What style of play do you prefer in the early and middle stages of the tournament?

Hello, everyone.I would like to know what style of play you prefer in the early and middle stages of the tournament, aggressive or Tight Style?Here I am a tight player because it seems to me that in the tight style the novice makes fewer mistakes than in others,I would like to read your opinion.Thank you for your attention.

Early on tight and aggressive, similar to a cash game.

In the middle stage, when antes kick in, it depends more on my stack size. If deep I loosen up a bit, taking advantage of better pot odds (due to antes) and using it to pick on smaller stacks. If not so deep I stay tight and stick to hands I would be more comfortable committing with.

My Opinion On Tournament Play

I prefer to break a tournament into a minimum of 4 Phases (And, much also depends on how many players/tables are involved in each Phase. The Phases or Stages are: Early, Middle, Late and then Final Table. Each Stage plays with a specific and differing "goal" in mind (Goal for each Stage). One should maintain 'focus' on each Stage (what part of the tournament they are currently playing in) as each Stage plays somewhat differently.

Making the Final Table (FT) is the most important Stage and, once there, I think the FT is worthy of its on Phasing/Staging. One cannot win a tournament without first making the Final Table. I prefer to think that the real game 'mainly' begins with the FT.

The Final Table also has 4 Stages (Comparable to the original Stages): Early (9 to 7 players), Middle (6 to 5 players), Late ( 4 to 3 players) and then Heads Up (2 players). Each Stage needs to be played differently.

In reply specifically to your question about style:

Early ... Tight and Aggressive (TAG)
Middle ... Less, but still Tight and Aggressive (TAG), but opening up more.
Late ... Loose and Aggressive (LAG)
Final Table ... Re-Stage the 4 Stages and play accordingly.

Hopefully this answers your question and is beneficial. GL on the felts mate.

Wally

war3dk said:

Hello, everyone.I would like to know what style of play you prefer in the early and middle stages of the tournament, aggressive or Tight Style?Here I am a tight player because it seems to me that in the tight style the novice makes fewer mistakes than in others,I would like to read your opinion.Thank you for your attention.

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Style called edge. If you have it, you beat the other guys.

I think you have to play a tight aggressive game for the whole tournament, but it's worth making a change sometimes, so you're not going to get your game out of the way.

war3dk said:

Hello, everyone.I would like to know what style of play you prefer in the early and middle stages of the tournament, aggressive or Tight Style?Here I am a tight player because it seems to me that in the tight style the novice makes fewer mistakes than in others,I would like to read your opinion.Thank you for your attention.

Click to expand...

The early stage is a part of the tournament, from the start to a few people left in front of the bubble. This stage takes about half of the entire tournament, so doubling your stack is very important during this period. At the early stage it is worth being patient and playing only strong hands, bluffing should only be done if you have enough outs. When learning poker, remember to learn patience.Many great poker masters advise to show a tight style of poker at an early stage, starting from the fact that at the beginning of the tournament there are a lot of weak players whose actions are unpredictable, but still modern online poker, with its faster and more dynamic play, with a tight style games can leave us far behind. Be very careful about playing the big blind: for example, if someone is trying to steal your blinds, you shouldn't defend with his middle hand, let alone bluff. But in later stages, when you try to steal, after waiting for a good hand, you can cause a lot of trouble for your opponent, who is used to your pass to the BB.

You must play loose. More loose than the cash games. No matter what you "prefer". However you can play more aggro or more passive. But you must play more hands. For several reasons. The people is weaker than in the cash games. There are less regs. You pay "rake" only one time. You want to double up or finished. You can make -EV decisions. Slightly -EV.
In the middle stages, depends on the ICM. If there is any ICM, then play more tight. But if you have a big stack, play loose. That's why in the MTT, playing with big stack is more profitable. The ICM is not a factor (or less) for you, you can play more hands, you can fold less postflop, you can make semi-bluffs, borderline decisions. It is profitable. That's why this slighltly -EV decisions in the early stages actually are not -EV.

I would play according to the table. If table is tight, I would play loose a little bit to steal some pot.

I think at start when everyone had a big stack +100 bb is good to play tight agressive and have a good tight image. When game is closer to bubble i playing loose agressive and making a pressure to smaller stacks. When bubble is gone, i'm playing also tight agressive when we have a final table bubble another time loose agressive.

At final table tight agressive.

If I’m surrounded by LAGs and loose fish I tend to tighten up my play and play in 10-15 VPIP range. If I’m surrounded by bunch of tight Doyle Brunson type players I tend to play in the 28-33 VPIP range which is on the loose end of the spectrum.

tight aggressive when the situation allows it.

Poker

Early on, I play very tight and careful. I'm used to showing aggression at the pre-final stage of the tournament.

I play loosely. This is because if bad hands come in a row, you may not be able to do anything and end the game.

i call untill i see the flop in the early stages...then play tight as the game goes on.

bullishwwd said:

I prefer to break a tournament into a minimum of 4 Phases (And, much also depends on how many players/tables are involved in each Phase. The Phases or Stages are: Early, Middle, Late and then Final Table. Each Stage plays with a specific and differing "goal" in mind (Goal for each Stage). One should maintain 'focus' on each Stage (what part of the tournament they are currently playing in) as each Stage plays somewhat differently.

Making the Final Table (FT) is the most important Stage and, once there, I think the FT is worthy of its on Phasing/Staging. One cannot win a tournament without first making the Final Table. I prefer to think that the real game 'mainly' begins with the FT.

The Final Table also has 4 Stages (Comparable to the original Stages): Early (9 to 7 players), Middle (6 to 5 players), Late ( 4 to 3 players) and then Heads Up (2 players). Each Stage needs to be played differently.

In reply specifically to your question about style:

Early ... Tight and Aggressive (TAG)
Middle ... Less, but still Tight and Aggressive (TAG), but opening up more.
Late ... Loose and Aggressive (LAG)
Final Table ... Re-Stage the 4 Stages and play accordingly.

Hopefully this answers your question and is beneficial. GL on the felts mate.

Wally

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I agree with many points you made but I believe “the real tournament” starts when the average tournament stack is 30 BBs and late registration is closed.

I always start with a conservative game and respecting my tables, but it is my game to follow my strategy, which will undoubtedly let me win in the long term in repetitions or acaciones ... doubt, the one with the best luck wins, extreme variance for all ,, With any hand they pay, and we must take it as long-term learning and play as you play, take advantage of every situation we live in, let's take notes to review after the game is over, and if the tournament is extended and I get into collection positions, accumulation of chips to face the final moments and try to get to the final table, it is hard but not impossible, days when everything works out and the variance is on our side, there are few days like this, let's try to get the best out of it. possible profit, luck, patience, discipline and let's not pay to lose, and if we lose,nothing happens another experience for the not too distant future ,,, good luck with those tournament beginnings ,,,

This response is regarding live poker:
I agree with others in here that at the beginning of the tournament (pre-ante and deep stacked), you should play tighter cash game ranges. My experience is that people tend to call looser than they should preflop because they are used to ranges they use when antes come into play. So you want to make your 3-bets more linear and for value.

When the antes kick in, you can widen your range a bit (especially if the big blind doesn't defend enough). [If you're in the BB, you should be defending wider to small open raise sizes because you're getting such good odds w the ante.]

I personally start to loosen up around the 500-1k blind level because people aren't peeling vs 3bets as much (especially if they're unfamiliar with how to play short stack ranges). When you get later into the night, some people are just trying to bag chips and make Day 2. So you can imagine how wide you can open at that point.

Bubble play is a whole different beast. If you're a big stack, you can play very loose because all of the medium stacks should respect ICM and try to conserve chips until the money. Short stacks have to pick their shove spots carefully and just hope to survive.

TLDR; No matter what stage of the tournament you're in, the most important thing is to simply pay attention to how you're tablemates are playing and develop a strategy that will net you the most chips against them.

What style of play do you prefer in the early and middle stages of the tournament

In the early stages I play big that way I can get ahead of the leader board, I’m not to good at coming from behind, and later on I play control.