Be aware of the players around you and who is playing careless and who is not. There will still be some tight players. Try to get yourself in situations where you are in isolation and against some tighter players if you do not want to have to rebuy. There is some strategy to playing very loose and careless during these games if you have unlimmitted rebuys (ask Derr). I dont reccommend it though. Sometimes you are going to be card dead and that isn't your fault. If you place in the money 1 out of every 6 times you are still doing well. 1 out of 5 would be better though. Just keep your eye out for which players are being careless and try to gather informatino on how every individual is playing, try to guess their hand before they flip their cards and see if you can find any
tells in their live play. Some really easy tells are as follows; Playing w chips like they are about to bet and then checking-this is a sign of weakness.
any sort of face touching when you make a bet means they are nervous and probably weak as well
if you see anyone shaking when trying to place a bet they have a huge hand more than likely
and anytime someone bets under the 1/3 pot they are just not acclumated with playing poker and are probably very weak- go ahead and raise quickly and they will fold.
There are plenty of weaknesses to find but you wanna make your money in the trenches in big fields to get through those mtts, meaning make your money in small pots here and there, you dont have to wait forever to have a great hand and you dont have to raise on the button every time ( thats a really generalized way to play aggressive)
I never care about my button, but i always care about my position relative to the raiser, that is what you need to know, as long as you can determine how the hand goes you can keep yourself in the game.
Keep your bets low and precise ( meaning around the same amounts when you hit certain hands ) Phil helmuth loves to bet 1/3 w top pair all the time which makes it hard to tell when he hits a set because thats a nice bet size with a set too.
If you are constantly playing hands in position to the raiser even if they arent great hands you can probably find yourself a way to hit some hands and keep your chips up.
Pick your big spots very carefully and dont be afraid to play big hands soft either. Its ok to just call w QQ and see what the flop produces and maybe you get out really cheap to someone loose raising w any Ace.
Likewise you can play 56 suited in position against someone who is tight and let them play tight aggressive and see if you can hit something big against someone with an overpair.
Implied odds is a big part of the game in long mtts (meaning how much can possibly come out of the hand)
you dont want to play w people who dont have much chips w sneaky hands be casue there isnt much to win, but when you have 2 tight players calling big raises preflop it might be ok to see a flop w some junk just to see if you can outflop them because they will more than likely overplay the hand and give you a chance to make a ton of chips later in the hand.
Just make sure you keep your bets relative to the pot and keep in mind your stack relative to the blind levels. You wont be able to play sneaky junk hands later in the tournament because the levels will be too high relative to your chip stack, but early in the tournament is when implied odds play a big part and you are going to want to try to pick up some big hands early w not such great starting hands.
If anyone is playing crazy then just leave them alone and wait for them to lose or rebuy once and they will start playing a little tighter, then you can make your moves in the places you want to.
And dont forget you have a rebuy too so if you get in a hand where you have a nut flush or nut straight draw and there are 4 people in the hand pushing a lot of chips it might really be worth it to take a chance on hitting your hand.
Thats all for my tips for now. Gl w your tournament. Stay away from the donkeys, look for some tells, and keep your bets relative to the pot and relative to the blind levels. Gl