advice needed on tourneys last hours

at the start of a tourney i play tight passive and this almost always gets me to the second hour. the next couple of hours I play tight aggressive...After that is when I loose it. when I am like 20-40 people out of the money. My game goes down the tubes. I've tried loose aggressive, tight aggressive, loose passive and tight passive...nothing works. like last night I was in a tourney that paid 30 seats..and of course I went out 38th. Any advice would be appreciated

It sounds to me like your a good player but you get anxious. Be calm and make the players at your table play your game, dont play theres.

Late tourney play is all about building your stack, and the slowest way to do it,

Let every play there hands and get low stacked and they get on tilt, and eventually youll get delt a good hand and play it, hopefully your oponents are on tilt from previous hands and hopefully you bust there asss.

Around that stage ignore your cards and play position and the players.

Pick on people with short stacks that you can raise them off their blinds, they are either going to have to let you have it or go all in. You will find players in this situation will tighten up even more if its close to the money. Also watch out for large stacks who are staying out of the way and go for their blinds as well.

If there is someone you have a read on and can outplay after the flop, if you can get in cheap against them make a move and go for steals.

You need to watch out for things like this and watch out for others doing the same and go over the top of them. Got to be careful though and it takes some practice. If you keep getting in that situation though you will become better at it.

heck who needs poker school when I have you

i agree i ahve been in the same position numerous times and the style that i play is the tight player who picks up the blinds you have to take advantage of sensing weakness int he other players. Theres usually the guy that limps in the small blind and ur sitting at the big blind and u just raise him back like triple the big blind which usually gets him and any other person to fold and wins u the blinds. Also wen your on the button i usually liek to throw a small bet in there with a decent hand that the small and big will usually fold to and if they call you still have a chance at making a good hand and your in good position.

In late stages of tournies, go all in with hands like KK AA and AKs preflop when no one has raised the pot if you are in danger of not finishing in the money (i.e. short and middle sized stacks). If you get called, you more than likely double up and are sitting pretty to rise up the payout schedule. I was the short stack at a 7 Card Stud Tourney with about 30 players left. First place got $140 (1 dollar entry). I suriveved my way into the final table and went from short stack to winner in less than an hour, I had 35,000 when the final table started, chip leader had around 375,000).

i am always a fighter coming out in the beginning, but i dont understand why i usually fall in 2nd or third place, I dont understand this because i keep the same style, but when i have a huge chip lead i tend to lose focus, do u have any advice of how to fix this problem, like would u sit out a few hands in between?

andysam05 said:

i am always a fighter coming out in the beginning, but i dont understand why i usually fall in 2nd or third place, I dont understand this because i keep the same style, but when i have a huge chip lead i tend to lose focus, do u have any advice of how to fix this problem, like would u sit out a few hands in between?

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Sometimes when people have a huge chip lead they will play more hands that they usually wouldn't play. This way you'll lose your stack faster. Try to stay consistently inconsistent to your usual play (true enough to how you usually play but change it up enough so people can't get a good read on you). You should be able to hold on to your stack longer that way.

Also, bully the people that have small stacks. If you've got a stack ten times the size of theirs and they raise on a pot (assuming you and him are the only ones in the pot, maybe with one other) put him all-in. He'll either fold (most likely) or call. If he calls and loses you knocked yet another person out and made your stack even bigger. If you lose then you lost a tiny amount of your stack. He doubles up but still has much less than you.

Jon

respira said:

at the start of a tourney i play tight passive and this almost always gets me to the second hour. the next couple of hours I play tight aggressive...After that is when I loose it. when I am like 20-40 people out of the money. My game goes down the tubes. I've tried loose aggressive, tight aggressive, loose passive and tight passive...nothing works. like last night I was in a tourney that paid 30 seats..and of course I went out 38th. Any advice would be appreciated

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Hey, I find the same problem, but only when playing online. The problem lies in the level times. when u reach the final table, the average stack size is anywhere from 6k to 13k, depending on the size of the tourny. The blinds are anywhere from 400-800 to 1k-2k. Lots of times i see the same situation which is " ONE WRONG PLAY, AND YOUR F**KED!" I like live tourny's ranging from 500 buy in to 1000 buy in. you start with 5k or 10 k even. and the blinds start at 25-50. the level times are 45min. you have plenty of time to hang back and pick your spots. I really think when playing online tourny's ( 1500 chips to start and 15 min levels) the skill level drops every 15min. And if you reach the final table, (unless you have had an amazing run of cards and have amast a mountain of chips) your playing craps.

The best way to avoid being in this situation is to build up your stack before the bubble. Near the bubble there is not much of a great strategy. Some have been mentioned. I stay tight as possible even thru the bubble. Even AK gets beat on the bubble - lol.

Sippy

You should only start playing loose if you have some sort of advantage against your opponents. Some people play too tight near the bubble, or play too wide. Some will float the flop and always fold to turn bet if they don't make a hand. Also if you have to play your game according to your chip stack. 16-20bb should be played very aggressively when entering a pot more than likely shoving all in with premium holdings. 40bb or more you're going to play tight aggressive, defend your blinds and take advantage of any hands you have position in. If you're loosing take a step back and find out what is the common factor that's costing you the most chips at any point in the tournament.

That has happened to me a lot, until it reaches the point where I say: ok, now how I play? because I try so many ways to play and they do not work! lately I try not to fall into their game, I keep a bit more calm and I try to analyze all the best I can

Your problem screams you are playing too tight. I think its that simple. You need to play more hands/see more flops/get more chips earlier in the tournament.

There are really 3 parts of the tournament. The beginning, middle and end. The beginning really is up to the antes. From the antes to the bubble is the middle. The end is pretty much from the bubble to the final table.

I think its good to play tight at the beginning of a tournament because there just isn't a lot to win out there. Once the antes start the math changes quite a bit because there is more than just the blinds out there. You should adjust your game accordingly. You need to open your range and certainly become more aggressive. This is the part of the tournament where you want to take chances. If you are playing too tight once the antes start you will be okay for a while but you are going to grind down by the bubble and struggle. Because of the antes, taking the blinds and winning even small pots really boosts your stack.

Play multiple games

When I don't want to be bored by waiting for cards on one game, I play 2 or 3 more games so that way there is always something to keep me busy. You don't want to ruin a game that is so close to winning something. Good Luck