MTT tips

I was just thinking after getting knocked out of a MTT how do the guys at the top of the leaderboards on Ladbrokes Poker nearly always seem to get deep into the money.Ok i understand that these guys can play but common sense says they cannot get decent cards all the time so how do they do it...

Any Cardschat MTT players got any advice for me.
I tend to play the $5 freeze out tournies and the odd $3 rebuy.
I have been playing the MMT's now for about 1 year and although i have made the Final Table quite a few times(3 nights running on one of them) i am still trying to nail one...any advice greatly appreciated.

im gonna keep watch on this one great question

Probably need a bit more information for specific advice. For example:

- What general style are you playing?
- When you make the money / final table, is it as one of the short stacks, or one of the big stacks?
- What size tournaments are you playing? 50 person, 500 person, ?

A very, very general strategy for MTTs would be:

- Play tight early, let the other players knock each other out and thin the field for you. Don't bother with marginal hands and bluffs unless you've got a really good read.
- Loosen up and play aggressively around the time of the bubble: there'll invariably be people who just want to limp into the money, and don't want to take risks. You'll want to be stealing their chips.
- Tighten up briefly after the bubble: the same people who've been folding aces just to limp into the money will now be looking to either double up or drop out
- The above process can sometimes repeat when the final table bubble arrives

Final tables are almost a thing unto themselves. By this stage you should have some decent reads on the other players at the table, play accordingly, steal where you can, etc. Just try not to get involved in pots with the big stacks unless you're sure of your hand, because they can destroy you if you make just one mistake.

There's a whole bunch of books that've been written on this very subject - I'm in the middle of Harrington on Hold 'em at the moment and it's proving to be very educational. There's all sorts of useful stuff in the Poker Articles section here too: http://www.cardschat.com/poker-strategy.php

Good luck!

completely depends on the style of tournament. ive found that in speed tournys that playing tight acctually works. it works because all the other players knock each other out while you can get a tight image at the start and then when the blinds get bigger you can steal with decent hands and even if you get called you can still win. i used this in a 786 people MTT with blinds increaing every 4 mins and i came 4th.
i would advise you to try this at least once

The MTT's i play tend to have around 250 to 350 players sometimes a few more.Mostly freeze outs binds increase every 15 mins my playstyle is tag i normally throw all the crap hands unless i can limp with them and play only premium hands like aa kk qq ak which i nearly always raise .Heading towards the money late in the tournie i can steal to a modest degree when i have a nice stack,if however if i am shortstacked
i will try to double up with hands like aj kj kq(from any position) more so when the blinds are getting bigger and my chipstack is shrinking.
Thx for the replys...

Sounds like you're working with a fairly solid basic strategy, in the long run it should show returns.

Just remember that the more players you're up against, the more you'll need to rely on luck as well as skill to win. The tradeoff with tournaments that size is that your odds of winning aren't great - even if you're a 100% better player than everybody else in the field and only get your money in when you're ahead, you'll still get sucked out on. But you don't always have to win them to show a profit, and when you finally do win one the payoff should be a good one.

Thx OzExorcist,your right about the luck factor,heading for the final table a few weeks ago i,m in the SB (short stacked again)holding ak suited i do the min raise hopeing the BB(bigstack) will raise me and he puts me allin,i call and smile when i see he only has 3 n 5 off..the smile is wiped off my face when i see the 5 on the turn...