Hey, I’m throwing this out there to see if anybody has any general comments or advice. I’ve been playing a lot of SnG and Multi-Table tournaments lately and I do pretty well with the SnG’s. I had a little bad run lately but even with that bad run I’ve been placing in the money in the $5/$1 and $10/$1 games about 34% of the time. Even when I don’t place in the money I’ve gone out in 4th or 5th spot. I play mostly limit games but I’ve gotten involved in a few NL SnG games and I do pretty well there too. I only have about 30 – 40 games under my belt so I know it’s difficult to draw any long view conclusions from my current results but I really feel that I can solidly beat these games.
My problem is the multi-table tournaments (MTT). I can’t seem to make it to the money. I’ll play a tourney with 500 entries, paying out to the top 50 or so and I’ll go out in 98th spot. The storyline for most of these games goes like this:
I play very tight and then aggressive if I catch a nice piece of the flop. Otherwise I get off the hand if there’s more than a few other players in. I’ll catch one or two hands early and increase my chips from 1500 up to 2000 or 2500 and for a short time I’ll be listed in the money (usually in the top 10 spots). Then I can’t buy a hand. I sit there orbit after orbit and see nothing but J6o, 29s, Q3o, etc. The blinds start eating away at my chips and other players are in there taking down pots and I’ll enter the first break somewhere in the middle of the pack. After the break, I usally get a playable hand in the first orbit and I get hammered. I’ll get AKs (or something like that) and have a flush draw on the flop and somebody will make me bleed to see the turn and river and . . . of course, I don’t pair up nor do I hit my flush. Now I’m crippled and I sit there and wait for a playable hand while the blinds eat me up and when I finally get a playable hand I have no power. All I can do is push all in and my stack is so short nobody even thinks twice to call me. Half the time I win and end up with only a slightly less small stack or I see the person call me flip up 63o and draw out on me with trips or two pair against my QQ.
Any advice here? Every now and then I do take a shot on the button with a weak hand just to see if I can catch a lucky flop and I’ll try to see a flop with suited connectors in an unraised pot with lots of callers but for the most part I’m playing pretty tight. I’ve tried loosening up my starting hand requirements as an experiment in a few games but that didn’t seem to change the script significantly. Is this just how MTT work? Skill only gets you so far and then you need to get lucky to advance past a certain point?
Related posts:
- Four Double or Nothing Tips from Niko Double or nothing tournaments are growing in popularity in the...
- Five Super Turbo Sit and Go Tips from Niko Super turbo sit and go’s gained popularity over the past...
- Setting Poker Goals in 2010 Ah, tis the season when we make resolutions and we...
- Badugi Poker: Game History and How To Play This is now the third article in the series...
- Bill’s Poker Blog Exclusive Freeroll on Chili Poker After talking to the folks over at Chili Poker we...
| Site | Rackback | Sign Up Bonus | US |
| Absolute Poker | 30% | 150% up to $500 |  |
| Ultimate Bet | 30% | 111% up to $1100 | |
| Cake Poker | 33% | 110% up to $600 | |
| PKR Poker | 30% | 100% up to $800 | |
| Paradise Poker | 30% | 200% up to €1,000 | |
| Players Only | 33% | 100% up to $650 | |
| Fortune Poker | 30% | 200% up to €1,000 | |
| Betfair | 30% | $1500 | |
| Aced | 30% | 100% up to $500 | |
| Poker Heaven | 30% | 200% up to €1000 | |
| Poker Nordica | 30% | 100% up to $200 | |
| Carbon Poker | 30% | 150% up to $1000 | |
| Red Star Poker | 33% | 110% up to $600 | |
| True Poker | 27% | 100% up to $200 | |
| Action Poker | 35% | 100% up to $2500 | |
| Cellsino Poker | 40% | 500% up to $500 | |
| Minted Poker | 40% | 100% up to $400 | |
| Power Poker | 33% | 110% up to $600 | |
| Interpoker | 30% | 200% up to €1000 | |
| Doyles Room | 33% | 110% up to $600 | |
| Gutshot Poker | 33% | 110% up to $600 | |
| Full Tilt Poker | 27% | 100% up to $600 | |
| Fat Bet Poker | 40% | 1000% up to €500 | |
| NoiQ Poker | 30% | 100% up to €5000 |
| Site | Rake Race | Rake Chase | Freeroll |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doyle's Room | $35,000 | ||
| Cereus Poker Network* | $7,500 | $10,000 | $10,000** |
| Cake Poker | $60,000 | ||
| Party Poker*** | $50,000 | ||
| Red Star | $23,000 | ||
| Eurobet*** | $21,000 | ||
| Players Only | $16,400 | ||
| Tower Gaming*** | $15,000 | ||
| Full Tilt Poker | $10,000 | ||
| Carbon Poker | $12,000 | ||
| Betfair Poker | $12,000 | ||
| Boss Media Network**** | $5,000 | ||
| Cellsino Poker | $5,000 | ||
| Power Poker | $5,000 | ||
| Poker Nordica | $5,000 | ||
| NoIQ | €1,500 |
* Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet (UB) ** May not be available to all players *** Poker Heaven, Fortune Poker, InterPoker, Paradise Poker
Hi, my name is Bill Rini and this is my poker blog. I've been blogging about poker and the poker industry since around 2003-ish. Like most people I started out playing poker as entertainment in home games whenever we wanted to sit around and smoke cigars, drink beer, and eat pizza, and needed a good excuse. I started playing online shortly after the first online card rooms opened and it wasn't long before I was playing 20, 30, or even 40 hours a week or more. One day I received a phone call about a program manager position at Tiltware which was the company that consulted to Full Tilt Poker on software development and marketing. After Tiltware I spent about 2.5 years working at Party Poker where I was the poker room manager.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m no tourney player, but when you get down there where the blinds are 10% of your stack, it’s all coin flips. I think the real trick is to know when you can double up or steal with marginal hands when you’re the short stack.
A couple of bits of advice that have helped me recently:
Bet and raise. Don’t call.
Don’t be afraid to go all-in…it’s the only bet some people respect.
All-in or fold at 8x BB without antes…10x BB with antes.
Fear not the bubble.
Suited connectors are dangerous…small pairs are much easier to play.
In the end, unless the deck hits you in the face, you’re going to have to win coinflips. So don’t run from them…embrace them in the right spot (preferably against a shorter stack).
Good advice (from both). I think both of you brought up a good point regarding going all in on 10x. I’ve caught myself not doing that a few times. I start thinking cash game and I get AKs and I put out a weak bet trying to get callers when I would have been much better off pushing all in and eliminating potential callers either to take the pot and any bets or stealing the blinds. By the time they see the flop and I can push out a big bet they’ve already caught a piece and have a reason to call.
I’ve fallen into a groove recently with the online tourneys I have been playing. I tend to play loose early on and try to steal some pots while it’s cheap. I don’t go all-in unless I have a monster, but I do make oversize bets when I am in late position and no one has shown any strength. Sometimes I run into a slow play, but I’ll take that risk.
I can usually make it to the first break this way. It’s the period between the first and second break that I have found I usually drop out.
If I build a reasonable stack, I tighten up and wait for good starting cards. If not, I keep the loose play and try to double up. I figure if I am on the short stack, I have to get my chips in there asap. If I double up, I tighten up.
Then I play it by ear if I make it to the second break. I play tight at a loose table and looser at a tight table.
I placed in the $$ for the first time last week. I took 19th out of 320 in a $5 NL game. It was only $16, but I figure I am on my way. :)
-Zengy