Early tournament chip lead

Who feels like you should take more risk at the beginning of tournaments?

I'm usually tight in the early goings but when I get a good hand I go for a big pot.
It's the mid stages that I have trouble with in mtt, not sure when I should open up and play more hands!

Speculative hands are pretty good against people that will stack off easily.

For example you have suited connectors and someone can't fold top pair top kicker to your flush or straight. Can bring in a lot of chips early in a tournament this way.

Play the same..don't loose to much cips with week hands and don't try to see every hand.

I tend to play very tight for the first few levels...too many fish out there. So unless I have very strong hands I basically check, fold everything until play settles down. Why risk your stack when the blinds are so small anyways? I do think it is correct to open up a bit once you hit the mid-stages. Especially with hands that have good draw possibilities if you can get to the flop cheap. You can often break another player with a flush or straight that way. GL!

if u do get a all in early on and u get extra chips the thing is keep hold off them and use them to your advantage by stealing blinds and players limping take there chips with good raises

Sometimes its worth the risk early. A lot depends on both the buy in level and your own bankroll situation.

At low buy-ins a lot of fish will squander their chips early. Mid to higher BI tournys get less players throwing chips.

Your Bankroll matters too. If you have a lot of Buy Ins it is easier to take chances early. If you are short it makes sense to be in more of a survival mode. One is not right over the other. It can certainly affect the ROI. But not necessarily in a bad way. Using a ROI/Time equation the "double up or bust early " strategy has some merit.

Poker247 said:

...too many fish out there.

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Ah yes, the curse of any poker player. Too many fish...

freerolls or small buy-in satellites can yield a huge bunch of chips on the very first hand. Players often go all in with nothing, so if you hold premium cards, it may be worth the risk.

I took the tourney lead a couple times in the cc x-mas event. I didnt change my game at all, but am thinking i probably should have to take advantage while protecting my stack size.

Due to not playing the second half of the tourney right, i went out in 8th.

So too answer your question. No ... I still playing "my game well" by being tight at the start with a big stack. Just went card dead for the end.

initially risking rarely, only if the hole cards - a monster, and then we can double and triple and become the chip leader , but how early chip leader when the stack becomes faster then lost ) Act )

depends of the tournament and structure, your experience and style how you play.
I play more hands early, since the blinds are low, and hit hard with good hand's trying to take many chips I can, after that tighten up a notch and close to the bubble open up again trying to steal more blinds of the people who are there just for min cash....
If you get few good hands, and catch few double up's, then you can dominate table and force/steal the blinds and have better chance to finish at FT.

Just my $.02

dumbdonut said:

Who feels like you should take more risk at the beginning of tournaments?

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I play to win typically early call everything cause never know when they going to throw rags tha butz

dino said:

depends of the tournament and structure, your experience and style how you play.
I play more hands early, since the blinds are low, and hit hard with good hand's trying to take many chips I can, after that tighten up a notch and close to the bubble open up again trying to steal more blinds of the people who are there just for min cash....
If you get few good hands, and catch few double up's, then you can dominate table and force/steal the blinds and have better chance to finish at FT.

Just my $.02

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I disagree with tha bubble therory 9-10 if you play agressive early uou up enough to stall to tha final table smarter less risk

In my opinion it's a bit of a balance between playing tight but also exploiting opportunities when you have a monster or great value hand having assessed the competition. Having chip lead early on helps you to reassess your approach to the game and not be in a position of chasing chips or hands.

i always tend to get involved 1st level sorts out the wheat from the chaff and you get good mental notes of who does what.... saying that dont get involved in big pots preflop especially multi way , if you can get in cheap see the hand thats what i always say and if your in position that 56 offsuit mite be worth a raise lol

With the big stack you can afford to play 22-55 and suited connectors in the early positions. If you hit set ot straight/flash you may get a huge reward for this. With small stack it often doesn't work.

In the beginning of tournaments, specially in massive freerolls, there is only a way to play, really. Shove/fold. You can´t steal blinds, because there is always someone calling. Raises doesn't work, cause probably there will be a shove after. But if you get the luck to be dealt with a monster hand, shove. Some crazy will pay you with K9o. Sometimes more than one.

Don't be concerned about watching the chip leader go away. Most of the times is just a lucky maniac. Let then kill each other. And when the things begin to go normally, you can start to play real poker against a lot of fishes with huge stacks.

Well

Well... My hand has to be awesome to play agressive in the beggining, I am usually start the tournament in a relaxed way

Also early stages of the tournament are the best times to build a chip lead. Focusing on the weaker players to get ahead early. There's not much ICM consideration if any at the beginning of a tournament so getting that CHIPEV is pretty important in the beginning IMO.

dumbdonut said:

Who feels like you should take more risk at the beginning of tournaments?

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I always try to play aggressive in the beginning. Win more hands to have a good bankroll. To the later stages of the tournament to feel more confident.

Who feels like you should take more risk at the beginning of tournaments?

I do, simply because the Blinds are low and I try to play many hands and prey for the Flop. If you catch a Straight or Flush you got a Big Win from as anyone with Top Pairs or Trips will pay

If you don't have good enough pot odds you will loose money anyway, so you can take that risk but with good enough pot odds. Sa basically you can limp into pots with many limpers, or limp on bb, or sb. And this is how you can take this additional risk (playing hands out of range). Playing otherwise you will lose, because you take risky bet with not enough reward.
Lets say you have unsuited 5 & 2. Only chance of winning is making straight, but lets say you make 5,4,3,2,1. Other guy can have 6 & 5 and you will lose, so you have small chance of making straight, which will be not nuts! So there are hands that you shouldn't play even with great pot odds like 1:4, or even more.
Generally reasoning behind this play is - i will lose many times (with suited connectors or A,X (S); but i will make a lot of money if i will flop monster/monster draw and i will draw to it wuth succes). Its agressive play with tough decisions in case of not flopping nuts, so its hard for beginners.
Maybe you should reason like this - at beginning play is almost free so its better to have solid game and risk later. But its your choice ofc.

If I can see a flop cheap( everyone calls/limps) and I have cards that could lead to a draw, early on with the low blinds I may call a lesser hand, but only if it's cheap! Other than that I go tight and try to get a good pot with the strong hands when they come.

dumbdonut said:

Who feels like you should take more risk at the beginning of tournaments?

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some of these free rolls you always get people that goes all in. to me if they go all in with rags and win. that tells me that they are not very good poker players. if i have rags if there is more then two people bets big or go all in i might call then i'm thinking that there is two people are sharing cards.