Strategy for playing in a high stakes tourney on FullTilt

Hey Folks,

I recently won a satelitte to a 750K tourney on FullTilt. I normaly play in SnG's , in which I do pretty well. I hardly play cash games and play in tourneys once a week. I play a tight game. When it comes to tourneys I do well in the beginning and usually make it to the 1st break, then it all falls apart. Any suggestions on how to play this tourney especially the middle and the end of the tourney? Any help will be greatly appreciated. They are currenty paying 522 places for money awards. I would like to make it to the money

Regards,

sky

Just play it as you whould any other MTT dont think because of the buy-in is higher there will be some super change in skill level,alot of them will have sated in just like you and others just have more money or are playing out side there BR.
Be patient and have fun

Just stay super tight for the first 60-90 min then you can start to open up and play your game. just remember poker is situational, too many people play only their cards. what you need to do is put your oponents on hand ranges by their betting paterns. most important thing is watch when your not in the hand and see if a guy bets the pot when he has a big hand and see if he only bets 1/2 pot if he is continuation betting with nothing (alot of players make this mistake so take advantage of it). like it was said before their are just as many donks at this level as their is at any level because so many just like you have satalited in. some key hands to stay away from are dont ever play AJ off or AT off in these large fields and try to avoid making a big pot pre flop with QQ if you get re-rasied most likely they have AK AA or KK in the later satges of the tournament. Early stages I normaly am never raising pre flop with out AA KK or AK and thats becasue their are so many donks early that i dont want to stack off pre flop because i can out play them post flop. But the best stratetgy for cashing is having strict starting hand requirments and most important thing you can do in the tounament is pay attention. its alot easier to make the right play if you put your opponent on hand ranges which most players dont do. think of it this way if you can figure out what he has then you know the right play. I hope this helps you out and GL

Remember slow down and think all things through

Here are some questions you should ask every hand you play-

1. what do i think he has?
2. does what i have beat what i put him on?
3. what do i want him to do?
4. will what i am betting acomplish my goal for an outcome?

Even though it is a higher buy-in, realize that there are people who satellited in just like yourself. So the quality at the beginning will not be that great. This will be the time to loosen up and pick up pots early and hopefully double up. If you play ultra tight, you will find yourself in the same position as it sounds like you usually find yourself after the break.

Rathrok said:

Even though it is a higher buy-in, realize that there are people who satellited in just like yourself. So the quality at the beginning will not be that great. This will be the time to loosen up and pick up pots early and hopefully double up. If you play ultra tight, you will find yourself in the same position as it sounds like you usually find yourself after the break.

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What? This is the opposite of the truth. The weaker the players are the tighter you should play.

GoBilliards said:

What? This is the opposite of the truth. The weaker the players are the tighter you should play.

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How is that even remotely correct, please explain. If I feel I am against weak opponents I want to see more flops, not tighten up.

GoBilliards said:

What? This is the opposite of the truth. The weaker the players are the tighter you should play.

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How is that even remotely correct, please explain. If I feel I am against weak opponents I want to see more flops, not tighten up.

You want to play straight forward poker against weak players. They are weak because they cant be trusted to fold. The chips you have are way more valuable than what you can win early. So wait for solid starting hands and play them agg. Its the only way to beat weak players. You will always need the goods because they cant lay down second pair with no kicker. Thats why they are weak.

gobilliards is correct you want to play tighter against weaker opponents and over bet the pot. the reason they are weaker is they dont understand proper odds so you make more money by over betting the pot on you big hands then by playing every hand not knowing if you are good or not because your not going to know if they have top pair or third pair.

The way I look at it and play it, is I am counting on them not being able to fold TPTK. Example, albeit an ideal example, these situations happen more than you would think. Weak player raises with AQ, I flat in late position with 46o. Board comes 3Q5, he bets...i call, turn comes 2 or 7. You know the weak player is going to fire again with TPTK, usually a very large bet since you called the flop. If they're a somewhat suspicious weak player, you drop the hammer here instead of the river...if they can't slow down, then hammer the river.

I tried the TAG way, I think it has it's place. But if you can get some cheap flops with deep stacks against these players, I think you need to take some chances to accumulate chips. BUT you also need to know when to release these hands and not chase to the river. This is gambling though, and while stacks are deep I am willing to splash early to get a stack to impose on the shorter stacks after the break.

When stacks are not deep...this whole deal goes out the window and I do revert to more of a TAG style, unless I have a read on an opponent.

The only thing I can see added to the statement above is if the call is very cheap and seeing the turn is cheap also. If it not cheap to see the flop and turn I won't even be in the hand to start. IMO

TEXSTURG making the ideal point to that style odds odds odds most weak player know two bets and those are pot and all in so getting in their to see the cheap flop your ussally never going to get the right odds to chase all your draws that you only going to hit 1 out of every three tries. not the best way to play if his goal is to cash. the game is survival. once you get into the money then you can do what ever you want cause then you have accomplished your goal but to get their just stay tight and make sure your betting the right amount for people to not have proper odds to call and over bet the pot against weak opponent with your big hands. Good Luck

For some reason I did not see the last sentence in the OP's post. He just wants to make it to the money. If that is your goal...then yeah, follow the others advice. Hope to double up with 1 or 2 big hands and stall in lol.

This is full tilt right? I have not played all that much there. Are you able to trade that satellite buy-in for T$ like on PStars? If so, might I suggest doing that. That way you can play some smaller tournaments with it, more agressively, and potentially make more money, than just getting to the first pay out level.

Loosen up your starting hand requirements when the antes kick in. You need to steal some pots uncontested preflop in order to maintain a healthy stack. If you think an opponent who raised is on a steal, then try a resteal by reraising preflop a signifcant amount to get the original raiser to fold.

chasing against weak players means you are one. If you are in with weak starting hands and you hit it, there is no way to know if you are good. If you hit 97 with a flop of 997 obv you are good. Monsters dont need a weak player on the other end to win....OBV. Why even bring huge hands into the conversation? the problem is when you play K 8 vs a donkey he might have K9 and you're broke when the flop comes KK2.

GoBilliards said:

chasing against weak players means you are one. If you are in with weak starting hands and you hit it, there is no way to know if you are good. If you hit 97 with a flop of 997 obv you are good. Monsters dont need a weak player on the other end to win....OBV. Why even bring huge hands into the conversation? the problem is when you play K 8 vs a donkey he might have K9 and you're broke when the flop comes KK2.

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Only playing the K8 if it is suited, for the re-draw

You can blind out if you'd like...i'll stick to building a huge stack or going broke. I'm not in a tourney to get bubble money, i'm in it to get to the final table.

Yes I want to reach that final table also, I just want to maintain that healty stack after the break and so on. Thank you all for your comments,some great advice. I will put it to use and make it all the way

sky

Rathrok said:

Only playing the K8 if it is suited, for the re-draw

You can blind out if you'd like...i'll stick to building a huge stack or going broke. I'm not in a tourney to get bubble money, i'm in it to get to the final table.

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Is this guy serious? I dont know why he is attcking me and I cant say this without sounding rude. Please forgive me in advance for this and I will try to be delicate.

If I were asking for advice the first thing I would do before I took any from anyone is check thier stats. There are several websites that monitor players and report there success (and failure). Most of this info is free for the taking. The one I use is Poker Database - Online Poker Tournament Results by thepokerdb :deal:

There are hundreds of thousands of players online and most of them are even or below. If you want advise on how to go broke, follow this guy and start shoving. All I can tell you is the vast majority of winning players play tight until the blinds are worth stealing.

Thank you Go Billiards, I did not know about that database. Verry cool.


Regards