Is waiting for monster a good choice when you are chip leader?

[TheNutz4You]

put pressure on them. raise blinds 3x in late position if folded to, put out large cbet on most flops, if they didn't hit the flop they will most likely fold. if they push back and all u have it air fold. they will get mad eventually and the time you do have a strong hand they will shove all in and you can pick them off

 

[akmost]

I'm still a ''poker student'' so I try many variations in my game. Many times I was the chip leader, in the beginning I did't know how to handle such a big stack.So I was flipping a lot.So my chip leading privilege could easily gone.

Later on I approached the loose strategy ,very loose strategy , open almost any two. I could gather lot of small bets preflop and most of the time a decent cbets was enough to make my villain fold.I kind liked this approach, better to be aggressive than tight ofcourse because is harder for your opponents to read you.

The last 2 months I have made many deep runs in nice tournaments[micro limits] ,not yet a final table;it's a matter of time I believe to ship one of those . What I do ? Just be selectively aggressive and observe the players around. I carefully open and I use the 3 betting weapon but I don't over use it. My point here is to find what suits to do in every case.

That strategy works for me , read almost every answer in this thread so I see that many use this approach, so I believe I am in the right way haha

 

[elitenuts]

Being chip leader gives you a massive advantage. I would never wait for a pre-flop "monster" Having so many chips not only allows you to force players to make hard decisions but also allows you to make well-disguised hands and win big.

If you're stacked up you need to be hyper aggressive.

 

[leon_fush]

Well, here, according to circumstances, you can combine the strategy, press those who try to survive the bubble, raise a bit more in the position, but only rubbish, in one word behave like a true leader of the tournament, confidently collected deliberately ... and from the leader you can fall to the bottom And will already fail ...

 

[malakata19]

At the begining of the torunament and around of the bubble I presure the oponents and no wait for a monster hands if I haved chips to pay I pay but you can lose many chips if you no are not careful.

 

[Ametist17]

it is necessary to wait! Will put in you so far! And then to raise to All-in! And to rejoice to a victory!

 

[sSAINTSs]

As in title. Do you think to wait for monster cards is a good choice when you are chip, leader? Or maybe a better way is making pressure on your opponents? What You think about that?: cool:

The best way to loose that stack is to start betting.

 

[AjsmenX]

I think you should mix a game here...Depends of the players on the table..but in some situation you have to be agressive..Don't call usualy allin from short stacks ..They will shove best hands they can beacuse they want to stay alive..Put some agression and don't call some marginal hands in big pots

 

[alienat3d]

Waiting for a monster is a never good choice at any type of game. Simply because of following logical/mathematical thoughts: If you are talking about "waiting for a monster", then it shall be one of hands like AA, KK, QQ and AK, right? Okay, then let's look at statistics how often you will be dealt such hand. There are 1326 possible combinations of two dealt cards in Texas Holdem. So it's about only 0,45% that you will get your AA and 1,2%, that you will get AK. Exactly the same probabilities obviously are for any other pair or non-pair hand. So altogether we have 0,45%*3+1,2%=2,55%. Is that how many hands you should play if you are really waiting a monster. If you been dealt like 60 hands per hour it's roughly about that every 40-45 minutes you will be dealt one of the hands you are waiting for. and you gonna pay like 6-7 times (at 6max tables even 10) Big and Small blind + eventually antes per hour. Not telling about, that in tournaments actually blinds are raising all the time and probably already after first hour of waiting for your monster, your stack will dramatically shrink and looks ain't so deep anymore and you will be struggling as a shorty then. So, considering all those mathematics and statistics, if you have a big stack you must use these advantage immediately to steal blinds as much as possible to grow your stack even more and make it easier on a later phase of tournament. I recommend to read about Harrington's M, to understand better what you suppose to do with different sizes of stack in a multitable tournaments. And a book written by Collin Moshman if you do prefer more Single Table Tournaments.

 

[gus201]

Waiting for a monster is a never good choice at any type of game. Simply because of following logical/mathematical thoughts: If you are talking about "waiting for a monster", then it shall be one of hands like AA, KK, QQ and AK, right? Okay, then let's look at statistics how often you will be dealt such hand. There are 1326 possible combinations of two dealt cards in Texas Holdem. So it's about only 0,45% that you will get your AA and 1,2%, that you will get AK. Exactly the same probabilities obviously are for any other pair or non-pair hand. So altogether we have 0,45%*3+1,2%=2,55%. Is that how many hands you should play if you are really waiting a monster. If you been dealt like 60 hands per hour it's roughly about that every 40-45 minutes you will be dealt one of the hands you are waiting for. and you gonna pay like 6-7 times (at 6max tables even 10) Big and Small blind + eventually antes per hour. Not telling about, that in tournaments actually blinds are raising all the time and probably already after first hour of waiting for your monster, your stack will dramatically shrink and looks ain't so deep anymore and you will be struggling as a shorty then. So, considering all those mathematics and statistics, if you have a big stack you must use these advantage immediately to steal blinds as much as possible to grow your stack even more and make it easier on a later phase of tournament. A book written by Collin Moshman if you do prefer more Single Table Tournaments.

I agree with this Quote.
what did you do to get to that spot ?
is it working ? then why stop ?
As the tourney moves along and you get to mid to late you will have better players at the tables and the easier chips become harder to get. Could this be the case ?
you may need to do more mid to late tourney study.

Changing your play to last longer or go further is not helping ( benefiting ) you. Play your style and try to keep your chip count up,

good day at the tables

 

[David macdonald]

Yes and no. I am a successful tournament player and my experience is that if you play aggressive and loose you can loose your whole stack in minutes. My advice is the blind will be getting higher, you want to keep your stack , gradually build on it however if you have an all in hand for a small percentage of your stack get it in. All in hands can be any pocket pair, any 2 face cards for example. Remember not to get involved in risky situations that's puts ur tournament life on the line. There's different stages of the tournament that needs to be played differently, it takes years to know this. Pick ur spots and analyse your opponents.

 

[Mike D_]

If u don't have a monster but you have an opportunity to enter the pot first, raise! Plan A - make your opponents fold preflop Plan B - hit the flop (trash hands hits the flop hard sometimes + players don't expect you to have that hand) + Plan C you didn't hit the flop, do a C-bet and make your opponent to fold if they didn't hit the flop too. This is how I put pressure with a big stack

 

[alienat3d]

[...]Remember not to get involved in risky situations that's puts ur tournament life on the line. There's different stages of the tournament that needs to be played differently, it takes years to know this. Pick ur spots and analyse your opponents.

That's right! Years to know this or just a week or two of reading a good poker book, like written by D. Harrington or A. Snyder, where it's all widely explained on good examples.
Practice is great, but theory + practice is better.

 

[marakhovskii]

You must strictly observe the balance, if you want to retain leadership

 

[colbear]

they will call

depending on what type of tourney it is I find more people are likely to call raises by big stacks as the perception is that your bullying.
That being said no I wouldn't sit back and wait for monsters I get a little more aggressive with suited connectors and middle pairs and such hands . I feel that way if they do call you have more chances if they keep following your barrelling to actually hit a hand and if you don't hit you can still try pushing them off. I would not however start pushing people around with crap as it will catch up to you and you will likely just bleed off chips unnecessarily .

 

[walluyo]

A monster can be born on any hand.

yeahh but it rarely happend with trash starting hands like 72, 38. 92 etc.

 

[David macdonald]

I agree you would be stupid not to read poker books,however everyone's game is different and only practice and years of it will get you at the top.

 

[chicopaw]

if you are the chip leader ,then u should continue playing the way that got you there,sitting back get you off youre game

 

[sunirico]

I read through the posts here and am surprised no one mentioned fold equity.

Firstly though, the chip leader in the tournament is not important, all that matters is who the chip leader is at your table.

There are some complicated math calculations to work out exactly what your fold equity is but another way to look at it is, the chance you have to make your opponent fold. Basically a shorter stack will have to choose whether to risk their tournament life while a bigger stack will still live to fight another day. This "pressure" is what is referred to as fold equity.

If a big stack goes all-in they represent fold equity and it's not easy to call them, on the other hand if a short stack goes all-in a bigger stack can easily call with A2C as the smaller stack holds no fold equity. This factor still applies even without an all-in, because going up against a stack with fold equity could still pressure you to fold before the hand ends.

Now the question becomes, if you have fold equity do you use it?

It doesn't matter what cards you are holding, the point is they are more likely to fold.

 

[David macdonald]

I agree on the folding technique, that's why poker is an all round game and only few of us understand it fully and we're lucky enough to be blessed with fortune.

 

[blanktheman]

keep playing the way you were before being chip leader. Reason being is as fast as you won the chips is as fast as you can lose them. Try forget the fact you chip leader and play normally. If you need to bluff then you able to with a large chip stack. If you chip leader near the bubble then don't throw your chips away.

 

[FeRRi0]

For my mind you should make pressure when you are cheap leader. Use your advantage! You should w8 monsters only if you become cheap leader at start of tournament till middle blinds comes up

 

[quake419]

Monsters Clonsters

My friends when ever you are in this game you play to win with or with out a monster , waiting on a monster could throw you off your game Here is a tip PLAY 2 WIN!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mahsa dMo]

Finding a spot is better than waiting for a monster. Let's say you have J10 on CO and you have small stacks behind you. You can shove all-in and pick up the 2BB in the middle with small risk. Even if the wake up with AK you are not that behind so it is a profitable play. Put pressure on the short stacks especially when they have 10% of you stack. Even if you wait for monsters, you can be up for a cooler.

 

[reggie_g]

putting pressure to your opponents is better than waiting for a monster