MTT - you should gamble more !!!

Hi guys and thanks as ever for all your responses to my other threads

What are your thoughts on this comment I received recently.

When I was talking about the fact that I am being hit by a lot of bad beats - when I decide to go all in or I`m forced to go all in I am ahead more than 75% of the time at the showdown stage - I was told by one guy on a big poker site who seems to do OK, that If I am ahead that much when all the chips go in I`m playing too tight!!!

If I can tell you all roughly how I play.

Early stages, when blinds are cheap, I limp in a lot, almost any 2 cards that add to make 20, Axs, small pairs, with an occasional attempt to steal the blinds from late position. I play my 1010 to AA, AK, AQ, AJs aggressivley.

Middle stage - Reduce the amount of hans but play them more agressivley.

Late stage - Just before final table or the money how I play will depend on my chip stack. Final table I revert back to a mix of early stage play but I play more hands aggressivley.

Obviously there is a bit more to the way I play than this but I would be intersested to know what you guys think.

Ronaldadio

Here is my advice (I'm not a good MTT player though):
just play tight in the beginning, tight aggressive in the Mid stage and loose-aggressive just before the bubble against the short stacks. In late stage it is not much about the cards you are holding. Low stacks will almost always fold and big stacks is not that willing to fold unless you have them covered in chips.

Good stuff. You should be pretty tight early. You don't need to be thinking about stealing blinds (even at 30/60 - risking 180 or 240 with a marginal hand to win 90 isn't worth it at that point), but other than that I don't think you need to change this.

This is the opposite to what you want to do. Most other players are doing the same thing, so you need to adjust to that, and loosten up. Start stealing blinds - I raise in LP with a very wide range of hands.

Late stages - you said your play is dictated by your chip stack. This is fine, but ideally you should have an above-average stack size here, and should be playing slightly looser than you did in the middle stages. When you reach final table, you should play it like a sng: tight early, let others knock each other out, get full value of your premium hands. Late stages of the FT, you loosen up again, and start pushing people around.

In the recent past, I've played a few MTTs where my friend or dad has called mid-way, and knowing that I have to meet up with them before the tourney ends, I play looser because I don't care. Every time I've done that, I've built a great chip stack, and got a new perspective as to how loose you really want to be in the middle and late stages of the game. I just don't have the balls to go that crazy when I actually commit myself to a tourney, because I'm afraid of getting busted.

You definitely need to be looser than you would think in the late stages of an MTT. Sure you can win the whole thing with a tight-aggressive style, but it's very rare that the cards will run that good for you.

Thanks for that Chuck.

So going by what I said, if you were coaching me you would suggest

Tighten up at start, play less hands, say what 77 - 10 10 limp, JJ - AA, agressive, AQ, AK, AJ aggressive, KQ, QJ, J10, 109 limp?

Middle - try to steal in late possition with a variety of hands - I`m with u there.

Later, again I agree. At the final table I always feel more relaxed anyway, so I play my normal game.

What site do you play on Chuck?

I would like to play one with you!!!

Thanks again m8.

Ronaldadio

If you think that will help I will give it a try. The idea behind limping with more hands at start was to catch a flop say 596 with a limp in hand like 78. I would think the muppetts would not have an idea what u have.

I think limping is fine. I don't think you should change your starting hand requirements for the early stages, but what I meant was that you shouldn't stress stealing blinds at that stage. It's just not worth it, unless you notice that the blinds are tight/passive players. You don't want to get involved with an AT type hand, yknow?

I used to play Titan, but i've just moved my funds to stars. I don't know if I'll be playing many MTTs there - I prefer small field tournies, and might play random smaller sites with largely-overlayed tournies.

Hope my ramblings helped

Here's one thing that I noticed this past week, and it may or may not apply to you.

Last week I took bad beat, after bad beat after bad beat and NEVER put a bad beat on anyone else. I thought long and hard about it and came to the realization that I wasn't gambling enough. I was folding after the flop missed me, even if I had some killer outs, and even when the pot odds were good enough for me to call. The problem was I wasn't factoring in the implied odds. If I had limped in with JT suited and the flop was 893 I'd fold to any bet. I had made a decision to not "chase cards". Well in the past 3 days I chose to play looser post flop. Take the reasonable risk here and there. If I've got a draw to the nuts, I started calling some reasonable bets although I still fold if the bets are bigger in relation to my stack than I'm willing to risk.

Since then I've started putting some bad beats on other people when I hit and not just taking them. This was apparently a big hole in my game. Playing too tight and conservative. Just last night I was playing a ring game and called a $1 bet on an open ender draw, hit it on the turn and ended up doubling up.

Since then I've played in three 45 person SNG's and six 9 person SNG's.

The 45 person ones I placed: First, second and fifth, all 3 ITM
The 9 person ones I placed: 1,2,1,3,5,2

Before this I was constantly getting blinded out and eliminated right before the final table, 12th, 14th, 11th etc (in the 45 person ones)

Granted the sample size is FAR too small to draw any conclusions about the change in my play, but I can tell you that in the past 3 days I've sucked out on at least 4 or 5 occasions and won monster pots that allowed me to advance deep.

i personally am not a fan of the limp it never puts the vibe that i want out there. i do agree with chuck on everytrthing else tho. but the limp is just a scary thing never knowing what anyone around has is not information im willing to fall to the waist side.

Effexor, I reccomend you read the fundamental theorem of poker by David Slansky. That will give you a better idea of where pot odds/implied odds come into play. Also, if you read along with the discussions we had over it about 2 months ago, Fpaulson starts several good discussions that will give you a better idea of incorporating deception into your game to help you as well. (eg semibluff raising your draws instead of just calling, etc.)