Tournament advice

Been profitable playing micro stakes cash games... Thinking of playing my first tournament... Any advice appreciated.. Anything to think about beforehand?

For starters,

For starters, they only play AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK

When coming from cash games, I found the biggest challenge to adapt you strategy to the increasing blinds and ante. Especially if you have a poor start in the tournament you might have to risk something sometime, else you just bleed out.

tuzara82 said:

For starters, they only play AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK

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If you play only those hands, (something like 3%) in a tournament, with the blinds going up every 10 minutes, then its very dificult for you to go far. I agree to be tight in the early stages, but opening with AQ, AJ, A10, KQ, etc. on the button is fine too, (even with 55). I recommend Dan Harrington's book, it is very didactic about it

To improve your tournament play, you have to learn tables ranges for pre flop play, post flop play, etc.

Steal as many blinds as you can. I tend to Uber aggressive in my bet size. Often most players bet2 or2.5 x. I go 3-4x Sometimes All in with AK. Most times it works well. Occasionally players on my left will adjust and start 3betting from BB and defending
Or sometimes flatting from BB a large bet and then check raising on the flop as they know I will c-bet most of the time. I will give them credit first time. But when it seems the same players does that betting pattern repeated I not afraid to go 4 bet with a premium hand preflop or go all in on the flop as it seems generally don’t believe I have a good hand to target the blinds.
I try to observe which players give up their blinds easily to HU 2X raiser

dlam said:

Steal as many blinds as you can. I tend to Uber aggressive in my bet size. Often most players bet2 or2.5 x. I go 3-4x Sometimes All in with AK. Most times it works well. Occasionally players on my left will adjust and start 3betting from BB and defending
Or sometimes flatting from BB a large bet and then check raising on the flop as they know I will c-bet most of the time. I will give them credit first time. But when it seems the same players does that betting pattern repeated I not afraid to go 4 bet with a premium hand preflop or go all in on the flop as it seems generally don’t believe I have a good hand to target the blinds.
I try to observe which players give up their blinds easily to HU 2X raiser

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Yeah I think I'm going to try to be aggressive and steal as much as possible make it difficult for good players to see flops and out play me raising big or all in with top hands

Bluebottle88 said:

Been profitable playing micro stakes cash games... Thinking of playing my first tournament... Any advice appreciated.. Anything to think about beforehand?

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In the beginning there is not difference between cash and MTT. You have to see it in matters of BB. You will find may maniacs and maybe you will have to take risks, shoving for 100BB with TT+. Also, you could loosen up a little bit more, since there are some ante in play.

When you go below 50BB, check some charts to see when you can shove, reshove, but don't blindly follow them. Adjust to your opponents. Most probably you don't know push/fold game.

Short stack poker is definitely a change from cash games. First when you are the short stack, knowing when to shove preflop etc but also realizing you have short stacks behind you. You may have to tighten up because they are likely to shove and you don't just want to donate to them.

Micro tourneys can also be a little crazy, the buyin is so small that many people like to gamble and try to build a big stack rather than play good poker especially if there are rebuys so be aware of that as well. It can be a bit frustrating but if you tighten up, you have a good chance of being paid with your premium hands.

The other situations that you wouldn't have experienced in cash are bubble play. When you are close to cashing most people will tighten up their ranges significantly in order to make the money. if you can stomach it, this can be some excellent times for blind stealing.

As others have mentioned already, you need to learn to play with different stack sizes all the way down to less than 10BB, where you are typically going to be in push or fold mode. You also need to understand ICM at least at a very basic level. ICM exist in tournaments, that pay more than one player, because even you win all the chips, you dont win all the money. And because of this losing chips is always more bad, than winning chips is good, especially if you lose a significant portion of your stack.

If you start, I advise you to watch strategic MTT videos. You have to play taking into account your position and especially try to adapt to the play styles of your opponents. Set your goal to reach the ITM places and apply the best strategy to get there.It is only when you manage to exceed this level that you must set the goal of reaching the final table.This way you play a better game because you will be less inclined to take too much risk by wanting to burn the stages. I hope that these tips will be useful to you.

Understand your opponent and don’t put yourself in bad situations. You’ll find many players doing things that don’t make sense but don’t allow yourself to think that’s the normal play from all players. Be patient and go with your reads