MTT strategy

Hey all,

I wanted to post this earlier, but the site went down for a bit yesterday.

This morning I placed 3/526 in a low stakes knock out tournament, making a nice cash prize compared to my bankroll (which is still in an early developmental stage =P) However, while I learned to play 'real' poker first and best through MTT freerolls way back when, I feel like I'm missing some strategy that is costing me some wins. Especially in the one I finished 3rd in, there were times when I was getting eaten alive by blinds, but didn't feel I could steal because of my cards.

I know that in mid-to-late tourny rounds I should be looking to steal blinds, and to open up my card selection. I'm not waiting around for high pocket pairs or AJ+ suited. The problem is I tend to get stuff like 44-99 in early position, and crap like 103, 86, 97, suited and off suit a lot in late position. I've had 10-20 hand streaks of crap cards, and then my mind starts to think things like K5 suited, or Q8 suited are starting to look good. Mainly I'm good at restraining myself from that crap, but my question come down to this:

Assume I'm just about average in chip count, but the blinds are getting rough (such as turbo tournaments when the blind rounds move fast). If I'm seeing that I'm getting very marginal hands to steal at best in early position, and pretty crappy cards in late position (like K rag, Ace rag off suit, or even K rag suited) what should I do? I've tried waiting it out, but it seems I just get blinded down to a point where I have to start shoving with hands I'd rather not shove with or shove in bad position. Also, when is playing suited connectors a good idea? Am I just raising to steal with them, or are there some positions where it's ok to call and play them?

In the tournament I won this morning, I could have easily built a bigger chip stack if I was able to do more despite hitting some long streaks of bad cards. The chip leader built up a lot of chips by stealing, and while I had a good read on him such as when he had a premium hand, and when he was just stealing (and I had a very good idea on the range of hands he was stealing with) I didn't feel I could do anything because my cards weren't quite good enough to warrant risking 1/5-1/3 of my stack to call or reraise.

Sorry for the long post, I just feel that I'd rather ask as much in one post, than clutter the boards with multiple threads of smaller questions. Any resources dedicated to mid-late stage MTT would be great. I've read the one's under poker strategy here, but feel I"m still missing a lot of strategy that could really get me into a place where I can consistently win 18-90 people SnG MTT's at low stakes.

Of course, I'd appreciate any insight whatsoever, I always like a different view on things.

You don`t necessarily need big cards to attack the blinds.

Study the players in the 3 or 4 seats to your left. Look to see which ones are playing tight. Then occasionally (not too often) raise their blind with any two cards.

It doesn`t matter what your hand is if you don`t get called. Usually you won`t.

If you get caught, slow down for a few minutes and revert to playing strong hands only before you try it again.

you just have to really pick your spot to be aggressive, but if you are just trying to steal the blinds then you gotta make sure you still have enough to push them off cause if they got the checks you know they are gonna call you no matter what.

Okay that sounds good.

What range of hands, if any, do I call with if I know the guy who raised is most likely stealing? Aside from premium hands, of course, is there a range that I should consider a reraise or call with if I have a good read on a pot stealer?

Better to re-raise than to call. That is more likely to put the stealer off trying it against you again.

I suggest re-raise with pairs 99 or better, or an Ace and any kicker higher than an 8. If you are confident that stealer`s range is very wide, you might open out somewhat and include (say) smaller pairs and Kings.

do what egon says drizz. I'm not a fan of the resteal its a good play, but its a high risk play also, so make sure your read is spot on. In most cases I don't think you need to resteal if your stealing enough. I just try to steal as much as I can so I don't have to resteal


As far as your decent hands oop question. When the blinds start to get big it doesn't matter. People will actually give more respect to an oop raise than a late position raise. So in early position with those types of hands I will raise, but see, I'm not the type to overraise. I create a blind amount that I am going to raise in position and that may differ from out off position. For example, say blinds are 400/800, I may raise 2000 in position, but I may raise 2200 oop. What you don't wanna do, is OVERRAISE oop with a hand like 55 because than your gonna make yourself feel inclined to call a reraise. When you raise early position with these hands your really representing a strong hand so if someone comes over top, hands like 55 you have to fold, unless you have a read on someone or they are shortstack to your raise your mainly fold here. Alot of times you will induce folds especially if you are a tight player, and even if you get a call alot of times that c-bet is going to scoop the pot especially on low flops. So I would say don't be afraid to raise oop, now don't make that a trend, but don't be afraid to change gears and do that

On top of what Egon said. Its also cool to raise peoples blinds that will call but won't try to outplay you postflop. If someone you know may call your raise but he'll only call a c-bet if he has damn near top pair thats a good person's blind to raise because not only will you scoop the blinds but your going to scoop the extra chips that player calls with.

Raising peoples blinds that have just won a big pot is another thing you can do, usually these players are always willing to instantly fold the next hand, and if they do call preflop they'll play tight post flop OOP because they are content with their previous winnings; they're not as hungry to win a pot being that they just won a big one.

Another thing I like to do. I like to raise short stacks blinds with dry aces and hands like k10 and up if I'm in position. I'll do this because I like to play the percentage game of them having a better hand than those holdings in the blinds is highly unlikely. Plus people understand that when you raise a shortstacks blind, that shortstack may push all in over top and other players aren't going to want to get in between that without literally having a hand because they may think you really have a hand, so if someones calling when your raising a short stacks blind that usually means they have something. Alot of times though the shortstack will go all in over top of your raise with ATC and you'll have him beat with a dry ace. Some may not like this strategy but this is a strategy that I love to use, I actually get a lot of shortstacks to fold with this, but even when they do call technically I would say at least 7 out of 10 times your likely to be ahead because players become damn near forced to call because of their m.

one more thing you should try once you get your steal game good. Try stealing multiple times in a row. You'll be surprised the blinds you can steal. Normally when people raise 2 times in a row most people assume that you have to have a hand to do that so you'll kind of get respect. You can raise air two times in a row and get folds. I would say when you get a chance do a test on 3 different ocassions. Get into a blind stealing part of the tourney and just literally raise as many times in a row as you can no matter what cards you have. I repeat, raise as many times in a row as you can with ATC, it doesn't matter, until you get raised or lose a pot, make sure you c-bet these pots too. See what your results are. I bet you at least one of those times you'll make it at least 3 blind steals in a row...Try it just for kicks it can't hurt.

once you start stealing peoples blinds alot, I like to be nice and let people see flops whose blinds I steal, I'll limp on the button or cutoff or maybe one off the cutoff let them see a flop and just pick up the pot their with a position bet. This is just about the same thing as stealing blinds, only your being much nicer about it, and if they hit oh well give them the pot and let them think they outplayed you

Awesome advice you all, I'll be taking it to the tables later today and letting my mind play around with it. I think the biggest thing holding me back is the nagging voice in my head that is a bit paranoid of someone holding a monster hand when I make a sizable blind steal. Guess I just gotta go with it.

That is always my fear as well. I wake up to JJ and raise 4x BB and the caller/re-raiser has AA or KK or QQ. I guess you could get away from it depending on Mzone but mostly likely it will be an all in with JJ and hope to catch.

This may help in a different view that you ask for but some similar points.

http://www.cardschat.com/f11/officia...rategy-118140/

Also my blog has some good articles...

King Curtis' Poker Blog

I have found myself in amazingly similar situations. Recently I came in 3rd in a tournament when I won 6 straight heavy hands to take my stack from 800 to nearly 60k. . .the big blind was 5000. . .I felt the entire time like I was playing from behind, then managed to get lucky with a group of hands to keep in long enough to make 3rd.

Be selective with ur blind steals try to steal the tight persons blind at your table