Joined: Jul '14
Location: Australia
Age: 29 (M)
Posts: 218
I find myself running quite deep in tournaments, but once the bubble has burst, my slightly above average stack has dwindled to minimal at best without playing many hands. Granted, the cards I'm dealt are 95% unplayable, but what advice can you guys give?
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Well it might be your style of playing, for me it is more likely that you play too tight on the first few levels and mid levels and do not have enough chips to go after the bubble as stack size decreases as blinds increases. My advice is to play more aggressive from the start and pick the good spot and get a decent size so you can have more room to play with after the bubble. Yes you will make ITM less , but when you do you will have advantage with the size of your blinds.
Joined: Jun '10
Location: Belgium
Age: 51 (M)
Posts: 1457
Well I do not agree with the gentlemen above ....
As you get ITM it mean your play is Ok till then.
once you are there it s just a question of observing your opponents, using this info to steal from tight players and try to catch agrresive players with monster hands.
Also position play is very important
Mostly the players that are bigstacks when the bubble bursts ... do not get into the top 3
Joined: Jul '14
Location: Australia
Age: 29 (M)
Posts: 218
Was playing a MMT yesterday, was amongst the chip leaders with 40 left (27 paid) after stealing a few blinds and playing only in position. It was a deep stack tourney, but once the blinds hit 1200/2400 (just before cash) the big stack only had about 70BB, average was about 35. I was a bit above average and once the money kicked in I was card dead with about 75k and fluctuating between about 50-90 (stealing the blinds at this point, with 20 or so left was a big deal to most of the stacks). Busted when early position raised, button shoved and I found AK in the small blind. A10 v 33 v AK. Its pretty much a staple that A10 rivered a 4 card straight.
My style of play is to observe the table in the first few rounds, observe the weaker players and play pots with them as much as possible (with position when possible, definetely peffered), so I guess you could call it tight? Once the blinds and antes really kick in is when I loosen up somewhat. I am no means passive around the bubble but find myself still getting short as I'm probably playing way too loose. I suppose playing ABC poker from position and picking my spots just before the bubble would be a viable strategy? When you play lower stakes though, even around the bubble the hand range and unpredictable in my opinion, as stealing the blinds can often end up with you losing 2-3 per round if you don't pick up many post flop playable hands.
Understanding that it is preferential based, and dependant on the situation, my current style clearly isn't working, as I'd prefer to have a chance when I'm deep than making ITM. So, the question is, tighten up or loosen up AROUND THE BUBBLE? Table captain with around 35% of the field should give me the opportunity to survive the bubble with chips in hand.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Posted by tonespoker: Granted, the cards I'm dealt are 95% unplayable, but what advice can you guys give?
This is definitely the best hint at what you're doing wrong.. Early MTT you can afford to play quite tight, the idea is as the the game progresses you need to open up your range and play more hands.. Sounds like you're doing the opposite.
Basically in the mid to late game, you need to really loosen up your game, start playing a lot more hands and be ready to go all-in preflop quite a lot..
