Changing strategy throughout a tournament.

[Hospedar]

Hi.
When playing a tournament do you change your strategy? It often seem as people seem to play way more agressive in the beginning than they do for second half.

I'm learning how to play in tournaments correctly.

In micro stakes or even in freerolls you need to play more tight at the beginning. Your principal gun is the patience. You need to wait the correct moment to the take the villain's chips.

If you are against a calling station: Let him pay your best hands.

If you are against a crazy and aggressive player: Let him oversize the pot alone.

If you are against a passive player: Try not to scare him; you need to do small bets.



Remember: This only works if you have a valuable hand!!!



At the middle game you can try to steal some blinds when you are the first to bet (in position, of course). This is a great strategy to keep your blind's maintenance working. Then, you will not be short stack at the end of the game.

Hint: Don't try to steal who is with a short stack!

But, if you are short stack, you need to shove your opponents when you have an ace broadway hand with you or when you have a pocket pair (specially the big ones).

Hint: Pocket pairs are very strong in a head's up gameplay!



At the end of the tournament, you need to be more aggressive and, principaly, to study more about ICM (I'm learning something about this too). But don't think much about this if you are playing against a donkey villain, because he probably don't know what is this...

 

[Hospedar]

I'm learning how to play in tournaments correctly.

In micro stakes or even in freerolls you need to play more tight at the beginning. Your principal gun is the patience. You need to wait the correct moment to the take the villain's chips.

If you are against a calling station: Let him pay your best hands.

If you are against a crazy and aggressive player: Let him oversize the pot alone.

If you are against a passive player: Try not to scare him; you need to do small bets.



Remember: This only works if you have a valuable hand!!!



At the middle game you can try to steal some blinds when you are the first to bet (in position, of course). This is a great strategy to keep your blind's maintenance working. Then, you will not be short stack at the end of the game.

Hint: Don't try to steal who is with a short stack!

But, if you are short stack, you need to shove your opponents when you have an ace broadway hand with you or when you have a pocket pair (specially the big ones).

Hint: Pocket pairs are very strong in a head's up gameplay!



At the end of the tournament, you need to be more aggressive and, principaly, to study more about ICM (I'm learning something about this too). But don't think much about this if you are playing against a donkey villain, because he probably don't know what is this...

If someone more experienced than me read something wrong here, please, correct me!

 

[Mag_P1e]

Being able to adapt to your stack and your opponents at the table throughout the tournament is a hallmark of mentally strong and focused players. This is exactly the state I am striving for - for now, I sometimes continue to push through my strategy, even if I clearly see that everything is not going well.