Joined: Aug '09
Location: Poland
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 24
I made final tables few times but for every time i lost on 4 or 5th place. when is only 5 left everyone have same amount of chips. What stategy should i play? agressive or tight?
I played always tight at the end of tournament, i think is bad because i lost almost everytime and didnt match final 3rd place (maybe because blinds ate me and i didnt have cards to play with).
What would you suggest about playing in the end of tournament?
loose/aggressive play to steal blinds?
or
tight/passive play and waiting for cards for all-in?
Joined: Aug '09
Location: Poland
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 24
ok i agree
and if there are very agressive players, im short stack and doesnt have hand to play with ? that means i will lose every time thats poker i dont like to risk especially when im not far from big winnings.
Joined: Oct '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 1086
If you want to go for the win, you need to open up your opening range near the bubble to steal blinds and put pressure on the short stacks, it's pretty standard. If you're happy cashing many times but hardly ever winning, play tight. I like to win
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
If you play tight and passive you will be blinded out you gotta be loose and aggressive, look for tight players and steal their blinds. but if your opponents are pretty aggressive and you think you will reach higher position by playing tight then play tight.
Joined: Dec '08
Location: Netherlands
Age: 64 (M)
Posts: 735
Posted by SuperNoob: If you play tight and passive you will be blinded out you gotta be loose and aggressive, look for tight players and steal their blinds. but if your opponents are pretty aggressive and you think you will reach higher position by playing tight then play tight.
I fully agree, if you don't get cards and your opponents are pretty aggressive, you can only hope for the other players to eliminate eachother and you move up a few places, before the blinds eat your stack. This way I managed to get 3rd in a life tourny once, although I had the smallest stack when we sat down at the final table.
Joined: Nov '08
Location: United States
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 155
I played always tight at the end of tournament...
This is bad, as posted, when you get short-handed(5 and less), you need to relax your starting requirements and play more pots. Both for open raising and calling raises. Time to really play poker, not just premium hole cards. In live poker(short-handed), I've had some people question why I play some starting hands, that I wouldn't at a full table. Heh-heh, sometime I clue them in, other times, I let em blow in the wind...
Position becomes a bit more important, so you can look to make raises from CO and button with the hopes of stealing the blinds, occasionally with even crap cards(not too often though!).
I guess the more experience you get, the easier this becomes..
I think alot of people do the same thing & get tight, admittedly this used to be me too, just trying to hang on until i could reach heads up or climb a couple places in the pay ladder & it would work sometimes, but most the time i would just bubble out thanks to increasing blind sizes. But Ive changed to a much more aggressive & slightly loose strategy, especially when i notice people on my table are becoming tight, I pretty much pump up every pot (& yes people talk s**t at me in the chat ... but im the one who walks away with the last laugh & first place .... well most of the time esp when i run good anyways) But with this strategy ive been finding that by halfway through the tourney, im usually in the top 10 chip leaders & this gives alot of chips to work with so it makes it alot easier to play & suckouts only dent ur stack, not put you out. Also, you can go to the final table shortstacked & still win.... but its much easier to go in as chipleader & take the deal
Joined: Aug '09
Location: Chile
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 1353
Agressive!!...You should try to play more agressive at the ends stages. Like you nobady wants to be aliminate after a long tournamnet, even less when the prizes start to becoming really good,. So you have to take advantage of this and make your pre-flop raise range wider.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: Ireland
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 638
Aggresive aggresive aggresive ...... maximize your chances ... any ace and you have less than 10 big blinds push .....got position and no bets before you push ......... put the decision on the others.... its easier to push than to call .......... believe me if you wait for A,A or the like when you are short you will be sick when you get called by chip leaders with rubbish and loose..... best time to start pushing is when you just have a stack that might damage the average player if they call.......... if you have less any two cards will do if no one enters the pot before you. I will also call if short if two players allready gone all in even with rags .....because if i get lucky and win its probably the best chance of getting a big pot and giving me a chance to win the tourney ...
I always call short stacks with any two cards if they have only 3 big blinds and the amount of time i won against better cards is easily 50 50 .... you will get called if youre short but you will win with rubbish a fair amount of the time too ...... you just have to decide before you reach shortstack level do you just want to wait and hope you ladder up or do you want to fight and give yourself the chance to win
Im very aggresive at the final table and heads up i love..... again agressive wins most of the time ..... Be in it to win it ....... abc poker dose not win mtt tourneys aggressive players do
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Lithuania
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 2805
just play like before then u get in top 6 no more strategy then u use before ..... just play hard good hand and throw away bad cards and also need luck
Joined: Feb '08
Location: Ireland
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 638
yep luck too just got lucked out of a tourney ... was struggling but got back in raised with A,q got one caller (a total nutcase) flop a ace he bets i reraise he goes all in and i call he has nothing i double up .... then couple hands later call all in with Q,Q after a someone pushes all in before me he has A,K and hits ...left with 2500 chips get A,A push all in as blinds 200 400 crazy guy calls with 5,9 suited not only dose he flop flush but hit 5,on turn and on river talk about over kill.......but like i said if youre short stacked you get called by any two cards if they can afford it ...... so why wait push ... anyway till the next one
thats 
... but im the one who walks away with the last laugh & first place 
.... well most of the time esp when i run good anyways) But with this strategy ive been finding that by halfway through the tourney, im usually in the top 10 chip leaders & this gives alot of chips to work with so it makes it alot easier to play & suckouts only dent ur stack, not put you out. Also, you can go to the final table shortstacked & still win.... but its much easier to go in as chipleader & take the deal 
