MTT - Strategy Adjust

[LuckySlevin]

I have spent some time with Rentons SS-NLHE ring strategy which has helped me alot. But a forumite pointed out today that I need to ensure that I am using the right strategy for each style of game I play in. I'm re reading Rentons articles today as they are really giving me alot of information. But...

80% of my play at the moment is in MTT freerolls. Today I read this from another internet site: -

One bedrock principle of winning ring game play is that you need to be properly bankrolled. If you have the bankroll, correct play will win out in the long run (barring super-extreme bad luck). But nobody is ever adequately bankrolled in a tournament. When you play 15-30, you never have $10,000 in chips. More likely you have $800. That surely is not an adequate bankroll to absorb normal fluctuations. You should not play like you do have an adequate bankroll. You have to adjust. Adapt, or die.

I read into this that I need to check / raise / reraise with a wider range in order to build my initial bank. Is that correct do you think? And then only once I have got a decent amount of chips tighten up a bit.

I am always finding myself with less chips significantly than the chip leaders in the free rolls at the closing last tenths of the tournament and I'm wondering if this is why, I'm not being aggressive and loose enough at the start?

Thanks!

[LuckySlevin]

I've just been informed that there's a whole forum dedicated to MTT...

DOH! I'll check it out =)

[Robb]

I've just been informed that there's a whole forum dedicated to MTT...

DOH! I'll check it out =)

You can post anything in the Beginner's Forum, but you'll get better strategy advice in the particular forum that caters to players who specialize in MTT's. But if you have a HH from an MTT, you can post it either place. They develop their own ideas and interests in the specific forums, and as a noobie I often felt I got more attention and better/more simplified advice in the Beginner's Forum than I did in the others - probably because I wasn't good enough to understand what the specialists were saying in the 6max forum.

By the way, I routinely scan the threads in the MTT, SnG and FR forums, even though I rarely play those styles. There's interesting content and new poker ideas in them, and you learn which FTR players are the "go to" people for ideas and advice.

[LuckySlevin]

Awesome thanks

[d0zer]

One bedrock principle of winning ring game play is that you need to be properly bankrolled. If you have the bankroll, correct play will win out in the long run (barring super-extreme bad luck). But nobody is ever adequately bankrolled in a tournament. When you play 15-30, you never have $10,000 in chips. More likely you have $800. That surely is not an adequate bankroll to absorb normal fluctuations. You should not play like you do have an adequate bankroll. You have to adjust. Adapt, or die.

I think you're confusing chip stack with bankroll.

Your bankroll is your float of money that you're willing to play with so you never go broke and can play again tomorrow. for MTTs, I think the general rule is 100x the buy-in so if you're playing $1 MTTs ($1 entry fee), you should have a bankroll of $100 so you don't go broke when you lose 20 in a row (pretty common in MTTs).

You're playing freerolls, so you need 100 x 0 = $0 bankroll

Your chip stack is another issue entirely, and in the early stages of the tourney you should be trying to preserve it for the time where you're forced to take risks with it when the blinds are big. Err on the side of caution early, and save the risks for later when you're forced to. See MTT forum for more on this, but if you get into it even semi-seriously, the harrington on holdem series is widely regarded as essential reading. It's well written and will help your game immensely.