Help, am I playing right?

[yakmen]

hello,
im trying to fihure out if i have a good game or just an average joe player.i have been in several tourny for cash and i have yet to get into the final table on any of them ,but i feel my game play is right..ust not hitting.from the begining of the tourny to the end for me i only play strong hands..ie pocket 10's or better and a-k,a-q,a-j,a-10,k-q,k-j,k-10,q-j,q-10.....i always bet when i get into the hand 3 x the big blind..and if i get called no matter if i hit or not i bet 2/3's the pot.usually if the other player calls then i get worried by the turn and really just try to wing it and go by my gut to figure if the other is stronger than me or not....i have found that..i cant go by my gut anymore cause if it get's to the turn i'm at a loss on what to do.so my question is 2 parts...is my begining stradigie good,and what to do from the turn thru river? any help would be terrific...i've placed a few times but i really want to see a final table.

 

[Debi]

I can give you a bit of advice on the early stages of tournaments - but beyond that I am still working on my game myself. This is my advice based on what I have learned - others may tell you different.

You do want to play relatively tight in the early stages - but your plays will be based on your position at the table, stack sizes and reads you are able to get on players. In early position you will only open pots with very strong hands and the size of your bet will be smaller - like about 2xbb. In middle position your range will open up a bit and with 4-6 players left to act you want to increase your bet size to about 2.5xbb. And in late position you are definitely raising with more hands it should be about 3xbb. (in un-opened pots). This is what Chris Ferguson recemmends in a good article at FullTilt about opening bet sizes. I am finding that a lot of strong tournament players use this same strategy.

Focus on finding the right opportunities to build your chip stack without being reckless in the early stages.

As far as your turn play goes - it is really difficult to advise without knowing the specifics of the situation. You might try posting some hands in Tournament Hand Analysis. When you do that - please leave out the results until after we can give you some feedback on what we would do. This is an example of how you would ask for assistance on a turn play. This is one of my hands I will use to show you.

pokerstars Game #30986959824: Tournament #181768136, $50+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (200/400) - 2009/07/28 17:28:06 ET
Table '181768136 46' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: kkleise13 (16305 in chips)
Seat 2: DaveBuffalo (10426 in chips)
Seat 3: trindo (16240 in chips)
Seat 4: vezir3000 (18657 in chips)
Seat 5: encountah (16133 in chips)
Seat 6: AKDEL (12244 in chips)
Seat 7: p5an (11766 in chips)
Seat 8: going4pro (14620 in chips)
Seat 9: dakota-xx (9399 in chips)
kkleise13: posts the ante 50
DaveBuffalo: posts the ante 50
trindo: posts the ante 50
vezir3000: posts the ante 50
encountah: posts the ante 50
AKDEL: posts the ante 50
p5an: posts the ante 50
going4pro: posts the ante 50
dakota-xx: posts the ante 50
trindo: posts small blind 200
vezir3000: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to dakota-xx [9s 9h]
encountah: folds
AKDEL: folds
p5an: folds
going4pro: folds
dakota-xx: raises 600 to 1000
kkleise13: folds
DaveBuffalo: folds
trindo: folds
vezir3000: calls 600
*** FLOP *** [7s 8s Kh]
vezir3000: checks
dakota-xx: bets 1200
vezir3000: calls 1200
*** TURN *** [7s 8s Kh] [Kc]
vezir3000: checks
dakota-xx: ?????

Notice that once the turn came I deleted the rest of the action and put ???? on my play - so nobody would give me advice based on what I had already chosen to do. Also they don't know the outcome of the hand before they advise me - so they are making the same decision I had to make with no additional knowledge of what happened afterwards.

 

[SavagePenguin]

You can sometimes get to the money in an MTT by nitting it up (playing really tight) and/or getting a little lucky.

People who always bet 3x the bb throughout the entire tournament are generally pretty predictable players. Usually they only bet when they have hands, so I avoid them and let them blind out, or play back if I have something bigger. They don't steal as much as they should at the end.

i only play strong hands..ie pocket 10's or better and a-k,a-q,a-j,a-10,k-q,k-j,k-10,q-j,q-10....

I have no idea what this means.
The strength of a hand is relative to your position, so if you're playing K/J under the gun you're going to get yourself into a lot of trouble.

As for the c-bet, try opening to half the pot each time instead of 2/3. If thet fight back you get out cheaper. 1/2 the pot is generally enough that you're giving them improper odds to draw.

I'd recommend reading Harrington on Hold'em Volume 1 & Harrington on Hold'em Volume 2. They're excellent books to see exactly what is going on. I've read each book multiple times, and picked up new things each time.