Building up a stack early

Hey guys

Whenever i play tourneys i find it hard to build a sizable stack. And before long i'm on the verge of getting blinded out on the fifth level.

So any advance, should i play more aggressive or what?

Cheers in advance

If the cards don't fall your way, there's really not much you can do, but in the early few levels (such as 10/20 or 15/30 blinds into a 1500 stack tournament) theres space to make quite a few plays, if you're playing actual tournaments (not freeroll all-in fests) just look to get your money in the middle with the best of it (you can afford to tighten your pre-flop requirements a little), better starting hands connect better with more flops which will put you in good position to pick up pots here and there.

Then again sometimes it's just not your day and you pick up J4o for a solid hour. It happens sometimes...

Well, early stages I play conservative poker accumulating chips slowly picking spots. Playing tight so I'm getting it in with premium hands. It's not so useful having a big stack early then later so I'm not really looking to build a huge stack. When the blinds are rising then I rely on my image to pick up pots.

I build up brick my brick, unitl I find that one big hand where I can double through.

Originally Posted by Cormac_88

Hey guys

Whenever i play tourneys i find it hard to build a sizable stack. And before long i'm on the verge of getting blinded out on the fifth level.

First and foremost, if I were you, I would work on my short stack play. There is *a lot* more to it than just pushing with decent cards. You have to take your position, other players and many other things into consideration. To be honest, I would say work on this first as it is most likely one of the most important things to learn in MTT play.

As far as building a stack goes... That is a good question and if I knew the whole answer I would be making it a lot further than the top 20%(on a regular basis). This is where a mix of skill and luck(don't like that word) comes in. You can't do much without cards that hit a flop.

However, if you have a good read on your opponents you can play odd hands in position and try to flop a monster or at least out flop them. An example could be: Say you have a tight player that only seems to raise with hands like AK, AQ etc. You can call here, assuming your stack wont be too damaged by a call, and if the flop pairs you and misses them, you stand a real chance of taking the pot and maybe a large portion of the other guy's chips. This type of play serves two purposes. The first is the obvious one... you build you stack..lol The second is that if the other players see you call with a junk hand and win against big hands they are more likely to call your raises or reraise you with marginal hands.

[billyWilliams]

You're relying too much on your cards. One poster mentioned position and this is what you need to play because it comes every round. Cards only come so often.

Try this. Cover your hole cards with a thick piece of cardboard on your screen. Play a small buyin SNG and play only the Button and Cutoff (seat before the Button).

If it folds to you, RAISE it 3xBB. Bet the flop if it's checked to you (and most likely it will be).

You'll spend the rest of your time Noting all your players. Who's tight, who's loose and who the retards are. Raise both the loose players and retards from the Button with a min-raise, so you don't lose much if the re-pop you. Bet the flop again with a 1/2 pot bet if they check to you. Try to raise them if the board comes really scary ... meaning to them.

Fold all the rest of your hands except those two positions. Do this for 10 games. Then take the piece of paper off and play a tournament and do the same thing. You've now added position to your game ... and 8 other hands to get cards.

thats normal !!

the cards fall bad or good.

Big Stack or Small Stack, thats the game!
Play your game, don't be more agressive.

Winning-times, Loosing-Times !

I'm like the rest of them; if you don't get good cards at first there is not much you can do.

Originally Posted by billyWilliams

You're relying too much on your cards. One poster mentioned position and this is what you need to play because it comes every round. Cards only come so often.

Try this. Cover your hole cards with a thick piece of cardboard on your screen. Play a small buyin SNG and play only the Button and Cutoff (seat before the Button).

If it folds to you, RAISE it 3xBB. Bet the flop if it's checked to you (and most likely it will be).

You'll spend the rest of your time Noting all your players. Who's tight, who's loose and who the retards are. Raise both the loose players and retards from the Button with a min-raise, so you don't lose much if the re-pop you. Bet the flop again with a 1/2 pot bet if they check to you. Try to raise them if the board comes really scary ... meaning to them.

Fold all the rest of your hands except those two positions. Do this for 10 games. Then take the piece of paper off and play a tournament and do the same thing. You've now added position to your game ... and 8 other hands to get cards.

i dont think i would have the stomach to do that. I know how he feels with the small stake in the MTTs having to fight to survive in the later levels. Whenever i play the 180s or 360s thats how i feel. Im still trying to better my basic game by playing ABC poker so I play very tight. I honestly think I would give myself a heart attack trying your tactics.

Originally Posted by Cormac_88

Hey guys

Whenever i play tourneys i find it hard to build a sizable stack. And before long i'm on the verge of getting blinded out on the fifth level.

So any advance, should i play more aggressive or what?

Cheers in advance

one other thing is that most of your money that you make playing poker will be made when you play opposite of your style, so set a solid tight aggressive immage and then somewhere in middle position make your standard raise with something like 7 8 and then when you flop the nut straight or some other monster you can chec and call the flop and and then check and min raise the turn then lead out on the river with a good sized value bet to really pile up the chips when you have the others wanting to see why youre betting on this trash board

An important thing is position play in combination with tight players. It does not matter which type of poker you play. So try what was mentioned above, play small buy-ins and try to optimize your position play.