MTT Tips

How do you play during the early levels of NLHE tournies? Do you open your game up for the cheap blinds, or do you play your normal game? I am more of a tight player who normally plays NL short handed ring games and looking for some multi table tourny tips.
Thanks,
Paddy Whacked

Check these out for help..

http://www.cardschat.com/f11/officia...rategy-118140/

http://www.cardschat.com/f11/kc-pati...rticle-128538/

You can play either way, Paddy.

If you can play well post-flop and if you can fold second-best hand, it is viable to play quite loose, especially from late position. However, those are big "ifs".

The safe advice for less experienced players is to stay tight during the early levels of a tourney.

sure sometimes try to take advantage of the early blinds, but don't call a re-raise just cause you're trying to protect your little limp, and always be mindful of position.

if you can limp, then you're able to raise

It all depends on the game. If youre in a bingo freeroll... (Any large freeroll with quick blinds) forget bluffing in the early going. Instead overbet every good hand you get. I'm willing to flip early for my tournament life because:

A. Its a large freeroll.
B. I'm going to have to accumulate a lot of chips to have a chance at a good run.
C. The blinds will increase too fast for me to not take chances.
D. The kinds of hands that are calling me are much weaker than in a stronger field.

Once youre talking about money tournaments that arent 5 dollars or less and arent turbos... you can slow down a bit. You can actually play some poker. Tight Aggressive Poker.

And just because you play tight at a short handed table, doesnt mean that you dont have to adjust for a full table MTT. What you're going to open UTG with when there are six hands, are not the kind of hands you are going to open UTG at a full table.

Another difference from your short handed cash games, is that you're going to feel the blinds pushing you. You're going to have to adjust to this and loosen up, and play more like you would at the short handed tables. Eventually you're going to be doing the math of whether its a good idea to push or even call an all in hand with hands you would have mucked easily a few hours earlier.

Im sure there are tons of articles like the ones above that can teach you much more... but this is my two cents.

I play normal poker throughout the tournament until the blinds get very high. Your range doesn't matter, I play pretty loose; but you have to be able to know when to fold.

For example you hold AQ and there is a raise and reraise, you are probably beat. Be careful with A-low and play suited connectors like pairs.

In early stages I normally limp with small PP and trip mine for value.

The early stages of a tourny (other than a freeroll) should always be played tight. Phil Hellmuth's most simple rules of a tourny are to play the top 10 hands early (wish some exception of course) and try to never be the one at risk for all their chips. There's no point risking all your chips unless you have a monster when the blinds are low enough to wait for something good to happen.

So far this works for me:

I play extreamly tight till the blinds are 50/100. Then I start to play suited connectors if I am in the late position and there are at least a two limpers. In general I continue to play tight when the blinds are high. Some people might say it is wrong startegy and you have to be more agressive. But it does not work for me.

I also figured a weird way of playing AKo/AKs. I usually just limp/call a raise with these hands to check out the flop. If I get my A or K, I bet. People who don't put me on A/K are going to pay for it. Maybe this game is wrong, but I got too many bad beats with AK, so I'd rather be wrong and win than right and lose.

I usually play really tight in early levals of a mtt until the blinds get a little bigger,I do try to keep an at least ave.chip stack,meaning i will play semi suited connectors and small pp early in a tourney,but i will play them cautiously and only in position to play tem.
But that goes for late levals in a tourney or me as well.

Raising up preflop to take down the blinds in early levels really isn't worth it.
Generally speaking.. tight is right in early levels.. and 'super tight is super right' (although if you feel you are much more skilled than your opponents and can outplay them postflop then consider playing more hands).
Some of the thought.. 'play many hands in early levels if you can see the flops for cheap and if your hands have good potential' (D.Negreanu comes to mind with this). However, in most online mtts, you really don't have too much room for play like this.... you'll be donking off chips unecessarily imo.
Depending upon the buyin level and skill level on your table, you can often do well by patiently waiting for strong hands and taking down some decent pots in early going. I don't bother to get involved with any marginal hands at the early levels although I'm not squeeky tight either (ie. if I've been 'perceived' as being very tight but have really just been running cardead and I'm able to open a pot in MP... I will do so occassionally with a 5-7s+).
If you're desiring to make a transition to tourney play, I'd suggest reading the Harrington On Holdem series (Vol.1 & 2.. and possibly 3... 1 & 2 for sure though).
GL!!

Hi

From my experience, you'd be better off playing very little hands early on.
Typically I think you want to keep away from troublesome hands the likes of small ball type hands like suited connectors - even though these are well playable at these blind levels since you are effectively deep stacked at this stage. Dominated type hands are killers. KQ, KJ, K10 etc since they slightly better hands like kq, look nice and are like a red rag to bull to a lot of players who will play them no matter what. And as for ax, those hands could bring tears to a glass eye. AJ is quite dodgy if you're out of position never mind the aces below those.

At these levels you're going to have a lot of people who believe they have to double up early to get ahead of the crowd. So people will be pushing with a wide range of hands. Two callers who push you all in could easily crush your premiums, aces or whatever else.

I think you're better off playing cheap hands like pairs and hoping to trip, or premiums but be prepared to let go if the flop looks drawy and the going gets heavy. In some live tourneys I've played, I even know players that let the tourney run for 20 mins and play a cash game instead before they join the tourney because of their bad experiences. Although thats not something I'd personally do.

I'd recommend 1st just sitting back, see who the idiots are, see if they bust out, if not what position they have over you, and look more for opportunities where you can get some value as opposed to having a locked horns fight against an over zealous player trying out a few moves. Typically I'd look for cheap flops if possible, position preferred obviously. If you only have a pair or small value hand, try to get to the river as cheap as possible and not bluff - simply because an idiot with bottom pair will not appreciate what you're attempting to do.

Infact a lot of players will not initially even watch what you are doing, period. And guess what, you'll not even know you are the idiot players and who are the decent players early on. As an example, I was in the big B in Vegas not so long ago and a guy in late position raised allin with a bluff of $300 on a 1/2 game on the river. He had Q high, missed his draw. A young lady utg called it after some thought and mucked. The guy was lucky because he threw his hards down and said ' Yeah, you got me' and they both landed facing up! I'm sure to he tried to muck them!!! But my point is this: who would ever call an allin bet for that money with a hand that doesn't even beat Q high. Well there are people who'll do it. So basically bluffing these people will simply not work - unless like this guy you can find a caller with a hand less than a Q. (By the way, the very next hand, I lost a $200 pot next hand with someone who caught a 2 outer river; after I put him in on the turn - ho ho. Poker is ssssoooo unkind.)

In the early stages I play my high pp carefully, i play suited connectors and hope to draw something big I play top pair carefully i dont want to commit too much on only a pair and sometimes even 2 pair for that matter.