Deep Stack Tourney Strategy Help

Hmm. My other thread has gone largely ignored (OK, completely ignored). So, for the sake of getting some help on this topic, i'm gonna post another one, perhaps with a little more detail.

I recently began playing deep stack tournaments. In all, I have played in 3, finishing ITM in 2 of them for little more than 2 times my buy in. Obviosously, ITM is a good thing, but being at the bottom of the payscale hurts. I play a TAG game in the early stages, and it helps me get through to the middle stages. As everyone likely knows by now, I primarily play SnG's where the fields are much smaller, and steal attempts are not being made against a full table in the mid and late stages. I am struggling to figure out how to open up my game. I generally don't like just limping into a pot at this point, because I am committing chips to the pot that would begin to cripple my stack. But if I get a standard 3-4 BB raise called or re-raised, then I am pot committed for the rest of my stack with a re-raise or on the flop.

Am I playing perhaps TOO tight in the early stages, not giving myself a strong enough chance to accumulate chips? What things should I be looking for when making a steal attempt at a full table? Does the fold/shove theory still apply with an M of less than 10 in MTT's as it would in SnG's? What hand ranges should I be willing to put my chips in with?

Thanks for any and all advice on this topic.

I must admit that this is very hard question, the real question is if you ready to loose more then half of the games and in few to hit a high place or not. as I see u doubeling your money almost every time and this solid game, and very good to build your bankroll ,however I think that you should make a bar for yourself and say that there is a small amount of my bankroll that I'm ready to loose for a un-tight game, you should make it real small amount of money that wont make you tilting and you wont be too sorry to loose it, I hope I helpped you.

53 views and 1 response?
Do I have to be someone important around here for anyone to offer help or advice?

Seems your early strategy works - I'd keep it that way (I'm a nit though ).

In mid/late stages (bb 200+) you need to start stealing (as you mentioned).

There's a nice article by KC about stealing that might help you: KC ADVANCED BLIND STEALING STRATEGY

There are many threads dealing with deepstack tourney play in the strategy section, too: StrategyArticles

I know about pot -odds and being pot-comitted but for me there is no such thing in a MTT.

This is not a cash-game where you can reload instantly but it's a tourney-life decision.

Don't start limping but open your rasing range (2,5-3 BB +1 BB for every limper) a bit.

Not knowing how your range is you might consider raising small pps, high suited connectors or - against unlikely to be defended blinds - even air in late position.

If you feel your fold equity is too small because you don't have enough chips to be able to push flop,turn and river : shove and pray with hands with showdown value in order to reduce the number of callers.

M-related shove/fold theory counts in MTTs too afaik but I tend to play every tourney a bit different, sometimes waiting for my chance down to 2BBs.

Nice post graf. The one thing I would semi-disagree with is your statement about pot odds/commitment. I say semi, because you are right, it's not like with a cash game where you can be pot-committed and call, then lose, but you can just reload. I think in tourneys there is a different level of pot commitment. Let's say there are 15 players left and only 10 spots pay and you are the short stack with 3.5 BB's left. When the blind comes around and you're in the big blind and someone from any position in front of you raises, I would consider that being pot-committed(I know it is a little different than the real definition of pot commitment), just because you really don't have any other options than to call. You are so far down that if you don't double this hand up, the tournament is essentially over for you anyways, cause after you post your small blind the next hand, you will only have 2BB left, then if you double up, you will almost be where you started the last orbit. Pot-commitment comes into play during certain stages of an MTT in my mind.

Acez, you know you could have just posted again in your old thread with more detail, you didn't have to repost with the same thing... The mods don't like when you do that...

Thanks for the info guys. I will try and use this advice in the next couple events I play in.

Sorry for the double post. I was really tired and didn't even think to just elaborate on my previous thread.

One of the key aspects of playing a deepstack tourney is to maximise one`s opportunities to build a stack in the early levels. After all, it is in the early levels, when effective stack sizes are high, that these tournies differ. Once the blinds rise to a level where stacks are equivalent to ~50 Big Blinds or fewer, the game becomes much like any other tourney.

Deepstack play could easily be the subject of a very long post, but I am playing a Final Table right now and need to focus on that. Briefly, you won`t go too far wrong if you play tight from early and mid position, but open out your range substantially from late. You can even legitimately call a raise with a speculative hand from LP. This is because large stacks increase post-flop options and therefore amplify positional advantage.

Edit - By the way, sorry you didn`t get an early response. I usually try to respond to questions about MTT strategy unless one of the other MTT regulars gets there ahead of me. Missed this one, I`m afraid.