My mid-game sucks... help!

I can get way into the top of the heap, top 1/3 of players in any given sNg or MTT and then as the blinds climb I seem to falter. Blinds get so large it freaks me out, people bet big, HUGE even and you KNOW they don't have the hand; sometimes you even get to see they don't have it. Meanwhile I'm trying to hang in there after spending a couple hours or so playing.

If I get to the point where it's final table or heads up I can hold my own nicely. It's just getting there.

Any advice for getting past those quickly increasing blinds and over-betters jitters?

I try to stay away from the flop unless I have a good hand, because if you catch a draw, or a semi good hand, you wanna call bets. But most of the time you're not gonna catch anything. If I do have a good hand, I play it agressively, unless nothing comes on the board. I also try to stay away from bluffing.

Sounds like you may need to be able to change gears to get you through the "middle" part of the tournament. If you haven't already read the Harrington on Hold'em, then you may want to read his sections about dealing with the increasing blinds and the proportion of your stack to the blinds.

sounds like the same problem i have

playing while ahead is far more dangerous than playing from behind. when you play from behind, you know that you are waiting solely for a strong pre flop hand to try and double up on. playing from ahead though, you have a cushion to play with, and most players use that cushion far too liberally.

one leak that i noticed in my game was that i was playing the right cards, but i wasn't playing my table position to my advantage and i was allowing opponents to control my betting.

if you are fortunate enough to climb your way to the top in the early blinds (which would most likely necessitate a double up), you are actually in a great position, as long as you are controlling betting. playing with a lead, you will be able to play a lot more speculative hands. but you should only play them from late position, leaving premium hands for early to mid position. you should not call and previous raises with speculative hands. if there were no previous callers, you can make a raise to try and steal the blinds. if there were previous callers, you would want to limp and hope that you can sneak up on a hand. but don't call any raises with these hands. that was my biggest leak, i was calling raises with speculative hands from out of position, which put me in a lot of difficult decision post flop. do i bluff for half my stack? do i fold the large ammount i've already invested? a couple hands like this, and you stack is diminished. so my best advice is to play your position, and control the betting (and in turn the pot size), that way you limits losses if you miss and maximize wins when you hit pay dirt.

Lately I have been trying to build a BR from freerolls. I have a similar problem as you. I play tight agressive early in the tourney and build a considerable stack. But, by the time we are down to the last 200 or so players my stack hasn't increased in the same way it did early and I seem to be right about average or below average.

I have learned that as the tourney continues you need to play more hands but play them for less and try to do a lot of stealing with middle pairs or strong draws. But, you need to know when you are beat and fold that dog if you know your opponent isn't going to fold. Its hard and dangerous but worth it when you have a top 5 stack and make the final table or cash frequently.


I'm still trying to get used to this counter-intuitve strategy but it has paid off so far.

generally the strategy is to loosen up as the blinds get larger because people get tighter as you near the bubble. obviously it helps when you have a large stack but medium-ish stacks can pull this off succesfully as well. yea it's scary to loosen up near the bubble because you risk busting but that shouldn't happen too often if you know when you're beat

Thanks gang, I think my answer lies in all your responses. I need to loosen up, I need to pay attention to my position (do I have to tell my hubby he's right? He said the same thing) and dangit YES!

When I know I have the hand, play aggressively, don't be scared off by someone over betting. If I'm truly beat then so be it. Thanks for the encouragement and advice gang. I'll try this weekend when I'm online playing.

start stealing pots......... and raise and raise and only call if you have a good hand......... you should be putting the pressure on those who are trying to fold there way in to the final table...... take advantage of that.... all the good players know this and they are certainly taking advantage of it......... Dont sit around and wait for aces because we all know they dont come around as much as we want them too...........

Yeah, those elusive aces and when they do show up, half the time they get cracked.

I'll steal whenever I can, but dang some idiots call with anything, not even good playable hands. Always suck ya out on the river and that stinks!

If you got a nice stack don't be afraid to call some ugly lookin hands.. they will hit and pay you off big.. just don't call any crazy pre-flop raises with some garbage.. =)

All the advise worked! Thank you all!!!
I played that Million Dollar Men semi final and won $10 real money dollars. I was excited when I received the notification email. I was so aiming for the top level I didn't notice if you made it to the final 3000 you were paid off. Oh happy days...

I was amazed at how many times I called because I was sitting pretty good with my hand, and found out what absolute garbage was being bet really high with! There ARE worse poker players out there than me!!!

Thats exactly what I was thinking. I've been trying to work on my position play, and steals. I'm pretty tight and most of the time when I get my money in, I have it, but still as soon as I change gears and go for a steal, Someone always calls my huge raise with Ax or complete rags and ends up blasting me on the river or runner runner killing me on the end. I'm always so pissed, cause I'm thinking, when I'm raising I've got great hands so why the hell are you calling me with junk. Maybe it's the stakes, and I know quality play and freeroll is a friggin oxymoron.

i have the same problem. i get up alot like top 30 then between the blinds going up and me fearing getting behind in the chip count i end up calling something i shouldn't call or paying to see flops because i have a moderate starting hand. i get whittled down and then I'm out. thanks for this post, i think it will help my game.