D
drizzt
Enthusiast
Silver Level
Hey all,
I wanted to post this earlier, but the site went down for a bit yesterday.
This morning I placed 3/526 in a low stakes knock out tournament, making a nice cash prize compared to my bankroll (which is still in an early developmental stage =P) However, while I learned to play 'real' poker first and best through MTT freerolls way back when, I feel like I'm missing some strategy that is costing me some wins. Especially in the one I finished 3rd in, there were times when I was getting eaten alive by blinds, but didn't feel I could steal because of my cards.
I know that in mid-to-late tourny rounds I should be looking to steal blinds, and to open up my card selection. I'm not waiting around for high pocket pairs or AJ+ suited. The problem is I tend to get stuff like 44-99 in early position, and crap like 103, 86, 97, suited and off suit a lot in late position. I've had 10-20 hand streaks of crap cards, and then my mind starts to think things like K5 suited, or Q8 suited are starting to look good. Mainly I'm good at restraining myself from that crap, but my question come down to this:
Assume I'm just about average in chip count, but the blinds are getting rough (such as turbo tournaments when the blind rounds move fast). If I'm seeing that I'm getting very marginal hands to steal at best in early position, and pretty crappy cards in late position (like K rag, Ace rag off suit, or even K rag suited) what should I do? I've tried waiting it out, but it seems I just get blinded down to a point where I have to start shoving with hands I'd rather not shove with or shove in bad position. Also, when is playing suited connectors a good idea? Am I just raising to steal with them, or are there some positions where it's ok to call and play them?
In the tournament I won this morning, I could have easily built a bigger chip stack if I was able to do more despite hitting some long streaks of bad cards. The chip leader built up a lot of chips by stealing, and while I had a good read on him such as when he had a premium hand, and when he was just stealing (and I had a very good idea on the range of hands he was stealing with) I didn't feel I could do anything because my cards weren't quite good enough to warrant risking 1/5-1/3 of my stack to call or reraise.
Sorry for the long post, I just feel that I'd rather ask as much in one post, than clutter the boards with multiple threads of smaller questions. Any resources dedicated to mid-late stage MTT would be great. I've read the one's under poker strategy here, but feel I"m still missing a lot of strategy that could really get me into a place where I can consistently win 18-90 people SnG MTT's at low stakes.
Of course, I'd appreciate any insight whatsoever, I always like a different view on things.
I wanted to post this earlier, but the site went down for a bit yesterday.
This morning I placed 3/526 in a low stakes knock out tournament, making a nice cash prize compared to my bankroll (which is still in an early developmental stage =P) However, while I learned to play 'real' poker first and best through MTT freerolls way back when, I feel like I'm missing some strategy that is costing me some wins. Especially in the one I finished 3rd in, there were times when I was getting eaten alive by blinds, but didn't feel I could steal because of my cards.
I know that in mid-to-late tourny rounds I should be looking to steal blinds, and to open up my card selection. I'm not waiting around for high pocket pairs or AJ+ suited. The problem is I tend to get stuff like 44-99 in early position, and crap like 103, 86, 97, suited and off suit a lot in late position. I've had 10-20 hand streaks of crap cards, and then my mind starts to think things like K5 suited, or Q8 suited are starting to look good. Mainly I'm good at restraining myself from that crap, but my question come down to this:
Assume I'm just about average in chip count, but the blinds are getting rough (such as turbo tournaments when the blind rounds move fast). If I'm seeing that I'm getting very marginal hands to steal at best in early position, and pretty crappy cards in late position (like K rag, Ace rag off suit, or even K rag suited) what should I do? I've tried waiting it out, but it seems I just get blinded down to a point where I have to start shoving with hands I'd rather not shove with or shove in bad position. Also, when is playing suited connectors a good idea? Am I just raising to steal with them, or are there some positions where it's ok to call and play them?
In the tournament I won this morning, I could have easily built a bigger chip stack if I was able to do more despite hitting some long streaks of bad cards. The chip leader built up a lot of chips by stealing, and while I had a good read on him such as when he had a premium hand, and when he was just stealing (and I had a very good idea on the range of hands he was stealing with) I didn't feel I could do anything because my cards weren't quite good enough to warrant risking 1/5-1/3 of my stack to call or reraise.
Sorry for the long post, I just feel that I'd rather ask as much in one post, than clutter the boards with multiple threads of smaller questions. Any resources dedicated to mid-late stage MTT would be great. I've read the one's under poker strategy here, but feel I"m still missing a lot of strategy that could really get me into a place where I can consistently win 18-90 people SnG MTT's at low stakes.
Of course, I'd appreciate any insight whatsoever, I always like a different view on things.