Q&A - How to win money at MTTs

This will either work well or be crashing failure

Right then, as you may or may not be aware I do ok at MTTs. I've written bits here and there about how I go about it, but I've never really managed to write a strategy guide explaining my approach. Since demodding and some recent wins I've had a some requests to write more (this is good for the ego, the ego says thanks) about how I play MTTs and the strategies deployed.

To be honest I struggle to pull it all together into some kind of unifying theory for tournament play, which may be why my strategy articles tend to focus on the mental approach to the game rather than the specifics?

Anyway I thought it might be an idea to ask for questions about MTT play which I'll give full and possibly even helpful answers to.

So,

Ask me a question about MTTs: strategy, specific hands, mental/psychological approach, reads, card selection or anything else related and I'll put some time into a "proper" answer.

Love

Rex

How do I fold 27? Lol jk, well this is interesting, ok here is my question, late in tourneys, lets say you are on the button, and a co raises with no limpers and you know he/she might be stealing, what range would you 3 bet with, ( I understand that its possible to do it with any two but what if we get re raised all in) ok and the next part, if the raiser re raises you all in what range would you be calling with? How do the stacks and blinds affect your decision? Also another question, if you are the one raising from CO, what range would you 4 bet with?

Thanks bob, that was quick

Off to bed now, will answer in the morning. Very fertile area for discussion

ok I will check tommorow then

ok, you're playing in a big mtt, say ~14k entrants. You're doing well but now you're getting a bit below the average chipstack, say you're sitting on ~20-25 big blinds. There are say ~500 people left, you're in the money, and every so often you're getting another double your buy-in back or so (ie cost was $1 you're getting $2 every step up). Because of the structure, the big increase in money doesn't come until the final table. What would be your approach to this situation? Sit back and wait for hands and try to double up? Look for a chance to flip and double up? If the answer is wait for a hand, how long do you wait until opening your hand range up and how wide does it get?

If you need more specifics I'd be happy to provide them, since this is based on a real tourney .

Thanks.

SOMEONE TOLD ME ON THE INTAR-WEBZ THAT GOING ALL IN PREFLOP WAS LIEK GOOD, BUT I HATE ALL IN PREFLOP DONKEYZ CUZ THEY ALWAYS SUCKOUT WITH 27 WHEN I CALL WITH MY S0000TED ASEZZ. SO I JUST CALL AND SEE FLOP AND MAKE SURE NO DOOOSE SEVEN CUZ THAT BEATS ME EVERY TIME.

I THINK I AM GOOT AT 1-STREET DONKAMUNTS, EWE THINK SO TOO?

Figured I would go ahead and get what the newbies want to know out of the way.

forgot one thing....


WHERE CAN I FIND DA FREEROLL PAZZWORT

That`s a big task you have taken on yourself, Rex.

I have thought myself about doing an MTT guide (possibly for the learners` section) and, after some thought, realised that so much of it is situational and there are so many exceptions to every rule that you can only ever give a rough overview, unless you want to be Dan Harrington and write three large books.

Your Q&A format may be the answer.

Chip accumulation or survival? Combo of both?

I'm curious as to your overall, general strategy. The widely accepted formula for freezouts is to stay tight in the beginning and start loosening up and stealing blinds as the bubble approaches, then play the FT like an STT. But then again I remember railing you and seeing you make some plays that I was genuinely surprised at, like folding AK in a weird spot, or whatever. I've seen and heard from you that you're extremely patient ("plenty of time to double up") and am curious just how far that goes for you.

Fun thread, will look forward to you responses

Let's say that the tourney is still on the first-second blind level and you have 3-4x starting stack, which makes you the overall chip leader this early in the tourney.
Is it alright to loosen up your starting hand requirements?

During the first lets say hour exactly how tight are you playing. Is TPTK actually a show-down hand during this time, or are you just wating for your big PP's and trying to get chips in PF?

First up let me say that I'll be coming at this from "my" point of view. I am well aware of the fact that I have a different approach to many people (good players) in certain situations. This doesn't mean I disagree with how they may play a hand. What I have is an overall strategy for MTTs in the context of which certain "unusual" things happen. This often means making lay-downs preflop where others would shoving (usually mid-late), and sometimes means shoving or getting chips all-in in situations where others would be limiting pot size (usually early).

So with that in mind I'm going to deal with these in the order they come in. Thanks for the Qs so far (and Egon is spot on in his assessment of why this is tricky and the context sensitive nature of absolutely everything).

For all these questions let's make it $22 buy-in freezeout 3000 chips tourney unless otherwise stated. Quite honestly there's not a lot of difference in the standard of play from the $5s to the $215s, the proportion of fools to solid players shifts a bit, but I seldom change my approach much based on buy-in.

Question 1

Let's say we are in the money and there are 27 people left (three full tables). Lets give us both 25 big blinds, which is probably around or just below the average.

So the CO raises (let's say a standard 3xBB bet).

Things to consider

1) His VPIP, PFR and image
2) My cards
3) My image
4) Any previous hands between the two of us
5) How active is the table?
6) The stack sizes of the blinds


1) His VPIP, PFR and image
As with pretty much everything I do, the first thing I consider is who I'm up against in the hand. I'll fold hands to some people that I'll shove against others.

Because in tournaments you seldom get a really good sample to make Pokertracker based decisions it's important to get a good sense of people based on a combination of the stats and the way they have played the hands they've been involved in.

Note: if you don't use Pokertracker and PAHUD then you are missing out on a spectacular amount of information that will cost you money. If it's for financial reasons fair enough (next Christmas ask someone to buy it for you). If it's for ethical reasons about tools being unfair then well done, but you are costing yourself money that you are giving to those who are using them.

To further inform this decision I make sure that during a tournament I read the Hand History of every single hand that has any post flop action or significant preflop action and make notes accordingly. This is the most critical thing I do as information is power and there is a ton of it in every hand that is played.

So assuming I've been at the table with this guy for more than 10 hands I'll have some stats (tentative) and some notes. I'll hopefully have formed some opinion on him sufficient to tentatively peg him as either

a) Fish
b) Superfish
b) Tight solid
c) Tight passive
d) Loose aggressive
e) Loose passive
e) No idea

And whether or not he's good enough to be paying attention to what I'm doing and respond accordingly. This is important because there's no point making plays and engaging in third level thinking against someone who has no clue what you are doing.

Exactly how you analyse the pokertracker stats is not something I'll go into at the moment other than the following couple of points:

- If someone has a VPIP% of played no hands at all (even over a sample of 10 hands) then assume they are tight until demonstrated otherwise
- If someone has a VPIP% of <12% over 100 hands then they are trying to play "good" poker and should be treated as paying attention to what is going on
- If someone has a VPIP% over 30% then assume they are playing too many hands
- If they have a preflop raise over 15% then there's a vulnerability to reraises which can be exploited.

An important note: It absolutely doesn't matter if you get the classification wrong. All that matters is that you get it right enough to make the correct decision a reasonable % of the time. If subsequent information says something different then change your view of them.

All of this however is only one piece of information and should be taken in context with notes, and other observations.

Without doubt this stage is the most important and informs everything that follows...

2) My cards

Yay, actually going to answer the question now

Versus Fish and Loose players

- Call with AJo, 55-77 and KK, AA (sometimes) - looking for opportunities post-flop

- Raise to 7BB-8BB (much more than this and it's pot-commitment time post-flop and it'll do the job if they are going to fold) - 88-QQ, AQ, AK, AA,KK

Fold everything else (not ready to get pot committed with KQ on a Q high flop in this kind of situation when they could actually have AA-JJ, AK etc, even a blind pig occassionally finds a truffle)

Versus Tighties and solid players

- Call - nothing - there's no hand I want to get involved with here that isn't worth raising with. Tight players respect preflop 3-bets. Calling preflop in non-deepstack situations gives away a lot of initiative. (caveat: sometimes I'll call with AA-KK and AK here in order to lay a cheeky trap postflop).

- raise 9BB - 88+ AQ, AK
Tighties deserve respect for paying attention. If I have a hand I want them to start thinking this is a tournament defining decision and act accordingly. If they have a hand I want them to tell me with a reraise now or something significant on the flop.

Fold - everything else.
No need to be a hero with plenty of time.

3) My image
If I've been playing tight then I'll loosen my range a tiny bit.
If I've made a move that may be perceived as bad or loose then I'm not too worried, it just means that villains range for 4-betting may have got a bit larger, which is good.

4) Any previous hands between the two of us
This is very context specific, but have we been in this situation before? Has one of us doubled up the other? Does this mean he is more or less likely to think I'm bluffing or affect his assessment of my range?

5) How active is the table?
The more active the table (lot's of action on hands) the more likely opportunities are going to present themselves to accumulate chips with low risk. On an active table I'll pass on marginal situations and tighten my range a bit in order to take advantage of a better situation versus a fish.

6) The stack sizes of the blinds
Are the blinds deep or short, are they shoving every hand. Shouldn't make a huge difference but needs considering before making a move.

That's one answer for one situation with stacks that are reasonable.

If I'm deepstacked >35BB v a shorty <15BB then the range gets a lot wider as a steal is more likely and the importance of the hand to me is less than to the villain as for him it's a defining moment but for me it's a small % of stack, this is a huge advantage in any hand.

If I'm semi-shortstacked <15 v another shorty then I will play surprisingly tight as any hand I play I am committed to putting my whole stack in.

I'll call 88-TT and AJ (maybe AT, KQ)

Raise 6bb (I want a call) JJ+, AK, AQ

Shove 22-99

My view is that people get too anxious to double up with >8BBs and panic themselves into situations where they are dominated. There are so many bad plays that there's no need to take unnecessary risks.

If I'm shortstacked <8BB then versus anyone the range is bigger (and the bigger the villains stack the bigger it gets). Versus a medium stack it's round about,

Shove KT+
22+
Call QQ,KK,AA

Important to remember that this is all for the situation late in a tourney as described above. Early-mid tourney all this is affected by other factors

I'm not calling any 4 bet here unless we are both really deepstacked (which is rare). Whatever the 4 bet is then it really means pot-commitment and I want to be dictating the hand so if I'm good enough to call then it's good enough to shove.

So it's shove or fold for me if I'm medium stacked,

And the range for shoving is,

Versus looser players shoving QQ-AA and AK (I hate getting all-in with AQ!)

Versus Fish TT+ AK

Versus superfish 77+ AJ and if they are really bad I'll shove down to A8.

Again if it's a 4 bet it's a shove for me and all that is dependant on the range of the villain. Generally though I'm calling reraise with TT+ AK and shoving 4bet TT,JJ and AK (overlap intentional as it would vary). Again very read depedant.

Weeeeee 1 down

Just a quick note, the above is a situation where villain has intiative (at least preflop). I widen ranges in situations where I have the initiative and post-flop is a whole nother ball-game.

Question 2

These are in a similar vein around survival V getting chips though Zach raises specific questions about payout affecting play.

Generally I think that Survival V Chips is entirely the wrong way to be looking at tournament play!!

Take the following situation; you have 15 big blinds and I in the cut off, there's a 3xbb raise under the gun from a player with 30bb who sat down the hand before. You have no reads on him. The tourney is about 45 minutes from making the money.

Your cards are 88.

Do you shove hoping to double and take the risk? or fold looking for a better situation?

My answer is that it is the wrong question!

The reality is that shoving carries with it three outcomes.

He folds
He calls you win
He calls you lose

(we'll ignore split pots and people calling behind).

Folding carries with it only one outcome for the hand of course

But what is important though is not the outcome of this hand but the impact of the outcome of this hand on the outcome of the tournament.

What I try and assess is that will shoving 88 here mean I am more or less likely to reach the final few tables, because that is all I am really interested in. Once I get there it's a new phase of the game (while it's obviously great to have chips with 20-30 left and is more likely to result in a win, having a 15bb stack is not too much of a disadvantage. My two recent wins saw me in dead last with 28 and 15 people left respectively).

This results in a shift in thinking from being in a surival v chips to assessing every hand on its merits and the possible outcomes. This may be a subtle distinction but I think it's an important one. I don't say to myself that "I'm in double up mode" or "it's sit tight time" I'm trying to work out what is the best way to get to that endgame in the ever-changing context. This might mean blinding away from 30bb to 10bb without doing a thing sometimes and on other occassions it means shoving over top with AK because fold equity + chance of a flip make it the right thing to do.

So how do you assess what is the right thing to do? In my situation above, will I get a better chance to gain a similar amount of equity than with my 88? Will this chance happen quickly enough for it to be worthwhile (ie while waiting for a better spot will I blind away past the point where I need a really strong run to get back in it). On the face of it shoving is the riskier decision because it could result in immediate elimination, but folding leads to a number of alternate futures where I also bust short of the decent money.

What I try and do is;

- assess all the outcomes of all possible actions and the resultant chipstacks
- then assess the likelihood of each chipstack enabling me to reach the decent cash

Occassionally this is relatively simple. For example do I call a shove with AK? Work out how likely it is to be a coinflip, dominated hand or AA/KK then take those odds and consider the impact on my stack of success and try and work out the benefit to is worth the coinflip.

More often though it's complex and involves factoring in a lot of possible post-flop outcomes as well.

There is of course absolutely no way this can be expressed mathematically in the time it takes to make a decision. Instead decisions must be the product of experience based on the outcomes of thousands of hands and hundreds of tournaments. Can I express in % terms how often I come back from a 15BB stack to cash well in a tourney? No! but I certainly factor in my perception of how likely it is into the decision making.

I think this mindset enables me to take each hand afresh and hang in on tournaments long after others have started gettng desperate while at the same time capitalising with extreme aggression on any marginal +EV situation I can find.

No idea if I've articulated this well or not, I think it's avery fine distinction so possibly not and as with a lot of what I think is important it's as much about mindset as actually playing the cards.

Might not have answered your Q Zach, so if you have specifics then happy to answer.


Edit: nearly forgot, in the example above I fold 88 and probaby shove somewhere between TT and JJ

Thanks Rex, good stuff.

Forgot to respond directly to this bit,

In general, I play my loosest in the first hour (and by this I mean trying to see flops cheap, not shoving crap). Though I seldom go out in the first hour (how's that for tempting fate). With the structure of tournies it's the only real opportunity to play "deep" poker in the first few levels. There's also an abundance of fish wanting to stack with anything pretty, so playing hands is good.

Generally considering the above post, I tighten up alot through the middle and unless I'm a big stack where it is easy to exploit I pretty much ignore the bubble. However immediately after the bubble people are so excited to have made the money things go crazy and it is the best time to double up.

Of course size of stack is a huge thing and affects all of this.

And I agree final tables are SnGs by another name

To a point. At most single SnG tables, there are still the wide variety of player styles (and lack of styles) found early in most any MTT. At an MTT FT, the entire table is 'generally' a much higher caliber player, IMO.

Very different from my experience. Usually two or three complete fish who are flirting with the far end of the bell curve, 3 or 4 who are so conscious of the money that they are playing too tight and scared and 2 or 3 (if that) who have what could be called solid skills.

Excellent stuff, as usual Rex. The kind that should be stickied somewhere so it never gets lost.

I know that you've gone to more multitabling ring games; do you still stick to not multitabling during tournaments, or will you do some multitabling still during the early stages?

What are your thoughts on stalling? I like to time down near the bubble when hand for hand play isn't in effect yet. However, Bodog issued me a warning about it.

Will do the others, but these are quick

Mutlitabling Ring (usually 4-7) has really helped. I play up to 3 tournies at a time or sometimes 1 tourney and 2 ring tables. Once it get past the 2nd hour though I like to have 1 table on the go if possible though obviously if two tournies are still going that's a good thing.

I've been in situations where I've been deep in the money in 2 at once and it really hurts the volume of information you can take in.

If it's fine with the rules then I don't see a problem from an ethical point of view, it's a game where you win because others lose, not a charity.

However I don't see the point of stalling unless it's right on the bubble (less than a handful of people to go) and you've got <5bb. Anything more than that and you are probably reducing long term winnings by missing out on the occassional miracle comeback which is worth a lot more than scraping into the cash.

If it's that important to make the money you are probably playing underrolled and it's affecting your play. MTTs are about final tables and top 3s not cashes.

Only exception is satellite bubbles, when it's fine to do whatever it takes imo.

I'm really pissed you didn't answer my first question. You're now on my sh!t list.

However, I'm offering you a chance to get off it:

1) How many satallites do you play? It seems like these would be high variance (win a tourney to win a tourney to make money). Seems like too much stuff has to happen for them to be consistently profitable.

2) How much tourney selection do you do? Do you look for overlays in guaranteed tournaments? Or do you just play whatever?

3) Are rebuys/bounty tourneys more profitable than traditional freeze-outs?

4) What do you make of 6 handed tournaments, or deepstacked/short stacked & turbo tournaments? Or do you stick with traditional freeze-outs?

5) Play anything other than hold'em?

Great posts Rex,

Do you make notes from the start or wait untill some/most of the field have gone, asking because I play low stakes tourneys with usally large feilds.

Same question with reviewing the HHs.

Thanks.

1) whats your PAHUD layout on the table.
2) How do you define the earl/middle and late stages of a MTT.
3) What advice or realization has had the most influence on your MTT game.

will come back with some more later great thread!!!!!!!!!

I like 1st question and also can you explain why you have them and how does it help you?

My view is that in the first hour you should be trying to see as many flops as possible where it is inconsequential to your chipstack to do so. When the blinds are 10/20 and you have 3000 chips then for me limping QTo in early position becomes incredibly +$EV. This is because if it is raised behind or I whiff the flop I'll fold without concern. I've got 2980 chips now and no impact at all in my chance of making the real money. However if the flop comes QT6 with two limpers behind then the tool with J9 is probably going to donate me 1500 chips chasing his draw before we get to the river.

Half (or more) of the people in any MTT go out in the first hour and most of them chasing or getting in light with hands that easy to pick off. The trick is to put yourself in a position to take advantage of this as often as you can without jeopardising your chipstack. So I play Loose-passive-passive in the first hour really only waking up when I hit a flop hard (and hard is usually TPTK or better. If you bust o well move on to the next.

Now to answer the question, a big stack allows you to see even more flops as losing up to 150 chips in a 10000+ chipstack is inconsequential. So I probably loosen up my requirements for calling small raises (ie someone raises to 3bb in ep, I'd probably call with KQ, KJ type hands if they weren't a rock). The caution is that you don't want to spew chips just because you have a few. I am I think at my strongest on the flop and don't give away many chips to ill-fated bluffs.

With a big stack say you have 12k chips, my view is that it is not worth risking 2k of those chips to gain another 2k as at this early stage the impact of the benefit of those extra chips does not outway the detriment to your chances of losing 2k. Essentially after a certain point each chip is worth less than the previous one. Badly explained possibly but a critical point in bigstack play.



I think a lot of the answer to this is above. I play a lot of hands in the first hour but it's more about selecting who I play against post-flop than it is about card-selection. If you target the bad players then you will seldom find TPTK not holding up.

And yep, TPTK on non-scary boards I'm looking to stack every time. IF they have a set move on.

(My stats on OPR show me not busting early very often so this shouldn't imply a cavalier attitude in the first hour).

Would that have been in a satellite, Joe ?

Stalling in Bodog satellites is a chronic problem and does often result in other players becoming annoyed with the short-stack and complaining to support.

Unlike many sites, the Bodog tournament software does not switch to hand-to-hand play as the bubble approaches. There is therefore an incentive for a short-stacked player to drag each hand out as long as possible, in the hope that others will bust out and promote him into a qualifying position before he blinds off.

In a satellite which pays (say) twenty seats, it is as good to be twentieth as to be first and there is therefore some point to this tactic. As Rex says, it`s probably fairly dumb in a normal cash-prize tourney.

Even where there is a purpose to it, you are taking a big risk. Rule #7 of Bodog`s rules says that intentional slow-playing is not permitted. You could have your account frozen.

I have a small bankroll spread out over several sites, around 50 bucks on each site. I've never deposited !!!!!!!!
And I play MTT's and SNG's and I'm a FRW. I play dollar tourneys and sng's. I've been stuck at this level for some time now. Which tourneys /SNG's etc do you find would be easier to build your b/r. and which ones should I avoid . I've had lots of small cashes couple of final tables, 2 wins, yeah I still need some practice.

Oh yea ...any do's and don'ts for bubble play would be a big help. For the short stack as well as the big stack.

Thanks Rex.

I am on many sh!t lists, I have a list of them


Assuming you are a winning tourney player over the long run (which is not true of many people) then providing it is within bankroll then playing any tourney with a decent structure should be +$EV. The other factor to consider being time.

I have played a lot of sats to the Sunday events in the past. The turbo rebuys were my favourit because they had such a lot of dead money, they are a bit of a lottery but providing you play smart then it's definitely cheaper than buying in, with a ticket probably costing on average about $100-$150 instead of $215. I had some incredible runs where I qualified in a few on the trot, but it's important not to forget about the other end of variance where you miss a few in a row.

I've now started either buying in or using FPP tickets to the Sunday warm-up. In part this is cause my roll can stand it, but also because of the loss of earnings from ring while playing the sats.

Coincidentally I wrote about this in my blog not long ago, see below. I think it's very important and satellites aside I don't play turbos. Double-stack tournies are great, so are rebuys. Anything that makes the average M bigger later in the tourney. Hard to find overlays, but if they can be found then great.

Quote:

Game selection in Tournies Table selection is huge in Ring games. What is given less attention is game selection in tournaments. There is no doubt in my mind that MTT success can be significantly improved by carefully choosing which ones you play. Of course unlike Ring games you don't get to choose based on your opponents. Instead pay close attention to the structure, it really makes a difference. My favourite tournaments all provide more chips than the standard Stars structure (which is 1500 chips). With the normal blind levels this can easily be a case of one hand going wrong post-flop and you are in push-mode in the first hour. More worryingly it can mean that the average stack in the mid-late stages of the tourney is less than 20bbs. And that is a recipe for luck over skill. My recommendations: - the $44 6-max tourney - starts about 1600hrs gmt for some reason about 90 of the 150 starters in this bust in the first hour (presumably due to overplaying the short-handedness. This results in a quick rush to the final 30 and deepers stacks than most 1500 chip tournies allow. - Any rebuy you are rolled to play "properly" yes I know people can win rebuys by not rebuying or adding on and good luck to them. However it is so huuuuuuuuuuugely +EV to play a rebuy where you can afford to exploit any edge in the rebuy period with zero concern for the cost. I'm not talking about being stupid but instead taking the flips and pushing hard versus the fools. Of course rebuys mean deep-stacks, and deep-stacks are good if you are wanting to exploit your skill-based edge. - the $22, 1 rebuy, 1 add-on tourney - starts about 1930 gmt this tourney is great. Play it like a $62 and rebuy immediately and enjoy the deeper stack. Lots of people playing scared or donking off 1500 chips and then rebuying. Later stages see nice deep stacks. A truly soft tourney with a lot of people way out of their depth. Will playing these tournies guarentee success? No! But it does give you another couple of % on your side which should be all you need. Playing any tourney should be a long-term positive expectation if you have the mad skills, but it's nice to have the odds pushed a little in your favour.

I wrote that about the $22 rebuy, just before my 1st win in it btw

More profitable is a tricky one. The variance is probably bigger with scope for bigger wins, but long-term I'd suggest not much difference. Of course an MTT players career may not be long enough for the long-term to assery itself given the structure of payouts where one big win can make a huuuuuge difference.

However providing you are properly rolled to not worry about rebuying as often as necessary rebuys are a great way to exploit dead money and bad play in the first hour and deeper stacks later on.

See above. No turbos, like deepstacks when I have the time (came 2nd in the first one I played a while back). Double stacks (3000 chips) are lovely and rebuys are good fun. I try and avoid the standard structure 1500 chips freezeouts if I can nowadays and my ITM% seems to have benefitted.


Nope. Razz makes baby Jesus cry.

From the very first hand I'm taking notes and reading HHs like crazy. Admittedly I'm more focussed the deeper it gets, but every %age edge counts so I'm not missing a thing if I can help it. I suspect a lot of people don't zone in to the tourney until later, but you can't get to the end unless you get through the early parts.

Great thread. A must-read IMO.

Keep it up!

Rex slow down lol, I need to catch up, nah jk, keep going, but I'm going to read this and I think I can think of few more Q's so be ready lol.

Hello,

What's the best ways that you guys have found to make money at the micro levels?

I'm looking for specific tourneys, sit and gos, etc, and strategies as well.

I like Pokerstars but I'm not married to it.

Thanks guys.

heres a situation I found myself in yesterday. With 22 players left in a 180 man SNG I had 40k in chips, the average was 15k or so and there were all medium stacks at my table who I had been exploiting thier blinds like crazy, then the 2nd place chipstack gets moved to my right with 35k. How should we adjust our game due to the fact that now instead of only being able to loose 15k in a hand we can loose 35k to one player. Should we tighten up or try and push this guy around aswell?

Later in the same tourny, I find myself with 130k and blinds 500/1000 with 6 players left. average stack around 40k, but there is again a guy with 80k and the rest all have 15-20kish stacks, everyone is playing fairly tight aroun 19vpip, again how do you approach this as there are no real medium stacks just 4 shorties and 2 big stacks, dou you use your chip advantage to race a few people and move up the payout or sit back and wait for big hands?

2 Qs

1. When there is a very small window for cash do you change your style at all?

2. How do you build your chipstack in the middle stages, if you come out of say the first hour, slightly below the average?