How to use your big stack to your advantage

In tournament during Early stage sometimes we accumulate a lot of chips. But what are the advantages of these? And how can we use it?

I don't really see an advantage early. It's to early to steal blinds and bully so all you really have is a safety net from going broke. Most people end up playing worse when they have more chips. Best bet is to buckle down for a while and wait for good spots to accumulate chips. You shouldn't get involved in any coin flip situations early in a tournament when you have a chip advantage. Hope this helps

When you have a big stack you can essentially bully people out of pots, steal the blinds at will. If you pick your spots right it can be profitable. It's something I'm trying to learn to do better because it is such an effective strategy.

coolnout said:

When you have a big stack you can essentially bully people out of pots, steal the blinds at will. If you pick your spots right it can be profitable. It's something I'm trying to learn to do better because it is such an effective strategy.

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Being a bully can kill you quick, just stick to your game and you should do great.
When i have had the chip lead, i did not bully i did alot better.

Ok advice noted. I rarely become chip leader at the early stage. Just want to know what to do just incase

In general you can use your stack to bully the middle stacks at the table by 3 betting them, raising their cbets, etc and basically putting them in a position where they know if they want to continue they are going to have to play for stacks. They will often fold non nut hands for self preservation. Don't do this vs short stacks that have nothing to lose as you'll just end up doubling them up or against large stacks that can cripple you. Stacks around 15-25 bbs can usually be bullied.

eh i dunno if i would recommend bullying people just yet.

if its early in the tournament than people will still being will to go all in preflop...so if you raise someone's 3 bet just to bully...there is a chance they will come over the top..and now your faced with the decision of calling and going back to average or below average chip stack.

just stick to your normal game plan, dont overthink it

It really depends on payout structure. In a flat payout structure (1st place gets a small % of the total prize pool) start stealing earlier. You should be stealing when the # of players remaining is about 1.5 times the places paid (obviously, this is a general rule, don't follow exactly). Playing a strong, aggressive style with the chip lead is quite clearly the way to reach the top levels of the payout structure (which should be your goal).

I have been known to raise large preflop 90% of hands when I am in the top few stacks in a flat payout structure. You often will coast to the final table and far into it, where the real money is. Even in a flat payout structure, 1st is a huge payout in any tourney of decent size. It is usually better to finish 1st one time than 10th place 5 or even 10 times.