Middle of the tournament strategy

When I'm in a MTT I find that I do pretty good at the beginning in acquiring chips, but then my game stalls. I get to a certain amount of chips and don't be able to get any more. If I am lucky enough to get to the final table I'm always the short stack. Any ideas?

well i am right with you on that one i am the same way and trying to learn on what to do. I play alot of 3 table sng's and do real good there and normally taking first or second but the free rolls is where i am having my trouble

You may not be making the needed adjustments at the later stages of an MTT. One of the biggest improvements I made was learning to adjust my game.

Look at SNGs as 2 parts: early stages and late stages.

During the early stages, the goal here is to survive. Blinds are very low and stacks very deep, usually 100BB+. So, at these stages, you can play tight and wait for big hands to accumulate chips. You don't have to take any unnecessary risk with marginal hands, you can limp in with small pairs and suited connectors if you get great odds/implied odds, you can avoid unnecessary coinflip situations, etc.

However, when blinds start increasing, average stacks are no longer deep. The higher the blinds get, the more its costing you to play. Not while the idea is to survive, the goal is to accumulate chips in order to do so. While you could survive in the early stages by just playing a small range of hands and waiting it out, you can not do so at the later stages because the blinds will not allow you do so. At the later stages, small pairs and suited connectors go down in value, while big cards like A high or K high, even with only mid kickers go up in value. Where you would avoid coinflips or maybe 40/60-30/70 situations in the early stages, it would sometimes be correct to do so at the later stages.

Hi all,

I've noticed the same thing also in my tournement play. In the begining of the tourney, the idea is to really survive to the later stages. Generally, a tight-agressive player profile is needed.

In the later stages, you have the problems of blinds going up so you need to expand the cards you are willing to play. Maybe a "loose-agressive" stance"

Don't just play cards to be playing cards. The "texture" of the game should dictate your card play as much as your cards.

If anyone can add on to what I've said; it would be much appreciated.

Cicero