Importance of Starting Stack Size in MTT Selection

I was just looking through the roster of $6.60 MTTs on ACR (regular speed). I have 200 Buy-ins for this level.

All have guarantees between 1K and 2K (except on Thursday when there's a 2.5K and a 3K), 3 hours of late registration (12 or 15 min. levels) and 12% antes.

A couple have 250BB starting stack, but most are 90BB or 100BB starting stack.

How important is the difference in starting stack here in making a choice of what to play?

I think its just a matter of your personal preference and skill set. Generally the shallower the stacks-more icm and the deeper the stacks- more post flop play. If you really wanted to get fancy you could analyze which format provided you with the biggest $/hr.

TeUnit said:

I think its just a matter of your personal preference and skill set. Generally the shallower the stacks-more icm and the deeper the stacks- more post flop play. If you really wanted to get fancy you could analyze which format provided you with the biggest $/hr.

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Totally agree. If you feel comfortable with smaller stacks, then go for it. If you want more, start with the ones with larger. Just remember, that you're not the only one starting with the small stack.

Just try to keep in mind of how many big blinds you have. Anything above 20-30 you should feel like you're in an okay place, in the middle of the tournament.

XYZ2123 said:

I was just looking through the roster of $6.60 MTTs on ACR (regular speed). I have 200 Buy-ins for this level.

All have guarantees between 1K and 2K (except on Thursday when there's a 2.5K and a 3K), 3 hours of late registration (12 or 15 min. levels) and 12% antes.

A couple have 250BB starting stack, but most are 90BB or 100BB starting stack.

How important is the difference in starting stack here in making a choice of what to play?

Click to expand...

Thank U 4 Posting.

The stack size as relates to the blind increases is what is most important.

250bb start drops to125bb next level- drops to 75bb is fairly bad.

This can happen easily if bb starts at 50 then 100 then 150 -200 then 300.

So try to compare blind levels along with starting stack.

Also if the deep stack players play slower then you can get far fewer hands in per minute in the early stages. They usually do slow down as they see more streets and play longer in each street.

Hope this helps

The size of the stack from my point of view is important only when you decide to play a tournament that is in late registration since you start with blinds that will make you play very loose because your stack is designed for the start of the tournament and I have always considered To make a late registration is to lose the opportunity to win the tournament, but this is a decision of each player should always do what he feels is most comfortable for his game.

Basically the tournaments starting with 250BB will last a longer time, before you get to the bubble. Very few players will bust, before a starting stack is 100BB, in fact most will not even register before that point. So in the long run it does not matter to much, and often you are just threading water, until your stack is reduced to 100BB.

But if you have a cash game background, there can be some easy edge to be found in the deep stacked play, because many tournament players are just extremely bad at it. So if you get lucky and "cooler" someone, there can be a massive reward, which in cash games you would be lucky to find even at 2NL. People cant fold aces postflop, they cant fold a low straight, and so on and so forth.