Early chip advantage

Tom Goldberg

Tom Goldberg

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I have played a number of tourneys lately and have doubled up or gained a good chip advantage early on however during the course of the tourney my advantage seems to disappear and I either just miss out on cashing or make minimal prize money. I have not made a final table in ages however I always seem to be near the cashing stage. Is there any advice you guys can give to help maintaining a chip advantage throughout the tourney?
PS I appreciate this may be a broad subject but any advice would be great :)
 
Arjonius

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If you get near the money fairly often but never final table, the most likely explanation is that you're playing too tight in the middle stages. After growing your stack early on, it can be tempting to "protect" your chips by playing conservatively. It can also be tempting to think "play to cash first, then to go deep". Neither of these is productive, and if you tighten up significantly, they can become counter-productive. The main reason is that the way typical MTT payout tables are structured makes it more profitable to cash somewhat less often as long as you average going somewhat deeper when you do cash, including occasional runs deep into the money aided by the additional chips you have from not tightening up.
 
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credsfan03

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When you build a big stack early in a tournament you need to still play tight and wait for big hands until the blinds go up. When the blinds go up you should start to steal the blinds and play aggresive in late position.
 
P

PoopFlinger

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always good to double up early. now use them to your advantage. adjust to your opponents. attack players with short stacks, stay away from big stacks, etc. its also good to min cash, but the way mtt's are structured, big money is only at the top 3 places. play to win!
 
Poker Orifice

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I don't think there's a 'general strategy' & having a few more chips than others at your table might not necessarily relate to an 'advantage'. I mean you can play a 15-25bb stack to your 'advantage'... just like you can play a 22-30bb stack poorly.

It's more about adjusting to the dynamics of your table & each situation as they arrive.
 
Poker Orifice

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always good to double up early. now use them to your advantage. adjust to your opponents. attack players with short stacks, stay away from big stacks, etc. its also good to min cash, but the way mtt's are structured, big money is only at the top 3 places. play to win!
I've gotta fling some poop at this ^ one.
Doubling early doesn't mean shit.
Attacking players with short stacks isn't necessarily optimal at all unless those shortstacks are never playing back like they should be (you'd be better off targetting mid-sized stacks than shorties... as shorties will often be re-shipping back on you & you'll likely be pricing yourself in to call them if you're raising on them regularly).
Also, why stay away from big stacks? I like playing vs. big stacks. (bad players with big stacks = 'big pots' = Yay!).

When people say "Play to win". What exactly is that supposed to mean? Is it > take higher variance lines while saying fk it to ICM? Care to elaborate?
 
vinylspiros

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for me,it doesnt really matter what stack size i have,at least not the most important thing.i follow my game plan ,play solid,make moves when folded down to me at the button or cutoff and reraise when being raised from on the button when im at the bib blind with a descent hand and take it from there. just play your game and have the opponents stack in mind of course but dont let that be the leading factor in your decision making process.thats what i have to say.if u got the goods get your money,if u dont let it go.chips are---EASY COME EASY GO.
 
timiroberts

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(you'd be better off targetting mid-sized stacks than shorties... as shorties will often be re-shipping back on you & you'll likely be pricing yourself in to call them if you're raising on them regularly).

Exactly my thoughts. Small Stacks are looking for any reason to get it in against someone to double them up. The Mid-Stacks have a reason to fold and have chips to fold.
 
spiderman637

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U seem to have figured out the initial play styles... U need to know that different levels need a different approach... Just figure out those just as u figured out initial game play:)
 
A2345Razz

A2345Razz

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HINT:

You are going to need to play more actively for a few reasons...not the least of which is image. Being active is fine, BUT YOU WANNA be in position as often as possible and not making dumb calls out of the blinds with moronic logic about how your a5off is ahead of so and so's range.

You wanna defend blinds with A5off...you are better off 3b to 2.7X the original bet or jamming if the guy is at like 12-16BB....and seems to be hammering in position a lot.

Also, you want to be applying pressure to medium stacks, and you really dont want to play a lot of big pots with other big stacks..
 
duggs

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i can think of a few reasons to defend A5o, the opener cbets for value only, the opener only double barrels for value and c/f's everything else
 
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