You're the richest man at the table

Hi there - brand new to the site - I've read a couple of the recent threads here and am finding the info really helpful, cheers everyone.

I figured I'd begin on the forum by posting a quandary I have at the moment, see if anybody here can lend hand to me.

I've of course spent my early days of poker losing lots of hands and have been stung on certain wins more times than I can remember. Anyway I'm starting to be able to make chips now and I'm faced with a new challenge.

I've started to learn well enough (for the level of player I face) how to get out of trouble when my stack falls short. The problem comes when I take an early lead in chips. I seem incapable of holding on to them.

A vague question, granted, but does anybody have any 'rule of thumb' tactics to keep that stack rising once ou take the lead?

Thanks in advance for your help.


*Decided to add a few details:

I've been playing NL. Not up on all the terminolagy yet, pay before you enter chip tourney - 10c entry + rake. 9 players to a table.*

Im no poker expert and my experience right now is low limit online and home games so please if anyone disagrees with me or has another point of view, i still have very much to learn.

When I first started playing I played a very tight passive game. This isn't a natural style for me personally and caused me to play the style incorrectly (not seeing enough flops, folding when i shouldnt which was my own fault)
I now play a much more aggressive style.
When I get up in chips early, especially at the home tournies I play, I use them. I get alittle looser, bluff alittle more, push people around with my chips. If you get some short stacks who desperately want to hang on, you can steal alot from them.

Obviously you have to know when to fold em but alot of chips can be intimidating and you can def use that to your advantage.

Just play your game. It doesn't matter if you are short stacked or up 4 to 1.

ALWAYS keep an eye on everyone elses stacks. Obviously, you don't want to limp or min raise with a marginal hand against a desperate short stack, why risk doubling him up?

If you have the big stack, play your good hands aggressively. Many online players will interpret this as big stack playing the bully and you can wipe them out. Don't play trash and speculative hands just b/c you have money to burn-it usually only leads to burning off chips. You can also get away with slowplaying a bit more as the big stack.

You can exploit position to a greater extent. If you are in late position or button you can get away with more aggressive stealing techniques- hell you can even do it from early position.

Playing as the big stack is a delicate balance. You want to "get cute" and steal to maintain your lead. At the same time, the chip lead allows you to sit back and play solid hands.

As the big stack, you don't have to sit back and wait for a monster to make a play, at the same time, you can't play Arag every hand.


The most important thing is to keep the pressure on the shorter stacks. Always come in for a raise or reraise unless you are setting a big trap.

The rest lies in your gut. Sometimes you have to call that AI w/ AJ or medium pair and race the short stack to knock him out. Hopefully, the cards fall your way. When and were to do that depends entirely on the context of each specific hand.

...

Just keep playing your game, after all that is what got you to being the largest stack at the table.

Play premium hands more aggressive. Do not fall into the trap of "seeing flops because you have the chips" this is a sure fire way to bleed off your stack.

If you want to bully the table with your stack, do it against the average size stacks and not the short stacks. The average stacks are more likely to fold where the short stacks are in a push or fold position, and you do not want them to double up at your expense.

Play some aggressive slandsky style on them. Hand Groups 1-4 (you can find them on this site if they're not memorized) are all very solid places to raise and 1-3 are great to reraise from, and you should see the cheap flops on most suited straight draws down to about T8s/98s, but don't play that against a decent raise.

If it's limped to you, this should a bet 50% of the time, raising the better your position is. From the button it should be about 80%. Your bet should be large. I like to bet about 1.5x the pot, however, look at the stacks around the table. If you're up against to averages at 1.5k and 1.2k plus the blinds and you have 5k, put in 400, make them play for a quarter of their stack.

Things to be afraid of:
Losing a big chunk of it
Going heads up against another big stack
WASTING CHIPS on "Does he have it/Is he on a draw?" style calls. If you're going to fold a hand fold it on the flop, and if you're going to call down with high card Ace fold it before the flop.

Things not to be afraid of:
The average stack guy who folds alot



*Running the big stack bluff is tough. You have to establish your credibilty here by taking out chunks of peoples stacks when they play against you, and not giving much back when you fold. Once that's established, you can bluff with weaker hands, but when they start to catch on, tighten up hard, grab a group 2+ hand and go to town with someone to re-establish that if they play against you, they will lose money.

Thanks very much guys I appreciate everybody's incites.

I tend to be rather agressive as it is, so I think I shall try and follow some of these rough guides about when to fold - i'm too stubborn when it comes to dropping a hand. I assume everyone else bluffs as much as i do. Often a mistake.
Your thoughts are greatly appreicated, now if only I wasn't on a horendous losing streak this past 2 days I'd be able to test some ideas.

Later

Hey Bezique, finally got your arse down to FTR, well done mate, there a lot of very good players on here, you can only improve with their help.

Oh yeah, the type of game you're playing is no limit SNG (Sit and Go) Tournaments. Probably best to post in the tournament tactics forum.