Hey all, I'm new to tournaments. I'm fairly good at cash games, but need some help with tournaments. I generally play super aggressively, especially in freerolls, so as to try to rank higher in the early stages. Then hold tight later on to hold my position. This has gotten me a few tournaments, but not enough. My question is how to tweak the system to get a few more, or maybe ditch it completely. Perhaps play tighter earlier, more aggressively later, or both. Considering that most tourneys are high risk high reward anyways, I only need to win one or two, but my bankroll is very small so my opportunity is limited. Thanks for any help.

hi. In MTT tournaments often plays a big role luck. There's nothing to do, you need to play tight and aggressive actually. But the wrong players playing in these tournaments are really lucky and it frustrates me

Originally Posted by avderevo

hi. In MTT tournaments often plays a big role luck. There's nothing to do, you need to play tight and aggressive actually. But the wrong players playing in these tournaments are really lucky and it frustrates me

yeah. I know I should be being tight. It is just impossible to notice. And luck is a factor in all tourneys. That's why I prefer cash.

no point in being loose early

Don't think there is a solution to your position. There are already super aggressive players trying to build bankrolls with super luck. Micros and freerolls are a hard road to haul, but that's my world also. I prefer playing with house money from freerolls, but have yet to turn it into a bankroll. Good luck to both of us.

yes you have more chanse to double you stack...

In MTTs, specially in freerolls, you should do exactly the opposite of what you said... just play VERY tight in the earlier stage, players wont let u bluff then in this stages, you will be called for even the botton pair in the board if u try to bluff and lose many chips.

When blinds get higher is when u should play change the gear and start to attack the medium stacks once they want to survive and wont be playing marginal hands.

Thank you for the feedback. I think I'll be more patient and pick my fights more.

yep very thigh in the earlier stange ,next stage for 250.500 bb more aggressive

to wide of a question. the bigger the field the bigger the ammount of alliners

Tight aggressive is always a good way to go, but as you posted, it will hold your position while all the other stacks grow and you get shorter and shorter till your premium hand gets cracked.

Sometimes you get lucky and the cards keep coming, but most of the time they don't which is why you get the results you get.

You really want to always play aggressive, but tight at first in a tournament, there really isn't much in the pot to win. As the blinds go up and antes start, there is a lot more money out there. You have to loosen up and take the dead money.

If you don't chip up in the middle of a tournament, you will find yourself on the bubble with a mid-short stack struggling.

good comments, enjoyed reading them. I will try to play like this a little and see how it works out. Thanks

Aggression is key to winning, but just don't play crazy. All your actions have to be reasonable. If your BR is small, try to mix MTT's with 18, 45, 180 man SNG's that will be like small tournament and it will reduce the variance! GL

Originally Posted by Davud105

Hey all, I'm new to tournaments. I'm fairly good at cash games, but need some help with tournaments. I generally play super aggressively, especially in freerolls, so as to try to rank higher in the early stages. Then hold tight later on to hold my position. This has gotten me a few tournaments, but not enough. My question is how to tweak the system to get a few more, or maybe ditch it completely. Perhaps play tighter earlier, more aggressively later, or both. Considering that most tourneys are high risk high reward anyways, I only need to win one or two, but my bankroll is very small so my opportunity is limited. Thanks for any help.

If you have a small bankroll you do not need to play multi-table tournaments, as you just lose all the money (it should have 300+ BI to the limit) for SNGs 100 BI on the limit! Can you first start playing, or the SnG micro or micro cache and increase the BR initially, and then to play MTT tournaments!
Gambling much enother of the game in the freeroll, so here you have to play tighter initially, but only when bb 250+ start playing more aggressively gl

regardless of ones bankroll & other things

The proper and profitable strategy for cashing in tourneys is obviously
1.Early - play Tight 80 % of time and loose 20% of time ( if we have decent stack)
2.Middle - This is the stage where we have to play based on how many big blinds we have and our position in tourney
heavy stack - loose aggressive
good stack - tight ,like playing top 10% of hands
short stack - must shove any decent hand & double up
3.Late -
If we got to ITM by now , we must play aggressively in order to build a decent stack by picking up our spots and aim for deep run

Originally Posted by Tech101205

regardless of ones bankroll & other things

The proper and profitable strategy for cashing in tourneys is obviously
1.Early - play Tight 80 % of time and loose 20% of time ( if we have decent stack)
2.Middle - This is the stage where we have to play based on how many big blinds we have and our position in tourney
heavy stack - loose aggressive
good stack - tight ,like playing top 10% of hands
short stack - must shove any decent hand & double up
3.Late -
If we got to ITM by now , we must play aggressively in order to build a decent stack by picking up our spots and aim for deep run

^^
I think we should adapt our style of playing according to what stack we ( and our foes on our table have ) , if I understand correct Tech101205 says the same and I agree .
If we have the biggest stack we can play a wider range of cards and more aggressively , if we fall to a medium , we start playing TAG , lower we shove from a point and after .
I used to play TAG all the time ( with the exception of the times Ineeded blinds to survive) itcan lead you at the best at low rewards ITM , not better , you really need adaptation .
Now , the thing you say for the ITM situation I like it, cause in the past I was doing sth bad , althought ITM I wasn't changing my style , I kept playing TAG or like a nit sometimes instead of playing aggressively , at least untill you come close to the final 18 spots I'dsay .

I prefer the agressive game in SNG and MTT...

My advice would be to play tight at early stages and as the blinds goes up, especially with antes to be more and more aggressive. Makes no sense to play aggressive at early stages because there's no real pot to atack

Aggression can win you chips you wouldn't win otherwise.

Always remember though that you should play tight. Enter only with good hole cards and raise! Remember to fold at some point....

I think the aggressive game as excellent!

I love To Play The Hand Tight But Lose Because I want To Win Money

Its Free-roll A Alot of dunks play this sit back let then make the mistake and lead then bully

Your A Pretty Guy lol

Depends on 'table dynamic',you should be able to play more marginal hand in the early stage as the blinds are still relatively small.

Super aggressively you must play in a Hyper Turbo MTT. But in the tournaments with a 10 minutes per level or more you must play very tightly

always aggressive

I am pretty much an agressive tighter, haha depends on a variety of factors, how much players, buyin, blinds speed, table speed etc.

Play tight in the early stages and look out for 2 types of players.

there are mostly 2 types of players in freerolls.

-People who play for fun and all-in with ace High and low-mid pairs
-Tights people who all-in when they have top cards.

So you should play agresive against funplayers who call and tight when tight players call

Consider the following

LAGs do well in tournaments because when people are sitting tight as you start to get close to a bubble your getting chips from the antes

early in the MTT you arent looking to pick up blinds, it gives you time to look around at the table and see who is at your table and then you can plan on who you will be getting your chips from, playing LAG style at this stage is detramental, with little info on your opponents you dont know how they are going to respond and if your like me playing low stakes most players play too agressive so LAG style starts to fail as your stack swings are so much

sit tight be a TAG and you can watch players start to leak there chips by playing too agressive and figure a way of getting those chips over to yourself

play tight/aggressive. if you flop something good dnt be afraid to put money in but i woild avoid to play only aggressive in early stage. Better play agressisve when u reach the bubble if you have good stack and if ure among the 3 big stacks at the table