Getting deep in MTTs

[MasterMike]

Ive had this problem of late of getting deep into tourneys, and losing early in the money, or just a few out of it.

Of late ive been doing the 180 person $2 turbos just because they are quick and i can maybe get a cool 70-100 bucks at 1st or 2nd.

Early in the tourney i get up to top 30. Once blinds start going up around 200-400, I start doing poorly, not necessarily on bad decisions, just money starts dwinidling. The blinds start killing me and I seem to lose the 'big' hand that would get me in the top 5-10 in chips. I end up going out somewhere between 13th-30th (top 18 get money).

It's almost literally the same thing situations the whole time. Up early, get screwed late. I guess i should play more aggressively in the later rounds, but when blinds are 300-600 and i have 6800 left, and someone is pushing with 2-4k almost every hand, i feel like i can't do much with my K 4.

Should i stop doing turbos?

[jimmer]

May be I'm not the right person to be answering this question as I'm trying to improve on my torny play as well.

However, when the blinds start increasing I've been working on finding the weaker-passive players and picking on them. When they are in the blinds, as long as they are sat within the 4-5 seats to my left (on a 9 seater table), if the pot is unopened, I can usually start making 3xbb raises, which tends to win the pot a good proportion of the time.

This only works if I have the chips to do it. Also, even if I've identified the really weak-passive players, i stay clear if they are really small or big stacked. The medium stacks I find are the best.

My worse case senario is when the really good and/or aggressive players are sat in the seats to my left and they have a lot of chips. In this case, i have to probably forget this tactic.

In short, i am playing the players, not the cards. If you get any resistance, may be you've chosen the wrong time to attack. This will only come with time, learning who you can pick on and who to stay clear of. If you can learn this from other players raising then fine. It still gives you the information you need.

As i said, I openly admit this information could be wrong. I'm sure I will get corrected if it is.

(Also, in answer to your question, I stay clear of the turbos. The reason is this; I feel I generally have the tools to make the right decisons most of the time. Therefore, the longer I have to make my decision and consider the options available to me, the better my play. Visa versa, the crap players will still make the same mistakes if you give them 10 seconds or 10 days. By playing the turbo's, I'm losing an edge. On the odd hand here-and-there that doesn't mean much, but over a few torny's, this could cost me)

[MasterMike]

Well, im back and i finally won.

PokerStars Tournament #92441596, No Limit Hold'emBuy-In: $2.00/$0.20180 playersTotal Prize Pool: $360.00 Tournament started - 2008/06/17 - 18:39:16 (ET) Dear buckfutter1, You finished the tournament in 1st place.A $108.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account. You earned 181.41 tournament leader points in this tournament.For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site athttp://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tourn ... der-board/ Congratulations!Thank you for participating.



thank God, i was fairly agressive towards the last 12-14 people, but i didnt change much of my play. It honestly was hitting 2 river 10s (i was ahead preflop btw) and winning 4 9 v AK to knock out 3rd place.

Had an overwhelming chip lead in the final 5 due to me not getting sucked out. I won every hand in which i was ahead in which i had to beat a draw and won all showdowns. Its a nice feeling to now things went "how they should", but when you realize that i won like 7-9 60-40 hands, i did get lucky.

[mortaleclipse]

Should i stop doing turbos?

My answer would be yes. Im trying to make a video of some tourney I run deep in FTP, could possibly shed some light on deep tourney play or make me look like a complete idiot.

[Felting]

Should i stop doing turbos?

My answer would be yes. Im trying to make a video of some tourney I run deep in FTP, could possibly shed some light on deep tourney play or make me look like a complete idiot.

I agree with mortal, step up to the 4.40 180 if u want sit-n-go, or start playing the 2 to 3 dollar tourneys. The longer the blinds the more patient you can be and the better edge your skill will give u.

[MrDarling]

..but when you realize that i won like 7-9 60-40 hands, i did get lucky.

Congratulation!
You discovered the way to win tournaments.

Seriously, beside playing really solid poker, you need to be lucky and will most of your races to survie a tournament.

I remember the first one I ever won, which was live and I was down to one chip early on. (I think blinds were 10/20 and I was down to 100)
After that I just couldn't lose a race AK>QQ, AQ<KK (when someone else folded AQ) 88>AA+AK 77>AJ etc...

[MasterMike]

thanks, yea ive actually won a $4 180 person last summer, but just having the 4-5 hour committment isnt always there