Getting Blinded Down is Like Getting Eaten by a Duck, Its Painful and Takes a Long Time: by Chris “Fox” Wallace
I think Sit N Go’s have hurt my tournament play. Between Stars and Full Tilt I am somewhere in the range of 2000 SNG’s played, and In have average a $1 profit on a $5 average buy in, on Stars ( I have not checked FT lately). Playing a SNG is basically a formula (at least for me), you play only premium hands and wait for opponents to make mistakes, and then push when the blinds get high. If done properly you make money.
I have for years tried to play MTT’s the same way. I have gone deep in a few when the lottery hit and I got several big hands early and built a big stack. Under normal conditions I play tight and try to find spots to double up, with only premium hands. In its self it is not a bad thing, but as I blind down it gets harder and harder of for me to get folks to respect my pushes. This is a huge leak in my MTT game, and part of the reason I joined a training site.
Some of these videos are like watching a different game. I almost never stole blinds, I would bluff only if a big hand missed, and then I may have been bluffing with the best hand, never a naked bluff to steal blinds in order to grow my stack or to remain flat. Also, I do not on average bet the right amount, like many inexperienced MTT players my betting patterns tell a lot about my hand. So I am going to make an effort to make my betting more consistent and none of them being a minimum bet. I am also going to try to avoid going to showdown no matter what cards I have.
I am going to try, and fail at first I assume, to steal more blinds, re-steal more pots, and only get called when I want to be called. (This may be a challenge at the levels I play at). I no longer want to a nit and always go out right before or after the bubble. I had 3 final tables in tournaments with over 500 entries in 2007. The first one I had a big run of cards and got a huge chip lead and spent the entire tournament in the top 5. The others I did not care if I went broke (winning $900 helps that) and I took a few chances and got lucky.
I am developing a plan to take chances and learn how to grind my chips up whether I have cards or not. Time to get back to more MTT’s.
Life Lesson: If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. -Mary Engelbreit
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Comments
I think in MTT’s you have to really play more hands early on. I personally think it is absolutely fine to get all of your money in on a coin toss early on (as long as you are the raiser and not the caller) in the tournament. The added equity of a double sized stack is much more powerful earlier on in a tournament… allowing you to be a lot more aggressive and take more risks. And if you go home early, that is fine too as you didnt just waste many hours just to crawl in to make the money. Afterall, there is another tournament to play… or time is probably better spent in a cash game anyway.
Recently I was sweating out BigBamBoom in a MMT and he was getting shortstacked with the blinds quickly approaching. In mid-early position he picked up BigSlick. A big stack under the gun puts in a raise. So I talked Triple B into moving all in knowing that most likely he was against a pair and it would be a race situation. UTG had QQ and no A or K hit… so Triple B went out on the bubble.
I would make this move every single time, because I am not trying to just make the money… I am trying to win the tournament (or really just to make the final table). If you play super tight, you will make in into the money much more often but rarely to the final table… but if you play super aggressively you will make it to the final table more often, but only infrequently make the money. So you have to ask yourself where is the big money found?
I agree, I always struggled to find a balance, all tight or all crazy, there does need to be a balance. I did play a MTT on Friday finished 10th bubbled when I could not catch a break at the end and took a few hits, plus every hand seemed to have multiple players in it and I did not have close to a hand to risk going over the top. I pushed with the first hand I had that folded to me, J9 I was called by KJ and out I went.
Another thing I was just thinking about that is germaine to this discussion is that in MTT’s the bad players (dead money) play a lot of hands early on, and tend to bleed off chips. So, if you are super tight at the low limits you don’t get a chance to grow your stack poaching these donkeys who take hands too far. Early on, if you hit a few hands the weak players will pay you off.
I read something that hit home…in Harringto 2. Its clear that when you get to around 12-20 BB time to start playing big cards very aggressively. Can’t wait to end up in a bubble situation as per SNG - you have to go after the “Green Zone”. I started loosening up and playing more hands and no more sissy 50% cbet - sometimes pot…sometimes 75%. I pushed hard and if I got resistance sometimes I shoved, and sometimes I laid it down.
I find I go farther now - and especially in those turbo’s - I am in the money.
Good luck - we play the same stakes. Catch me online sometime at Bigbamboompoker@hotmail.com