Opening up in MTT

Hi guys.

I`m 1/2 way through Harringtons first book, so he might answer this later.

I wondered, however, if any of you guys could give me a few pointers on opening up in the middle of a tourny.

I don`t feel confident raising in position, say on the button, unless I have a large chip lead over the others.

What seems to happen to me in reverse, is when I am in the BB and the sb raises me, I give it up too much. Also, if I call I rarely hit the flop (I know this is normal) And worse still, if I reraise I seem to come up against a better hand. For example, last night I was playing the £35k guarenteed $10 rebuy, I was doing ok, I was always sitting in the middle of the tourny (1108 ppl) When the blinds went up I started to get under presure, I was about 10 times bb. I was on BB, delt ATs. The small blind raised me yet again (he had a big stack a had taken my last 4 blinds) I`d had enough so I went all in, he called and turned AQ. (I still ended up in about 150th, still not bad!!!)

What advice do you guys have???

Ronaldadio

Obviously there is no *correct* answer as so much of what you talk about is situational.

The small blind probably didn't have 4 x hands as good as AQ so it was probably a reasonable play on your part to go all in with 10 x BB....this is because his range of raising hands must be very wide given his raising history.

Harrington states that being first in the pot with a raise is optimal given that you have to have a better hand to call a raise than to make a raise.

Obviously, it is better to be in late position when you do this eg, on the button with J-10 or better wth justb the blinds to bet.

The situation changes dramativcally when you have more chips....it is literally a different game.

Anyways, good luck.

Raising on the button is sometimes affected by your table image as well,

1/ Have you been in lots of hands but folding post-flop?
2/ Have you been folding pre-flop to a high percentage of hands?
3/ If you have raised before how long ago and was it successful?

I find it is best with a tight image to raise rarely but no more than twice if possible (sngs are different of course) to the same person, or they will try and defend after a while and you could find yourself in trouble

Dont try when there are more than the blinds left as stealing from 2 is hard enough and if someone else has entered the pot it mustbe for a reason.

Maybe try 1 steal and if successful again several hands later but with a better hand so if you do come up against resistance there is a chance your opponent will see you had a good hand.

That will make him wonder if you do try it again

Basically mix it up but rarely and who knows sometimes let them know it may look like a steal but in fact you had AA

Enjoy and Peace