Winning tourneys playing tight?

I play pretty tightly, playing aggresive only when I feel I have a chance of winning the hand. Am I playing wrong? It seems like I can never make it to the end!!! I usually make it in the money, but never in the top 2 or 3 or winning it. Any suggestions? I have found that playing aggresive doesn't work very well in low stake tourneys. Can tourneys be won playing tight most of the time?

Not really at some point you have to change gears and loosen up your starting hands as the field thins out. Try calling a reasonable raise with a king/queen offsuit in position and go from there. I have made it farther in a tournment this way just knowing that most players will try to pick up the blinds and antes in the later stages. Good luck

I should clarify the starting hands I used king/queen as an example any two connecters will play with a reasonable bet.

Unless you get dealt an amazing run of cards, you'll need to change gears a few times during a tournament to make it to the final table or even win it.

Around the bubble, for example, you might want to loosen up a bit and steal a few more pots with carefully applied aggression.

You should notice during a tournament that the playing style of your table changes - you need to adjust your play to suit. If everybody's playing like maniacs, then it's probably best to stay tight. If everybody's tightened up and is playing conservatively, loosen up and try stealing from position. Note that this can happen even at the same table with the same players.

If you just stick to the one gear for the whole tournament, you're probably missing out on opportunities to accumulate chips, and it's accumulating chips that lets you reach final tables.

i switch tgear and get nice

I have to say yes. if you're cashing regularly you are doing pretty good. Most good tournament players only cash around 17 to 20% of the tournaments they play. Most top players with that kind of statistic only win 1st place in less than 1% of the tournaments they play.

If you are cashing tournaments between 15 and 20% of the time you're doing it right in my opinion. If you're doing that then you should know about changing gears and playing fast or tightening up depending on the situations as they arise. That shouldn't be a problem, if you're looking for final table experience play 1 table sit and go's from time to time to stay in practice for when you do make a final table.

If you think you're too tight drop down a tourney level and play loose/maniac for practice that can be fun and informative.

Enjoy

Yeah i mostly have won money in MTTs by playing tight but honestly gambling a bit on a flush draw or stealing some blinds helps a lot i mean ,I have come up to win second place out of 500 people from an average chip stack but having a chip lead always is a positive.........also watch for small stacks going all in for blinds and try not too bully big stacks for blinds if they're BB cuz they'll bully back.they usualkly know your a robber.lol

stealing blinds, bluffing, semi bluffs, chasing draws, position raises and changing gears will win you tournaments.

but that is when you're in the money

to get TO the money you only need to get involved in a few hands.

play TAG and take down huge pots 3 or 4 times and toss rags and you should make it to the money

once you're there you going to need to change gears and start playing a wider variety of hands.

then when you make final 3 or 4, don't be scared to go all in with rags when you're on the button, just remember that your opponents also want to finish higher in the money and will often fold hands like A9, A10, 88 etc when being pressured by an all in bet. Don't do it too often though but outrageous bluffs are sometimes needed.

you need to adopt this if you're short stacked or big stacked.

One tournament I remember clearly there were 3 of us left , I was the middle stack and I pulled 2 massive bluffs in succession with rags and both times I showed my bluff, the very next hand I got KK and went all in again, and both guys called. I knocked one out and crippled the larger stack. very next hand again I got JJ and did the same thing, he called with A rag.

sometimes its good to show your bluffs

IMO i think the main reason why playing aggressively doesn't work well in low stakes tourneys is because so MANY people play very loose in these games, they call with almost anything then get lucky, catching the flop with their 7 2 off suit (b*st*ards).

I find i get on better in the higher stake tourneys if i fell like playing aggressive as you tend to come up against better players that know the score.

I'm sure there'll be people out there that will disagree with what i've said but as I say, it's just my opinion.

anyway, now i've chucked my $0.02 in I'm off for a cuppa