Most Difficult Time in Tournaments

[ImBetterDude]

For me, this has to be when I'm either nearing the bubble or the final table. It's so counter intuitive to play aggressively in these stages, and I struggle with it constantly. The only time I can successfully bully is when I have a large stack of like M20 and I feel comfortable dropping 3 BB's to steal with a sub-standard hand. Otherwise, I'm too tight and bleed away too many chips come money time.

There are other stages that are difficult of course, and I'd like to hear what you all think. Certainly the times mentioned above are my biggest problematic area in poker. I need to improve if I want to make big cashes with any consistency.

[Stew21]

I don't know what levels (tourney fees) you play at, but should you get the chance I believe PTF2 should be able to help you some with this.

GL

[Taardvark]

The first thing you need to work out psychologically is to not be afraid to bust out. The approaching money bubble is one of the best places in a tournament for a fearless player to chip up. The fear is so prevalent that you should be able to take down numerous pots with little resistance.

Once the bubble pops you want enough chips to be able to fall back into first gear when the crazies go nuts after slipping in. You might have to wait around 5 or 6 orbits before play normalizes again.

The final table bubble takes more courage because the money is so close and you've played so long to get there that you'd hate to bust but this is another good place to pick up chips because play can get very conservative, which is often very bad because you're short-handed right before that.

If you bust out doing everything you can to get to the final table with enough chips to make a run at the top 3 you should never beat yourself up over it.

One thing that concerns me a bit is your statement about 20BB being a big stack. This is not a big stack at all. It's a stack size that's marginally playable but if you have that stack size at the bubble you should be able to build it to 40-50BB with aggressive play, especially if your table has gone passive and is content to wait for the money.

If you reach the money with that kind of stack you should be in excellent shape to begin making the end run.

[jeffnc]

[superduperchick]

i dont know why but sometimes i have an issue with patients at the very start once i can get on a roll and especially once the blinds go up im much more comfortable



never been anything to serious tho lol

[taz115]

I’d probably be a decent resource on this subject since I’m often very aggro (to the point of being too aggro and often moving into the stupid realm) at these times. I just think in general you always have to look for opportunities to gain chips and not concern yourself about bubbles. MTT players should be gunning to get all the chips all the time and that means agro players will bust far more often on the bubble and early on in tournaments but when the cards go our way we should end up winning more than our fair share.

I can give you 2 good examples, one good one and a bad one.

#1: FT bubble of a 350 player turbo that I recently won. 10 players I’m CL with 110k, 2nd CL has 102k and is to my immediate left.

I’m raising relentlessly, 2 to 3 times an orbit first in. As low as T8o, K6o if I recall correctly, knowing that I’m calling anybody’s push except 2 or 3 big(ish) stacks at the table. If I raise to 20k preflop and someone pushes for their final 50k I’m getting better 2:1 and I’m calling them even though 50k puts a big dent in my stack. Everyone is complying with bullying ways but the 2nd CL has pushed over my raise once already and I’ve obviously folded.

I get JJ in EP and raise to 20-25k (ish) and the 2nd CL pushes. I have JJ and instacall. Lots of players would fold here as he can virtually bust me but I have to be ahead of his range, hell I’d even take a flip here if he showed me his cards. He shows AK and I win the flip and the table can’t believe I called there.

I go to the FT with 250k chips and 2nd place now has 90k chips and I really have an opportunity to push people around now, and take a few losses which is often not possible at a FT. For those that would lay down JJ there, they are playing it like a satellite thinking I want to get to the FT. Sure I could have went from CL to out on the bubble in one hand but when I win there I increase my chances of winning a lot.


#2: FT bubble of the Million. 10 players left (I’m 3rd or 4th our 10 if I recall correctly). Very prestigious and lots of players tighten up here. The CL however is not tightening up preflop or postflop and he is creating big pots by calling conti bets. I get AQ and raise and CL calls me with position. I bet a dry flop and he calls again. I fire again on the turn and he raises me. Now there is a big pot and I know he’ll raise me with one pair here, so I call and lose a showdown to one pair on a blank river. I went from 3M in chips to 1.2M or so heading into the FT with Ace high.

This is too much aggression and a very poorly played hand by me. I got into a hand with an opponent who is unlikely to fold and I should have given up after my conti bet on the flop as I’m likely to get into a big pot with a hand that needs to improve to win.

…

I think it is important to apply pressure and look for opportunities but that doesn’t mean press the raise button every time your dealt a hand. You just have to use the same skills you use throughout a tourney and not worry about busting the bubble, I’ve been the bubble many times, some of them uneccesarily. Being aggro without being stupid is a fine line lots of the times but if you win one MTT for every 10 bubbles that you bust out on you’ll be a happy man financially.

Especially in faster tournaments get your chips in the middle often when the blinds and antes are high. So many players played so tight on the FT of that turbo I won, I had a 3:1 CL over 2nd place with 6 left and still the shorties were folding to my raises. When first place pays 10x more than 9th it is a great spot to gamble it up and get on a hot streak. Because when you do you’ll be able to take the hit when your opponent finally gets the hand he was waiting for but has folded away half his stack.

Read PTF2, I haven’t but I suspect it is very good with this area of MTTs.

[chrisjp]

With practice you will get over your fear of busting. It definitely took me awhile. Great post by Taz. He's getting so good he'll probably even with a Major sober some day.

Chris

[dhwma]

my 2 cents....I mainly play 1 table sngs but I always remember that a 1st and a 4th is greater than a 2nd and a 3rd.....It has helped me increase my ROI a lot...

[jeffnc]

I won a 1,000+ player tourney on FullTilt last year where at the final table the people railing said "You like to raise a lot from early position don't you?", meaning I was obviously raising light and from out of position. But as taz said, if people tighten up and you have a stack, then it's simple math. I could raise with any 2 cards if I wanted to simply because I was winning the pot often enough that I was making a profit with my raise size regardless of my cards. Now, just because I could raise profitably with any 2 cards, it doesn't mean I should raise every single hand, because then I'd start getting played with. It was a question of raising maybe 1 hand in 3, so that they thought I had a decent hand or was just getting lucky cards and they didn't want to gamble. But if I hadn't raised 5 hands in a row, I could profitably raise 72o.

Anyway, point is that in tournaments sometimes you have to look for the right situations more so than the right cards, sometimes.

[SpaceLord]

I look at this way.

Raise, or get the hell out of the way. I'll muck trashy stuff like A-9 suited if it's raised before me. If first in, in late-ish position, I'll shove it. The fear of busting without cashing weighs heavily on a lot of people. Screw cashing. I'm IN IT TO WIN IT.