lmao @ top pairs xD
ok ill help you simplify tournaments and why they are so different to cash
STEP 1 : EARLY
at this stage, you really are still playing cash game strategy, there is no antes, and everybody is sitting prety tight with about 100-200bb, so you dont want to be getting into too many races early on, build your stack slowly, then when you hit big you want the big score, as in you want to try and take there stack, the best type of player to do this against is players that overate TPTK and OP's
as your stack size starts to dwindle from 50 - 30 - 20 - 10bb your play starts to change
STEP 2 : ANTES
Now at some stage your going to see antes take effect, and your mindset changes again
ok, so when you was deepstacked you would play suited connectors and hands like that, but obv once your stack size is 0-30bb these no longer are profitable to play, but once antes take effect its profitable again, obv you dont want to steal the blinds too often, but when in position and a hand like this you can go for a blind steal, and that way if you hit ur hand great
if you dont ur opponent in the blind probably missed too
but as you play you noticed certain players start to tighten up, these are your targets to steal from only you will know the table dynamics at any given time and when its profitable to make a steal attempt
keep playing like this till
STEP 3 : BUBBLE PLAY
People will start to tighten up rediculously when the bubble hits, and as any other
poker game, the more people tighten up, the looser you can be, this is an extremely important phase because you can build soooo many chips on the bubble if you can quickly change the pace of your game once you notice them slow down drastically
STEP 4 : END PLAY
after the bubble bursts you tighten up again, simply because everybody has been so tight dwindled down in chips and are now hoping to get lucky to stay in it, since you have built your stack up during the bubble you dont wanna lose it now, there are 2 bubbles it seems, players that want to make it to the money, and players that wanna make it to the final table, be aware of both, on the final table you just have to figure out your table, whos weak, whos strong, who can i bully, and wheres my chips coming from if you can answer those then you know when to get involved and when not to
FINAL THOUGHTS
MTTs stem through 3 key actions
Correct Big Blind Management (never let yourself get too low, the chips are your life and if you allow yourself to get under 10BB, your tournament is prety much over, unless you can double up to fight another day, so we play push and fold, and if you get under 20bb then each raise you make is 5% of your stack so dont raise fold too often, stealing is not a huge option once you hit 20bb)
Correct Bubble play (again knowing when to get agressive and when to sit tight is all down to your read on the tables, always know where your chips are coming from even before it happens)
TABLE DYNAMICS (yes you are moved quite frequently in MTTs so you have to learn to adapt yourself to the table within moments of moving to the table..... i know ive said this many times but always know where your chips are coming from, so start getting reads on people