MTT Advice??

[Ell Ess Dee]

Nearly always get there or thereabouts near the top Example, last night entered a $10 MTT $4000 gauranteed re-buy MTT. The most i have ever bought into but woke up late and was up from midnight onwards so a bit bored. 207 enteries makes that $2070, maniac USA players rebuying pushed it up to $4250, one bloke went all-in 5 times on one of my tables every hand and just re-bought when he lost???? Anyway, don't believe in re-buying and was going well and made the final 30 (paid).. Read some advice that you should play even tighter (saving chips) and read somewhere else that you should loosen up later stages (as everyone else plays tighter). Finally went out in 26th waiting for killer hand.. I found myself laying down A 10, K 10, K J, and the likes in the later stages unless they were suited, highish pairs also when someone raised before me, and sure flop came out favourable most times, but too late by then.. Probably answered my own question but how does everyone else play in later stages??? Hope that makes sense, on 3rd bottle of wine..

[GaF]

Re: MTT Advice?? As you get to the later stages, the blinds are bigger and more worth winning - you should definitely be playing slightly looser!!!! Your stack doesn't represent money in tournaments - it represents time!!! As the blinds get bigger, your M for a given stack decreases - that means your TIME is decreasing. As you have less time, you need to be slightly more aggressive, to win more time. If you don't, you will get blinded away. The natural instinct for players towards the later stages is to tighten up and try and limp into the money/higher up the money ladder. Poker is a game of diverse views, however, in this situation I would be as strong as to say that this approach is fundamentally and absolutely wrong. If you see that players are tightening up and limping, then you should take advantage of that and be aggressive with them. In MTT's the pay structure is usually top heavy and that is why winning rather than limping is a must!!! If you bubble, it doesn't matter - your long term EV should be significantly higher when you go on to win a tourney!!! I am just starting to learn that STT's have a flatter pay structure that necessitates less aggression and more patience and limping into the prizes - however this is different to the MTT situation you asked about. Finally - Harrington on Holdem IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST if you want to do better in MTTs - I believe anyone who reads it will see a significant improvement in their MTT game. It is volume II which deals with the latter stages, though you should read Volume I as well (and I would guess Volume III - out Tuesday I think!!) - so if you haven't got Harrington - GET IT!!! (can download it on torrent - both volumes can be found in www.thepokerbay.org)