thats the time to take advantage of being more aggresive as players get tight when money approaches... that way.. you'll get a better chance of making it deep into tournaments... the pros have some really good advice on full tilt on early tournament strategies... read the one by howard lederer.. its great..

As others have said, the best way to get a big chipstack early is to get lucky.

I've always thought that the whole "play to win, or play to cash" ideal was a huge fallacy. In an MTT, you often have to throw away very playable hands until the all-in crazies have either been busted or have enough chips to settle down.

I believe tight aggressive is the way to go until u get close to the bubble. then when everyone else tightens up to make the money I loosen up. Its this point in the tourny where i usually get my stack to a point where i can pick and choose spots. Having a big stack early on is nice. But you dont have to have it to win a mtt. I have one and cashed in many coming in short stacked late in the tourney with patience and letting others make the mistak,es when I have the hand

for not loose players, this is true. but late in a mtt, if big blind is 1k , not much difference between a 50k and 150k i think. i met some tight players most of time i see them at final table. not going on tilt is one of the keys for success in a mtt. being big stack in early stages helps half tight half loose aggressive players more than others. i think

Sounds like you've done this before.
I deffinitly have the 1st 2 steps down.
I need a lil help for step 3

tell me your kidding. best thing to is play tight early, and build your stack when you have a strong hand. the majority of these people that have huge stacks early are merely idiots for the most part who take their chips off other idiots. this is just one example in my personal experience, but i have the last two weeks i have cashed in pokerstars 15k grtd. well over 4000 entrants each week. i managed to finish in the top 200 each time. i know some will say so what you didnt make the FT, but its my belief that if i had flung my chips around like a madman, i wouldnt have made it past the first blind increase. something i do also is something i do while playing live, i dont look at the info and see how many are left, or where im ranked. i know a lotta people do, but for me, this doesnt do much for me except make me have chip envy and worry too much about maintaining an average stack when i all i can really do is worry about my table and concentrate on winning what i can there.

I have also made it ITM in my last 6 of 7 ($ guaranteed) low level tourneys in the past 3 days due to tight play combined with strategic limps with suited connectors and had 3x+ my starting stack by first break, but what longface failed to mention, these tourneys he's referring to have a 3000 starting stack, which allows some room for strategic loose play from LP's early on.
But for the most part, TAG play is where it's at if you want to accumulate a large stack early on and IMO, to continue increasing your stack with little risk I suggest tight play throughout the second hour aswell.

If your interested in seeing my pokerstars stats for each tournament, you can see it on my blog here> Shinedown brings sexy(poker)back

agreed. I have some success with TAG play during the early and middle stages of tournaments. Loose=lose most of the time, that's why they sound so much alike

It's called winning...

It was called winning back in 2008.

Now it's called resurrection.

gambool early and often. don't try to preserver your stack, grow it.

For at least 90% of the readership here at CC, tight is right in the early stages.

If (and only if) your post-flop play is sufficiently advanced, there is mileage to be had in playing more loosely, mixing it with the idiots and seeking to trap them from late position while stacks are deep. However, they will suck out sometimes. If you are at the stage of your development as a tournament player that bad beats still bother you, don`t go there.

Incidentally, has nobody noticed that this entire thread is in the wrong section of the forums ?

I agree with the upper part.

Maybe no one noticed because the thread is 2 years old.

True, lol. I didn`t see that.