MTT borefests

zuutroy

Started playing a few $11 1000+ entrants on party lately. Invariably I rock it for the first hour and end up at around 80% of my starting stack and less than 50% of the average stack, while muppets are doubling and trebling up with Q3o. Is it correct to play tight STT strategy early in a MTT or is a bit of gambling to be either big stack or bust recommended? Maybe I'm just running bad, but it's awful boring.

ditpoker

if after an hour of any online tournament you've only 80% of your starting stack your playing too tight. after an hour you've played AT LEAST 6 levels. if you are getting bored, make it a part of your strategy to raise any unopened pots in the cut off or cut off+1 . This way you you'll be forced to play for flops and hopefully your stack will be going upward..

zuutroy

I'd normally play top 5 hands from early, down to maybe QJo middle unraised, and 89s and A8s late unraised. Don't fancy getting much looser than that!

Iago

zuutroy wrote:

Is it correct to play tight STT strategy early in a MTT or is a bit of gambling to be either big stack or bust recommended?

neither really.

In the early stages you should be getting involved in a lot of cheap pots in position. You're not gambling as such, you're playing reasonable hands and getting to see cheap flops. Once you've seen a flop you can win it through improving or by using your position to your advantage. There's less need to raise as the blinds aren't worth taking, rather you want to get into a flop with starting hands that play well in a multiway pot and taking significant pots. Win big lose small.

When you move into the mid stages, your range should tighten, and again paying attention to position only now you should be raising those hands from position and taking down pots uncontested, or by firing on the flop. When out of position you should be raising your hands to isolate and get heads up against someone.

As you get to the later stages, you should start targetting people whose stack range is around the average/middle of the tournament. You don't want to target the small stacks as their range for calling is wider, and you don't want to target the big stacks as they will call with a wide range as well.

Throughout the tournament you want to watch the players at the table you're at, try and find out who is playing tight/loose and exploit them at every opportunity. Who overvalues their drawing hands? Who calls down to the river before folding? Who calls big preflop bets and folds the flop? Who sees monsters in every hand?

Your range gets tighter as the tournament progresses, but you also play more aggressively from position and when you have a hand, or are up against a weak or predictable player.

If you're getting bored then stick to STTs, where tight and aggressive play in the first 3-4 levels will normally see you in a position where you finish in the money.

zuutroy

nice post thanks. I'm doing pretty good in STT's but I find the 'marathon' aspect of the MTT's a nice challenge. I'll stick to your advice in tonight's and see how I get on.

dacman

id suggest that you find tournanments with 300 or less players. i think you will fait alot better in these playing your stt stragedy.1000 players + tournanments are very tough and time consuming

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

dacman

LuckyLloyd wrote:

Plus finishing in the top 18 but not in the big money of the top three on a regular basis will CRUSH YOUR SOUL AND ROB YOUR SPIRIT.

Exactly

ditpoker

LuckyLloyd wrote:

Plus finishing in the top 18 but not in the big money of the top three on a regular basis will CRUSH YOUR SOUL AND ROB YOUR SPIRIT.

moan moan moan...

zuutroy

#Game No : 6201421516
Same crap again, getting bled away for 50 minutes, then this......



***** Hand History for Game 6201421516 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny: 34781194 Level: 4 Blinds(100/200) - Wednesday, August 01, 16:21:53 ET 2007
Table Regular (1110542) Table #17 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: pokerbeni111 ( 10,510 )
Seat 2: monee20 ( 3,110 )
Seat 3: Zuutroy ( 2,380 )
Seat 5: theo431 ( 3,940 )
Seat 6: DanMc64 ( 3,980 )
Seat 8: BigF371 ( 3,660 )
Seat 7: beat_hoven ( 8,920 )
Seat 10: bigbudha187 ( 8,930 )
Seat 9: fookinhard ( 6,310 )
Seat 4: megusta71 ( 2,290 )
Trny: 34781194 Level: 4
Blinds(100/200)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Zuutroy [ Ks Qc ]
pokerbeni111 calls [200]
monee20 folds
Zuutroy raises [800]
megusta71 folds
theo431 folds
DanMc64 folds
beat_hoven folds
BigF371 folds
fookinhard calls [700]
bigbudha187 folds
pokerbeni111 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, 6s, 9s ]
fookinhard is all-In [5,510]
Zuutroy is all-In [1,580]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qs ]
** Dealing River ** [ 4c ]
fookinhard shows [ As, Jd ]a flush, Ace high.
Zuutroy shows [ Ks, Qc ]a flush, King high.
fookinhard wins 3,930 chips from side pot #1 with a flush, Ace high.
fookinhard wins 5,160 chips from the main pot with a flush, Ace high.
Player Zuutroy finished in 442.

Iago

you should have folded preflop, you didn't have the right hand or position given your remaining stack and the blind levels

ollyk1

Iago wrote:

you should have folded preflop, you didn't have the right hand or position given your remaining stack and the blind levels

What Iago said.

I hate to break it you but you are not playing good zuutroy. Get yourself a good book on mtts (Harrington on Holdem book one for instance and read it, reread it and practise it....)

ditpoker

you are also the second shortest stack at this table? what is starting stack? 3k, or 1500, or??? and technically in that hand you went broke with a K high flush draw, though it seems like a decent play cos any raise by you at this level will make u pot committed to pretty much any flop.

zuutroy

Thanks for the advice...spot of tilt in the play there. I know I aint playing good Olly, thats the problem! Starting is 3K DIT.
EDIT: I got Harrington but haven't had time to digest it yet.

zuutroy

In good shape tonight...average stack with 134 left...100 is the bubble. My M is just above 10. Any advice?

Quball15

The bubble is the best time to build some chips by stealing. Try to steal in late position from weak tight players with medium-ish stacks.

And remember first in vigorish is very important when going all-in!

best of luck

zuutroy

Thanks..as it happened I got QQ KK and AA back to back and am now close to the lead!

Quball15

lol sweet. now don't screw it up! thats the best advice :-D

zuutroy

Aww I'm sick...was looking good for the final table and I ran into this. Any comments on it?

#Game No : 6207268368
***** Hand History for Game 6207268368 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:34815898 Level:15 Blinds-Antes(4,000/8,000 -200) - Friday, August 03, 19:17:31 ET 2007
Table Regular (1111015) Table #3 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: legend_killer ( 186,442 )
Seat 2: paulo_rod ( 110,522 )
Seat 5: Zuutroy ( 136,834 )
Seat 6: TheClown1984 ( 24,640 )
Seat 9: Dommeboer ( 142,252 )
Seat 8: RedHotVale ( 167,225 )
Seat 7: Richi_Baby ( 129,571 )
Seat 4: redrum4lliks ( 153,628 )
Seat 10: ACE2KEC ( 118,090 )
Trny:34815898 Level:15
Blinds-Antes(4,000/8,000 -200)
legend_killer posts ante [200]
paulo_rod posts ante [200]
redrum4lliks posts ante [200]
Zuutroy posts ante [200]
TheClown1984 posts ante [200]
Richi_Baby posts ante [200]
RedHotVale posts ante [200]
Dommeboer posts ante [200]
ACE2KEC posts ante [200]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Zuutroy [ Td Th ]
ACE2KEC folds
legend_killer folds
paulo_rod folds
redrum4lliks folds
Zuutroy raises [40,000]
TheClown1984 is all-In [24,440]
Richi_Baby folds
RedHotVale folds
Dommeboer calls [32,000]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, 3h, 9s ]
Dommeboer checks
Zuutroy is all-In [96,634]
Dommeboer calls [96,634]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5s ]
** Dealing River ** [ Jd ]
Dommeboer shows [ Ks, As ]a flush, Ace high.
Zuutroy shows [ Td, Th ]a pair of Tens.

DemocAnarchis

Dont really like such a large raise pf with just 1010, would prefer to make it about 24k i think, you hit the flop pretty well, and i think he made it fairly obv with his call that he was drawing to a flush, but with the nut flush draw I would have probably called you down too. Thats poker, dont think you did anything massively wrong though.

cooker3

Your raise is far too big, halving it would be better, 20k to go. As played you go broke here all the time, one of those things, the pot is too big to do anything else.

zuutroy

Thanks lads, I was just switching it up a bit, plus I wanted to take it down there and then if at all possible

Hitman Actual

The other guy played it badly preflop, he should have pushed. You may have got away with from it then; TT would be a tight call. As played you go broke every time. Don't worry about it, well played on going so far.

zuutroy

Good shot at getting into the Sunday Million here. Double shootout...I'm at the final table 3rd in chips with 8 left and 3 seats on offer. Only problem is its a turbo, so I need lots of nice cards!

zuutroy

Bubbled :'-(

All in with 6's called by 9's