tourney aggression, where to start in tourney?

[Magyk]

If you're gonna steal the pot preflop, just make sure that either you can lay down the hand if it is played back, or you got some post flop skills.

[mikey4141]

yea the bubble is always a great spot to steal some blinds!

[TomKat1958]

only be super aggressive when you know you have the nuts after the flop... that or you're working your luck or the bluff

[aceydj]

Well I like to play aggressive in the beginning to get a good chip stack, and play very, very tight poker and I don't call anything out of position.

[squid300]

Start of tournament:

Ill narrate this part of the tournament as blinds 5/10 thru 40/80

General rule of thumb is to see lots of really cheap flops hoping to hit big. Don't go broke with 1 pair. This is not the time to be raising and reraising. A lot of times I will open limp with QQ and KK just to get someone to stack off later.

early-middle
This area includes 50/100 to 125/250 levels

the 50/100, 75/150 and 100/200 levels especially, you really want to play tighter as in most tournaments its to much of your stack (unless you have accumulated a lot of chips earlier) to be seeing lots of flops. You should be raising most pots that you enter, unless someone in front of you has limped in and you have something speculative, 89ss or something to that effect. the 125/250 level is where the middle of the tournament is starting and you want to be raising a bit more if you have enough chips to do so. this is the point to where I will begin 3betting light in position if I have the chips to profitably do so.

Middle stages - 150/300 through 300/600

The early middle is the most important part of the tournament, If you set yourself up in those stages so that you can play optimally in this stage, you can really run over a tournament. This is the part of the tournament where you can really chip up if you have the ammo to do so. This is where you should be 3betting in position and occasionally 3b shoving a LP raiser. The tighter the chipstacks get, the less you can do

Middle late 400/800-1000/2000

These stages you are looking to pick off the blind stealers as those steals get more and more valuable. At this point you will see the average chipstack be around the 17-22bb range. If you have the ammo, take control.

late stages 1500/3000 and up

at this point, a lot of times you will see people waiting for hands, this is where you can really chip up by stealing lots of pots, by the time they realize what your doing, you've already done your damage.


once I get deeper into tournaments, this is my guidelines

15bb and under, open shove in position with wide ranges and tight ranges.
15-20bbs play very tight range and reshove against openers
20-30bbs steal blinds with 77+ 89s+ A9s+ ATo+
30-40bbs resteal in position planning to bet the flop and drive opponent out
40bb+ raise lots of hands to force players into tough decisions

To make this work correctly, you have to be good at reading hands and most of all not get caught up in what you have only. What your opponent has is far more important.

hope this helps.

[KillerAce]

it all depends, i like to be in mid tourney, start gettin ppl scared to lose due to cashin

[aceydj]

I always start out aggressive to build my chip stack up then I play very tight and usually end up pretty good

[Fancygirl]

I've been told I play too many hands in the beginning therefore it leaves me sometimes short stack 1/2 in and can't play some hands I really want to play. What's your thought's?

[Fancygirl]

I can usually read other hand's but then sometimes they fool you!

[AZPLAYS11]

I usually start out being as aggressive as the table will let me be. I like to build my stack early if the cards will let me. If I get to aggressive and things start turning bad then I back off for a while and just watch the cards and the players. Sometimes it's hard to get to aggressive if you keep getting bounced around from one table to the other.