Advice: Holding onto chip lead

Mmmm_Lemony

I often find myself in both online and live games, in both stt's or mtt's, at a table with a considerably large chip lead over the other players.

Going great guns, and then when there's maybe 3 or 4 players left, at the stt's, or 1 or 2 tables in mtt's, slowly my chips are wittled away.

I find I am calling everything that moves because of my stack advantage, next thing I know I'm out in 3th or 4th thinking what happened there. It often happens so fast I don't know how it happened.

I have tried playing ultra tight, but sometimes I tighten up too early and don't have as much chips as I normally would or enough to feel comfortable with.

Any Advice as to what I'm doing wrong, or is there a point at which you say to yourself, 'OK I've enough to get me to place x and then I can open up again.'

My game is lacking in alot of area's but this is really funking my head up at the moment.

ollyk1

You don't call with a stack advantage you reraise all-in or fold.

Edit.

This is a bit simplistic but you are bleeding away chips at the higher blind levels by calling. If you have a holding that you want to play with (if that is sooted connectors or a bag of sh1te whatever) play it for a decent raise if you are in a good position is all I'm saying.

shoutman

I know I used to do this, basically what I was doing is saying well player x has gone all in and i dont think anyone else will call him, calling and losing wont do too much damage to my chip stack, so I might as well call him and hopefully knock out another player.
I think this is a big no no and I have stopped doing this. There is no real logic to doing it.

Secondly coming near the end of mtt's blinds will start putting pressure on peoples stacks(depending on the blind structure of course) So there will be a lot of low stacks making moves. Mid to large stacks often tighten up around the end of tourneys because they feel they can make the money with there present stack so there is no point in taking chances. I think that this also isn't the way to go as the blinds will start eating away at your stack in this position too.
Basically you have to keep playing as you would have. But be wary of short stacks as you know that they will go in on less then premium hands in order to build up a stack that can see them in the money.

Obviously I am no where near as experienced as some others on this board but I hope this helps.

regards

Culchie

I think Phil Ivey is the sort of fellah to watch how a large stack should be played.

If he's playing at all ... he's raising.

And if it's raised into him and he's playing, he's re-raising.

Ste05

My strategy is very much Harrington Based but here's the rough outlines....


If you have a big stack, you need to use it wisely, i.e. don't become a calling station for people to double up through, you need to learn to bully the players at the table. Look for any opportunity to steal blinds, knock out limpers, you can pick up small pot after small pot with little or no cards, you will also be raising say 3 - 4 BB's which won't have a huge effect on your stack if you have to lay down the hand to the odd re-raise here and there.

There are alot of other advantages also, if and when you do get a big holding it's much more likely to be paid off. As you have the image of a loose bully, and sooner or later people will be getting sick and tired or you making moves and will play back at you.

This is where the strategy can fall apart or be the making of the tournament. i.e. when you're played back at.

1) If you're forced to call an all-in re-raise because of pot odds. Do so.... This has benefits and drawbacks, but that can be gone through another day....
2) If you have a strong holding, just re-raise him all-in (read, stack and player dependant obviously)
3) If it's the case that you're playing with rubbish and you have to fold, just think for a while and then lay it down. But you need to almost immediately go back to bullying the table ..... you can't let the momentum be taken away from you by a one time re-raise, let the other players risk all their chips picking off your moves, but keep the pressure on and keep these small pots building up, this is where targeting certain players comes into play (see point 2 at the bottom).

So basically you need to know when to fold and when you have no option but to call, and when to push, but it's not really rocket science, but it does take a style of playing before this point to slowly build up to the all out bully that you now are. an added benefit is that you are alot more likely to get a walk in your BB as people see you as a bully, and hopefully will not make moves on your BB without a decent holding (this has another page in it alone) ...

There's obviously alot more to this strategy, but I find if I can make some decent chips going into the last 5 or 6 players in my regular PS STT's that I will usually go on to finish 1st or 2nd in the tournament, outdraws, unluckiness, etc aside. It's alot to do with timing.

1) If there's a raise before you, don't enter the pot at all with out a strong hand.
2) If noone has raised before me, I'll bet 3-4BB's (+1 per limper) once neither the limper nor the BB have a stack that can hurt me, if I haven't been stealing from them specifically alot prior to this in the last 4 or 5 hands then I'll raise, if this is the third straight time I'm raising their blinds, let it go...
3) Avoid betting into micro stacks with nothing, I like to keep the bubble alive as long as possible, and if you know you're going to get called and will have to show a hand, make sure it's something that is at least slightly above marginal enough to frighten your real prey for your later stealing attempts and also to improve your image and to keep stealing opportunities at a maximum and also your opponents guessing.
4) You need to have played a strong tight aggressive style prior to this in order for people to already fear you, and not begin to play like this from a stationary position.

All pretty much basic stuff, but just thought I'd throw it down and see what, if any, comments come back.....

EDIT: I've set myself the challenge to answer any and all criticisms simply by quoting from this post, so bring them on...... Probably won't be able to, but I'll try...