I think a lot of peoples best gameplay comes out in small to mid stack but I find most people have a hard time maintaining their lead. I try to play tight and aggressive but I usually find my stack to be deteriorating with my style. Any techniques or rule of thumbs would be appreciated.
Thank U 4 Posting
The first thing to do is to check for leaks in our game. We may feel our game is solid but having a big stack leak can reveal that we may not be.
With shorter stacks we make a mistake we either bust out our put ourselves into shove fold mode. Often that means we make only the one mistake. With larger stacks we can keep making mistakes and that is what bleeds our stack down.
So a review of your
hands specifically when you have a big stack is key.
A mental review of your thought process during big stack play is also good.
You may not have a big stack leak but it may help to review and be sure.
We are looking for thought patterns that are errors such as:
I would normally fold but I have a lot of chips I will call.
If I shove over the top here this mid stack has to fold.
I will thin value bet this spot it is only Xbb.
I am getting x-1 in this multi way pot I will call I have the chips.
If I take down this big stack villain right now I will have the chip lead.
So you may be reading this and saying these are reasonable thoughts and they are.
However we want to be based on DATA not on emotion. On board runouts- not I have the chips to do this.
We want to be drawing to the nuts when getting x-1 in a multiway pot not to a hopeful 7 high flush draw for instance.
We want to know the other big stack can fold a hand if we are going to get them to fold and base it on the board runout. Often other big stacks in the mid stage section of tournaments are not the tight foldy type.
Again not saying that you do this- I have done it myself. I repeatedly see others doing this, so I am just bringing it to your and anyone else reading this, their attention in case it may be of help.