Mid to late tourney play

Ok this is going t be a little long.....

In a tourney (freerolls or low buy in), I can usually make it to late middle of the torneys. This is where I seem to have most problems. I play tight and the blinds really start to eat me. Yet, many times this is when I run into players that are completely manic. They push with any two cards. They will call your 3 bet with bottom pair or less. It is hard to put them on any hand or range because they are so random. Yet, if you keep waiting for the AA, KK, etc. you get blind/ante out. How do you play against people like this? I do hit money spots and have the occasional win or top 3 finish. It just seems that I could be hitting more if I could learn how to get through these type of positions...

Any suggestions?

That has been my experience often as well, but it changes when you move from the FR to micro and than bigger buy-in tournaments and MTTs. The FR do not seem to be representative of poker as we talk about in the forums and discussions because it is free. When you have nothing to lose, you have everything to gain so players just do random, stupid stuff and sometimes they get away with it but over time, the rules prevail. FWIW.

Basically OP; you're playing it backwards. To tighten up when you enter middle/late stages when blinds are getting big is the worse and incorrect strategy. I don't want this to come across as rude but the people you describe as shoving lots or like manics are actually playing optimally and have the correct strategy, where as you don't.

You really need to loosen up your game a lot towards the end game by the sounds of it.

Ram you are right, but often this still depends on tabledynamics BI's players etc.

Sorry I think in freerolls and microstakes Ram is right!

I think OP also should try to read something about playing with 20BB or less.

I play tight all the time.... however, I do play a wider range as the blinds get bigger. I raise preflop. I will do a continuation bet sometimes with nothing. It is the players that will call with absolutely nothing that nails me. I had a QJ suited other day. I was getting close to 10X BB position. I bet 6XBB because I knew the guy at the table was calling a lot. I was hoping for a fold. He called. After the flop of 7c Kd 2s, I did a pot sized continuation bet. Low and behold, he called. Turn, 6h. I was putting him on a K at least. I did another pot size bet just to see if maybe he was searching for something. I had 3k left in my stack. Blinds 600/1200. He called. River popped a 10d. I checked figuring he had to have a K. He checked with A 3 unsuited. He had 4k in his stack. He would call with anything. You have no fold equity. This has happened to me in so many tourneys. How do you play against that without blinds killing you?

Try to start play then, when tournament starts.
But if you late reg... First look, how big is the blinds and starting stack, if blinds are too big don't register (more in micro tournaments), in freerolls there isn't meter when you register, you have nothing to lose. If you register late in MTT then just play like you playing other times. Starting stack often is 3k chips there can't be a problems with ante/blinds beacouse in most of micro tournaments late reg is until level 12. 150/300(SB/BB)

ramdeebam said:

Basically OP; you're playing it backwards. To tighten up when you enter middle/late stages when blinds are getting big is the worse and incorrect strategy. I don't want this to come across as rude but the people you describe as shoving lots or like manics are actually playing optimally and have the correct strategy, where as you don't.

You really need to loosen up your game a lot towards the end game by the sounds of it.

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Agreed...if I get down to 14/15 BB's, I like to push w AJs+/22+ if I'm UTG or in an early position. If you've played premium hands throughout and kept it tight up to this point, people are going to be a lot less likely to call unless they have an absolute monster. The majority of the players around you will have tightened up, and 14/15 BBs is enough to make somebody lay a good hand down without thinking twice about it at that point in the tourney. If you let your stack get below that range, it's a lot more likely that you'll see callers (which you technically don't want unless you have QQ+, maybe TT+ or AKs, you just wanna steal the blinds and ante and wait on your next good hand ). This strategy works better online as a way to apply pressure as the competition tightens up to make sure they get in the money. Just one strategy here...would love to hear thoughts on this strategy from others.

I think against players who often call you can win a big stack, but its difficult.
I also really don't know what to do with the fast blind level, I always try some all ins preflop and win, but at the end my stack is normally not big enough not to get sucked out.

lost2qandisa said:

In a tourney (freerolls or low buy in), I can usually make it to late middle of the torneys. This is where I seem to have most problems. I play tight and the blinds really start to eat me.

Click to expand...

Don't put too much emphasis on getting to the middle stages. You win the same 0 whether you're first out or the bubble. Lasting longer doesn't even mean you played better. It just means you busted out later.

If you're regularly under blind pressure in the late middle stage, you're probably playing too tight in the early mid and mid mid stages, with the result being that you don't accumulate enough chips to keep your stack fully playable. Note that this doesn't mean you need to have a big stack. What it means is that you need to have enough chips to retain your full range of options.

Opinions differ as to how many BB is enough. However, as the blinds rise, your stack needs to keep pace more or less. For instance, if we say 30BB is a fully playable stack, then you need 15k when the BB is 500. But if the BB jumps to 600 in the next level, you have to increase your stack by 3k in order to still have 30BB.

It usually won't matter much if you add 0 to your stack during one level, but depending how quickly the blinds increase, by just keeping the same stack size through two or more levels, your ability to play your full game can be diminished considerably.