Limping pre flop in low buyin MTT

Hi guys.

This may have been discussed before, so I appologise in advance if it has.

I normally play $25+ buyin MTT, but for a change I played a few of the smaller, $3 buy ins.

Obviously lots more players, lots of new to poker players, lots of calling stations.

I decided to play very tight in these tournys and was quite sucessful.

Early stages I limped in with everything other than AA and AK. (Yes, AK not KK) AA/ AK all in. the rest I would go all in after the flop if I had top pair and if flop did not pair. The amount of times a flop of 10, 4, 6 rainbow hit when I had KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, etc and my all in was called with A4o, or a runner runner flush draw was unreal !!!

The only time I got muffed was when I went all in with AA, the other guy had JJ and he hit trips.

I would also play lots of hands in late position because the newbies would never think their A9 could ever be beaten when the flop was 5,6,9 (me sitting with 7,8 in late position) all u do is raise their raise, when they re raise you go all in, and as sure as night becomes day, the follow!!!)

I`m quite new to poker (6 months) so I might be going over old ground, but let me know what you guys think of limping early in a tourny.

By the way, when it gets to middle stages I revert back to my normal play.

Ronaldadio

My only question is why would go play AK and not KK? KK is a much bigger hand than AK. Against any hand other than AA you are a 3/1 favourite at the very least. With AK you are the worst side of a coinflip against any wired pair, and a big dog against AA and KK.

I understand your strategy but you would be a lot better off playing KK than AK

Could have a point, but I feel u get more callers with A rag than u do with a small pair pre flop. Might just b my experience, I don`t know.

It`s not text-book correct, but you do have a point. Some muppets routinely call a pre-flop all-in with Ax and, if you`re holding KK, they will pair and beat you almost one time in 3.

So instead of taking the 66% with kings you rather do a less then 50% chance with A,K?... so put your tourney on the line with a less then 50% of winning especially against any pocket pair compared to having KK's that win 66% of the time just doesn't make sense.

I don't think theres anything wrong with it, ronaldadio - the donks at that level are nothing close to observative, and gambling a little with cheap flops and suited connectors/small pairs is fine if the blinds are still small. Huge implied odds in those games (TPTK OMG NUTZ ALLIN)

ok, ok I take the point!!!

Perhaps all in with AA, KK and AK then?

FYI $3 buy-in is a high-limit MTT for me. Come swim with the fishes with me when I play my 60c buy-in MTT, then you'll see some donk-play!
But I do like the strategy bud, I might give it a go in one of my big money MTT's!

.60 where is that at?

victorchandler.com or vcpoker.com (same thing!)