Need Help with my tourney play!

I am a cash game player 6max only. Though I play tourneys everynow and then but i seem to always get caught up in the push fold method and short stacked from playing too little hands. I know the obvious answer is open your range....
But i find it hard to get involved in pots with shit cards that i know i am beat with. Just wondering how i can improve my tournament strategy?

You should read "poker tournament formula 1 & 2" by Arnold Snyder. These are extremely good books, and I recommend them to all tournament players I talk to. He discusses tournament-specific poker strategy, and one of the main focal points of the books is playing according to the tournament structure... It has really helped me a lot

Just keep playing them. Variance is everything in tournaments. I've been on what seemed like never ending "no cash" streaks to come back and final table a great event like a $3 rebuy and make back all those buyins in one game... One of these games your cards are going to warm up and you'll start taking down pots and building confidence. Yeah open your range but be smart about it. Don't limp in OOP when you know you arn't going to call if someone raises. Play your suited connects and low pp in late position and be creative with them too. Raising your standard raise as if you were holding AKs once in a while. This way no one can pin you on having a monster all the time when your opening with 89suited and things like that. If you miss the flop and someone bets, hey fold... no harm, just a few chips gone. No reason to get in a pissing match with 9 hi And don't bother stealing blinds until antes start being put in, it's simply not worth the risk cause early in the game peoples' ranges are much wider and they'll call with just about anything to defend

It appears you have the patience if you're getting blinded down because of bad cards. Don't lose sight of that. Patience and picking spots in MTTs is essential and will lead you to a win soon. Good luck

The answer is simply to play more hands. It is a mistake to remain tight because you will become short stacked vey fast. Open your range up.

Jackle43 said:

I am a cash game player 6max only. Though I play tourneys everynow and then but i seem to always get caught up in the push fold method and short stacked from playing too little hands. I know the obvious answer is open your range....
But i find it hard to get involved in pots with shit cards that i know i am beat with. Just wondering how i can improve my tournament strategy?

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What do you mean by I KNOW IM BEAT WITH?

If you mean you dont like playing inferior hands with position and aggression it isnt only your MTT game that needs reworking.

Ill take slightly weaker holdings and position+initiative all day long in NLH....

what i would reccomend is like others said previously, play a wider range of hands. try to get involved in some family pots cheaply,set mine,steal blinds when folded down to you on cutoff or button or even late mid position if you feel everyone folds after you most of the time. bluff. become creative. noone ever won a tournament from their holdings alone. the thing is to not get over creative and put yourself in danger of losing all ur chips. and while doing all this fun stuff,there will come a point that ull get ur aces or kings and youll double up.(hopefully). my theory: being inactive leads to bubbling,min cashing and will almost never lead you to first place.
and one more thing to keep in mind: just because someone raised from under the gun or just because someone 3 bet him doesnt always mean that any of the two have a descent hand.they could be doing this with 99 and 77. so keep in mind their stack sizes. the lower the stack the looser the shove. so , FOR ME, and im a pretty descent tourney player, stack size is always something i have on my mind when getting involved against another player at the table.

I agree, do not call with junk cards, but open your range when you are constantly attacked by a loose aggressive player. Play those suited connectors, etc.

You may also want to start position raising more often, so you get more comfortable being the attacker.

And, you may need to 3 bet if a player is "picking" on you a lot. If you always fold, they will consistently come after your chips!

I would suggest you play some cheap buy-in "sit-n goes" to get more comfortable maneuvering when you are "card dead", because it happens to us all and we have to compensate.

Good Luck!

mainly i would make my raise around 2.5x instead of shoving, start shoving around 8-9bb

GOTHEART said:

I agree, do not call with junk cards, but open your range when you are constantly attacked by a loose aggressive player. Play those suited connectors, etc.

You may also want to start position raising more often, so you get more comfortable being the attacker.

And, you may need to 3 bet if a player is "picking" on you a lot. If you always fold, they will consistently come after your chips!

I would suggest you play some cheap buy-in "sit-n goes" to get more comfortable maneuvering when you are "card dead", because it happens to us all and we have to compensate.

Good Luck!

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Stop thinking about what to call with, and start thinking about why you would ever call when you should be raising the vast majority of the hands you play.

I wouldnt necessarily call more SCs or small pairs against LAGs at all....id be more apt to RR with my whole range and to avoid playing OOP unless I had premium or clost to premium holdings at a full table.

Just my 2 cents as a player who has shifted from rock to TAG/LAG in recent months basically.

You already play 6max cash games, which by necessity are a bit looser than full tables. Seems like if you bring your 6max cash game to 9 seat SnG's and MTT's you would be playing loose enough.

And while hard to find if you are US, find limit games if you can.

How is your 6 max cash game?