Starting Strategy

[checkout4king]

I wrote this down after i heard an interview with a hyper aggressive internet player. First I dismissed it but now i am thinking that I may have to try this approach (mentally I will have to accept a higher variance).
What do you think?
Early On Strategy- My goal, really, in tournaments is to double up or triple up in the first couple of levels to have more chips than anyone else so that I have a distinct advantage starting off. This is kind of my mindset, and I know that it’s probably not a widely accepted theory, but I think it gives me a huge edge to become the chip leader to get tons of chips to be able to knock out the smaller stacks as they become desperate and the blinds go up. And I can just keep chipping up, chipping up, chipping up, and putting myself in good shape. And then, down the road, when I have 20K and the other guy has 5K or 6K, I can lose that big race, A-K to queens, and still be in the tournament with a ton of chips. A lot of guys, if they play a lot tighter and only play their cards, they get into a big race where both players have 5K and they get knocked out because of losing a coin flip. My style has very high variance for me to be able to accumulate the chips, but once I get the chips, it actually reduces my variance down the road in the tournament.

[khicks26]

i would say its worth a try, why not. this kind of player is a pain in the ass to play with.
just when you do chip up, your going to have to change gears, and tighten up some. you will have a bad image. so when you get a good hand your going to get paided off because of that bad image.

i have heard the problem with type of player is they don't change there play, and then they donk off all there chips.

[gnk2727]

i would say its worth a try, why not. this kind of player is a pain in the ass to play with.
just when you do chip up, your going to have to change gears, and tighten up some. you will have a bad image. so when you get a good hand your going to get paided off because of that bad image.

i have heard the problem with type of player is they don't change there play, and then they donk off all there chips.

I have heard this and seen it firsthand. I never quite understood the mentality to be so loose in tournies, but now that Ive been gaining more and more experience it makes alot of sense.

[GOIVIT]

I see these players all the time and good players just sit back and catch them with a couple big hands and they are gone. I think it is a bad strategy. I think you need to play a good solid game and not try these cute techniques. IMO. Good luck with your game.

[Poker Orifice]

I don't get the correlation between a guy who plays 'alot tighter and only plays their cards'. How does one assume this?
Personally (depending upon the blind structure.. if it's a fast tourney like so many 'live low buyin' ones are, I'm going to be playing many more hands IN POSITION) if it's a decent structured tourney I'm going to establish a tight image early on (sure I'm going to play some speculative hands in position that have potential for taking down a bit pot). With this tight image it allows me to make moves on my opponents with hands like 6-8s opened with a raise in say MP2 for example. It also is very table dependent - - if there's a bunch of loose donks in the early going (donks calling off raises w any two suited cards.. ie. the 'Flush Masters') of course I'm going to tighten up. If table is squeeky tight then I'm going to open my range up a bit.

Having a decent stack when blinds start up and as tourney progresses for sure is a good thing but more importantly is the play that's going to get you there. To take unecessary gambles in early stages is just a bad idea in my opinion,.. so is leaning too heavily on shorter stacks that are going to shove in on your preflop raises out of desperation. If I can get a stack that's large enough to withstand a couple of big hits when I'm coolered on a KK or when I lose a race with a small stack.... hey.. bonus and obviously I would like to get myself in a position to be able to do so... but I'm still going to play the table and the players on it, looking for oppurtunities that present themselves and opponents who are just begging to spew off chips to me.
Personally I like the loose LAG-tard early players. You see alot of those same ones turning into HighBlindLimpers when the blinds do increase and rarely do they ever go far in the tourney.
CHeck out the stats. of the Top 20 most winning Online MTT players and then tell me what you find? Do they have VP$IP of 30%+?? Nope... never. There's the odd one on few final tables of bigger buyin MTTs who are able to successfully play a LAG style but the majority of the winning players are TAG style. This is fact!! For example: try running players like AJKHoosier1, gboro78, bond18, MoormanI, Halfrek, da_professional, etc. etc. and tell me what you see (actually I know what you'll see).

The ability to switch gears is always a huge plus (and a must) in MTT play, but to to purposefully play loose in early levels of an MTT I believe is a mistake in most circumstances. Just my opinion (ok.. that's a lie... it's the opinion of many.. and for good reason) and the good thing about poker is that it can be played however one chooses to play it,.. there is no wrong or right way.

GL on the tables!!

[TomtheBomb]

Holy reply PO....nice.

Yes HAG does have some benefits.

A. Often you can make players fold hands later if you have a dominate stack over them.
B. Table presence to the point where people will only play you will top 20 hands, and raise you based on weak raises. In hopes that you will fold. Which makes for easy to read situations and usually you can catch a re-raise player.
C. You allow yourself some action, In hope to get paid off on a bigger hand.
D. You gain a lot of value in your gear change due to the level of change.

Though TAG is known as the best technique overall, many players who play TAG will change gears into HAG at some point on a blind increase to give themselves gear changing value.

I think as most good poker players do, being able to play all these strategies well is essential to winning big tourneys.

I would'nt have a 4 digit bankroll if it was not for overaggressive play....its sets alot of things up.

[xjlh611]

where is the best starting strategy thanks

[Poker Orifice]

Holy reply PO....nice.

why thank-you sir!