How to consistently do well in MTTs?

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ballers101

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Now I'm in the Poker School Online League and I want to do well. Everytime I play I find myself in the middle not going all in or pushing with decent hands. I only go all-in when I have to or when I know I have the other man beat. I just find that I never hit my draws. Like I'll have an open-ended straight flush draw and I won't hit. Or a straight draw with two higher kickers and I won't hit anything. I usually waste like half my stack just in these stupid draws and it never gets good for me. And when it does, no one bets me. Usually I get into another difficult pot where it comes 50/50 and I lose. But can I get some good advice to really do well in MTTs?
 
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sjaffe2

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Hitting a draw is not up to you at all... all you can do is make the right play in terms of a bet. I have heard Doyle say that you never go all in with a draw unless you have a tell someone or less than few blinds left. I would suggest that bet on your draw based on my percentage. For example, if you have a flush draw after the flop and there is already $500 in the pot. You chances of hitting the draw is 36%, let's just make that 40%, I would bet 40% of $500 = $200. I have seen a lot players and my personal experience that this works pretty well. Be cautious though about not just keep chasing your draws....
 
palmerd2

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Check out The Poker Tournament Strategy by Arnold Snyder. Amazing book that will help you immensely with MTTs.

The premise of the book is that you need to modify your playing style based on the tournament structure. You need to pay attention to how quickly and how often the blinds increase, and play accordingly.

It is a lot easier to win an MTT when you enter the final table with a commanding stack that is considerably above average. My strategy is to stay within the top 20% of the runners' stack sizes. So if there are 250 players left in the tournament, your stack should be in the top 50.
 
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ballers101

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Thank you, I just have one question, which specific hands should I enter flops with, I seem to always waste some money with suited connectors and such.
 
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ballers101

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palmerd2

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Cards are just one weapon at you disposal in an MTT. Your stack size and position can also be used to take down a pot. As your stack decreases, your VPIP% should increase, and vice versa. You should never limp in a MTT unless you have AA or KK at the higher blind levels (to trap). In position, consider raising an unopened pot or re-raising a limped pot. Read articles in the strategy section for help on c-betting, double barreling, floating, and 3betting.

Good luck at the tables!
 
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ballers101

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Cards are just one weapon at you disposal in an MTT. Your stack size and position can also be used to take down a pot. As your stack decreases, your VPIP% should increase, and vice versa. You should never limp in a MTT unless you have AA or KK at the higher blind levels (to trap). In position, consider raising an unopened pot or re-raising a limped pot. Read articles in the strategy section for help on c-betting, double barreling, floating, and 3betting.

Good luck at the tables!

Thank you, I'm thinking about not limping at all anymore, just raising with certain hands depending on the position. Unless I'm not on the button or blinds, I'm going to play tight but when I am in those positions I will play more loose.
 
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ballers101

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I'm just really starting to hate poker more and more, or at least this poker school crap. Every single time I play, I get sucked out. I'm short stacked needing a hand, get 8s all in, get one call with 2s. 2 on the flop, FML. Like really, I'm just going to start playing like noobs going all in every hand. I've actually started to fold hands like AA, KK, AK, QQ pre-flop because I always lose. Like this has got to be some pure BS or something. Every game I get sucked out several times.
 
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BluffYou123

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Folding your best hands preflop is for sure not the answer. Review your hands and try to see how you could have played them better. We all get sucked out on, deal with it. That is the nature of tournament play. It is very hard to win money playing tournaments but it can be done. If you can't take a bad beat then poker is not the game for you my friend. Best of luck to you.
 
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ballers101

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Folding your best hands preflop is for sure not the answer. Review your hands and try to see how you could have played them better. We all get sucked out on, deal with it. That is the nature of tournament play. It is very hard to win money playing tournaments but it can be done. If you can't take a bad beat then poker is not the game for you my friend. Best of luck to you.

It's not about taking a bad beat, its about them happening every single game. Tilt is one thing but seriously I've played like 20 of these freerolls and I cannot win a hand at all. I win one hand and I'm like that's a huge sigh of relief. I look at myself a couple of months ago and I was getting hands but I wouldn't get sucked out on every single occasion. Not excluding the fact that I really don't win on 50/50 coin flips or anything.in general. It seems like math has gone totally out the window when it comes to my hands.
 
Poker Orifice

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Just watch me play.
 
olliejjc16

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there'll always be donks in freerolls who'll get lucky and hit a card on the turn or the river, you just have to keep trying, you're not going to win them all especially freerolls, in all tourneys you need luck as well as skill and it doesn't look like you've had much of the former so far!
 
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only_bridge

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Try bluffing, and pushing all-in.
Once you tried it it will become more natural, and it will add another whole set of gauges in your tool box.
Remember it doesnt have to work all the time for it to be profitable, just often enough, and it will throw your opponents off, forcing them to step out of their comfort zone.
 
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ballers101

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LOL thank you. I'm still a very open minded person. I'll go to sleep because of a horrible beat and get up wanting to win and I'll play 2-3 hours straight. I think that I will go into the next tourney with a different mindset entirely. I'm really just going to raise a lot more with crap hands so that I can get some action.
 
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