PATIENCE

Could be a silly question, but how much patience is to much patience? should i be sitting there waiting for premo hands until i am blinded out of the game literally or should i be playing marginal hands when short stacked?? i do both at different times, and none seem to work, my early tournaments are aggressive, middle i tend to tighten a little, leter i am super tight (which is my downfall, but i just cant seem to find an edge with the cards i get at this stage, my steals involve the very worst timing you will see, and missed flops with great cards do very well in costing me money....anyway) i enter final tables with one of the 3 smallest stacks, and i either loose to higher kickers or i get blinded out, so

just how long should you sit there getting chewed up by antes and blinds?

You are playing tournaments incorrectly i think . In early tournament you need to be ultra tight , play only AA KK QQ AKs AKo AQs and some connectors from late position nothing else, in middle tournament you begin to lossen up a little, and only enter the pot by raising ( you can call if its a low to medium pp ) you raise the strong hands and you can raise the junkies two, the idea is to steal blinds an antes, nothing else . By the end of tournament you have to be very aggressive, as tight play will get you in the money but nothing else, its the aggressive who make the first places .


About your patience question, once your stack gets small you need to make pushed with marginal holdings, if you wait for premiums, players will know and fold to you , plus if you have to little BB left ( say 10 or less ) you wont be making that much of a progress if you double up .

Funny I played the opposite. Played aggressive to start then tight at the end. Thats proberly why I have mixed to low results. I will try your advice and see how I do.

Jason and Rx, check out the Articles tab at the top of the page. There is some good information there on Tournament Strategy amonst other things

The first part of your sentence I think sums up where you may be going wrong.

MTT play has a lot of different variations and the way you treat play hands can be changed depending quite heavily on your chip stack. To be super tight at the beginning of a freezeout can sometimes be a pretty good play, as a double through early will normally allow you to play more hands and pickup more chips along the way

The biggest problem with playing super tight is that, when you do get those premium hands, you will more often than not get very little action and this can be a problem. The thing you notice with the aggressive players is that they are not afraid to put their chips in the middle, and are quite prepared to put their tourney on a coinflip in order to double through and dominate the table

Changing gears is something you may need to read up on, I believe there is an article in the articles section which could be of some use. Having the ability to change gears at different stages of an MTT is vital if you want to be succesful consistently.

The ability to change gears is a lot more important in the later stages of MTT's, as you are facing the better players and they will be making plays on you and attempting to pick up those blinds

Having the ability to pick the right moments to make your moves, protect your blinds and lay down your hands will determine how far you get in these tourneys

thankyou, very useful post

Thanks newbie to site. Alot of good advice to help me. I'll let U know if tourny results improve

MTT GUIDE

check this link, its a basic guide made for tournament play, it can be pretty usefull , not as extensive as harrington on hold em but still , it will help you out ^_^

Thanks sexyace joker. I really needed some type of protocol to use when playing. I tend to call on the hands I shouldn't and fold the ones I should have kept. I just get to the point where I question every move I make and I need to stop that or I will never get anywhere.

Try Tom Mcevoys Championship series book " Tournament Poker " from the championship series, this book improved my mtt tournament play no end and I would recomend it to anyone looking to improve their tournament game.

lol real tired just read my last post and noticed I stated the book was from the championship series twice! duh! Sorry folks try to be more attentive next time! lol