Adjusting to a tight STT table

dvdfan

Ive been playing stt's on full tilt at the $20 level. Having been used to tribeca where the villains were very soft i cant get over how tight they are on full tilt. Seriously there that tight early stages its just not funny. For example im playing now on one table im playing there were 8 players left blinds 50/100 and out of the 7 villains the most anyone had played in the last 16 hands was 3-4 hands. Now its not always that tight but its not usually far off that.

So i was very cheesed off because as you can imagine its hard to get paid off with you AK and premium pairs with such a tight bunch around and im about -12% ROI after 140 games. I had considered leaving Full Tilt but i love the setup there, im getting 27% rakeback and ive still 500 of a signup bonus to clear. So im looking for advice on changing my style early doors when everyones playing tight to take advantage of this. Heres my new strategy, do you think this is wise or am i asking for trouble??

Im going to become loose and limp with pocket pairs, suited connectors, one gap suited connectors, any 2 suited 10 or higher and try to play alot of hands in position, hoping to hit the flop and stack someone with AK or AQ when they hit. Im also going to open raise alot from late with any 2 as there so tight im bound to be picking up alot of blinds.

Is this a sound strategy or am i just asking for trouble. Also if im playing loose pre-flop should i be betting aggressively on the flop or only betting when i catch a piece of the flop so do you recommend Loose/Aggressive or Loose/Passive

Any advice would be great and im happy with my bubble late play its early doors im having trouble with

pok3rplaya

steal blinds

dvdfan

Ill be stealing alright but Full Tilts structure is slow:

15/30
20/40
25/50
30/60
40/80
50/100

Blinds raising every 6 mins, ill probably have 2-3 chances to steal every orbit but the blinds aint that huge early days so im not going to be increasing my stack that significantly although it will obviously help but it wont be enough to make a significant improvement on my chances of winning the tournament, but increasing my stack by 50% or doubling up will.

Im just worried that playing loose like that i would need a bigger stack, i know its against all the rules to play loose early on but when the table is playing so tight surely playing the opposite would have its advantages??

The_Chopper

dvdfan wrote:

Ive been playing stt's on full tilt at the $20 level. Having been used to tribeca where the villains were very soft i cant get over how tight they are on full tilt. Seriously there that tight early stages its just not funny. For example im playing now on one table im playing there were 8 players left blinds 50/100 and out of the 7 villains the most anyone had played in the last 16 hands was 3-4 hands. Now its not always that tight but its not usually far off that.

So i was very cheesed off because as you can imagine its hard to get paid off with you AK and premium pairs with such a tight bunch around and im about -12% ROI after 140 games. I had considered leaving Full Tilt but i love the setup there, im getting 27% rakeback and ive still 500 of a signup bonus to clear. So im looking for advice on changing my style early doors when everyones playing tight to take advantage of this. Heres my new strategy, do you think this is wise or am i asking for trouble??

Im going to become loose and limp with pocket pairs, suited connectors, one gap suited connectors, any 2 suited 10 or higher and try to play alot of hands in position, hoping to hit the flop and stack someone with AK or AQ when they hit. Im also going to open raise alot from late with any 2 as there so tight im bound to be picking up alot of blinds.

Is this a sound strategy or am i just asking for trouble. Also if im playing loose pre-flop should i be betting aggressively on the flop or only betting when i catch a piece of the flop so do you recommend Loose/Aggressive or Loose/Passive

Any advice would be great and im happy with my bubble late play its early doors im having trouble with

I found it very tight when I played these also. Extra aggression is needed preflop. Be active, steel with K5o from the cut off or button - even when blinds are low. If you get called bet about 1/2 to 2/3's of the pot - they generally won't play back at you unless they have it. It'll also increase chances of getting action later on.
If the blinds are low enough limp in MP with suited connectors and suited aces.
Personally I found the 30STT much looser and alot more profitable. I would just recommend playing them and playing a tight usual game. My ROI went from 20% to 45% over a 200 game sample.

The_Chopper

dvdfan wrote:

Ill be stealing alright but Full Tilts structure is slow:

15/30
20/40
25/50
30/60
40/80
50/100

Blinds raising every 6 mins, ill probably have 2-3 chances to steal every orbit but the blinds aint that huge early days so im not going to be increasing my stack that significantly although it will obviously help but it wont be enough to make a significant improvement on my chances of winning the tournament, but increasing my stack by 50% or doubling up will.

Im just worried that playing loose like that i would need a bigger stack, i know its against all the rules to play loose early on but when the table is playing so tight surely playing the opposite would have its advantages??

The reason I would steel early on in these is as follows:
My stack increases
There stack decreases
When the inevidable all in comes later on it'll be for their tourny life, not yours

dvdfan

Yep i agree stealing against tight players is a must but i think its just +EV and not that vital early stages to your overall tournament placing. I think if i can get down to the last 4-6 with a healthy stack eg 2300+ i have a good enough edge to have a good shot at winning or coming in the money in the tourney, problem is this isnt happening often enough as it used to at tribeca and when i reach the same stage with a 1200 stack and the blinds are 50/100 and 60/120 im in push mode mostly against stacks that cover me so my folding equity isnt as powerful and if i lose a 50/50 pushing im out. However if im the big stack with 2300 and pushing against a 1200 stack and i lose a 50/50 i still have another 1000+ stack to play with so my chances are much greater of a high finish.

Now dont get me wrong i think blinds are worth stealing but lets look at how it might affect my stack:

6 min levels, Assuming the players acting after me are very tight and i can make a steal on average 2.5 times for each 6 min level

30/60 level would be +56
20/40 level would be +75
25/50 level would be +94
30/60 level would be +113
40/80 level would be +150

Total would be 448 pts

Now Assuming that one of the players acting after me is not so tight so i decrease my chances of stealing to twice every 6 mins and a 60% success rate then i would increase my stack by:

15/30 +18
20/40 +24
25/50 +30
30/60 +36
40/80 +48

Total +156

I dont know which one of the above would be more accurate maybe its somewhere in the middle but the latter wouldnt help me very much but 448 points increase would be very helpful. What do you think is achievable. I auto become aggressive in late position when it hits the 50/100 level so i didnt include that.

So i agree blind stealing can be profitable in the early stages but its not enough in this case. The key is increasing my stack by at least 50% as often as possible before the 50/100 stage ends. Ive found playing tight with tight players more often leads to me on an average stack of 1000-1500 too often but my main question is playing loose against tight players when im not deepstacked profitable or not?????