What is your goal when playing Top Pair early in a tournament?

[radek]

If I have top pair with dry board and at least one of my card is colored like card on board I will check back because it's more likely opponent has not backdoor flush and there is no reason to bet. If none of my cards compare with board colors I will bet. Wet board ofcourse defend with big bet.

 

[ERICBR30]

It's really hard to play these pairs and be profitable at the beginning of the tournament because online players tend to call with any card because they want to win big at all costs especially in microstacks ... these players end up disturbing a whole strategy you put in practice after reading, watching videos of how to play the best possible way and everything you learn becomes worthless when it encounters this kind of situation.
In conclusion .... the best way to play the same top pairs is very careful not to lose to a 42.

 

[teepack]

Early in a tourney I always proceed with caution. There are a lot of factors to consider. What was the preflop raise? How many people saw the flop? If it is really early, you probably don't have any real reads on people yet.

I view a tourney as a marathon, and in the early stages I would rather fold a winner than play a losing hand. There will be plenty of time to make up for missing out on a potential winning hand, but losing a significant chunk of chips early could be more difficult to overcome.

 

[PershingSt]

I think the most important thing is to try and think about how many streets of value we can realistically get out of our made hands . A hand like top pair , deepstacked early levels in an mtt should not be a hand where we are trying to get 3 streets of value . I think you should adjust your play based on how many streets you think you can get + the texture of the boards and opp tendencies . Tournaments cant be won on first hand but they can be lost !