Yo word dudes. Think I'll mosey on ovah to this section of dos plus dos.

Background history on poker: Learned by playing tons of 4-6 person, sometimes 8 handed sit n goes with friends in a winner take all format. If there was 6 - 8 people, then second got their money back.

Played lots of low stakes cash games, from 25.-50 to 2-5 but I'll be honest, have done less than like five 2-5 / 1-3-5 games.

Oddly enough though, my experience with live tournament poker has been extremely limited. Maybe four or five of the bar poker free rolls from about ten years ago, and several 2.20 MTTs on Poker stars back in the day. Only success was getting second in the Pokerstars tourney.
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How this pertains to this here forum is this. I've been getting back into poker and have been doing decent on MTTs. Mainly started them because my bankroll is so low and it seemed better to put up a few bucks to win at least fifty than hope to grind out double a buy in at .02-.05 without going busto and donking ten percent of my roll.

Started at 64 bucks now at about 140, all through MTTs. Since starting back up almost two months ago with one donked buy in (yes, the 64 was round 2) it seems that MTT's are my fav niche. Played about forty MTT's cashed in around a dozen and final tabled four or five. One final table admittedly was in a satellite tourney, but it still had close to a hundred people.

What I'll try to do is grind out five or six bucks playing Sit N Go's and then do two to four 1 to 3 dollar MTTs based on buy in and payout compared to bankroll. Still sticking to the 1-3 dollar buy in range now, maybe if the grind goes good up, give it a shot at a ten dollar tourney and hope to bink that one.

One thing that gets me a little curious though is this

I LOVE THE VARIANCE AND THE CARD INSANITY SO MUCH.

Oh MAN! When I see quads over quads, or runner runner set over set, or just crazy stuff going on even if I'm not in the pot I go wild man. Like WOOOOO!!!! DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!?

Understanding that this tourney is happening now and when it ends it ends, lets me try and choose spots if I can to push for luck. Yea, it's bad to push with an open ended straight, even if it's to the nuts. But if there's three callers all in, and you haven't gone for it yet, this, right now, might be the time to push it and hope for the best. Cos if you get THAT pot in THAT moment when you need it, you're going to the final table.

Plus, AND THIS IS IN NO WAY A FEEL SORRY FOR ME POST, is that when I used to be really into guitar, I actually saved up and had my lineup of four dream guitars, customized exactly how I wanted them. Due to bad decisions in other aspects in life, I am down to one and an acoustic I'm grateful to have.

So, in a ways, working hard, saving up, setting long term goals, achieving those goals, and watching them all get pissed away makes losing a pot while playing poker not that big a deal. This is where bankroll management comes into play. Be willing to gamble but don't overextend your roll.

Maybe it's the combination of the two, not feeling entitled to win a pot cos of probability because hey, trust me, there is never a sure thing until it's all over, and the fact that sometimes things are so crazy away from the table that losing a pot you were 95% favorite to win isn't all that bad.

Not sure if you was looking for an answer to something but there's a good chance you got the wrong forum for this haha.

"Small Stakes MTT - Discussion and analysis of small stakes MTT strategy"

Seems more like PG&C or a part of the forum that I don't read (so i can't point you in the right direction lol). You have a PG&C right? I might go find it to wish you good luck.

Woops, my bad. I didn't realize strategy part meant specific hand situations til I browsed the forum threads. I'll move this over to the P G and C.

Basically trying to approach as an overall view or strategy on how to come to MTTs with a mindset that is different than cash game.

Ahh ok, theory discussion about tournament philosophy, phases, variance, mindset, bubble/final table approach, and so on.... are all ok in here as well... I think (I'm relatively new to this myself). You can give story and context behind your posts but the theme/question should be stated so everyone knows what we are discussing lol. Actually, I'm thinking this might belong in the 'Poker Theory' forum. Not sure.

Anyway - There are a whole number of variations on how to approach tournaments. My approach would be 1 of calculated risk and math. Similar to cash games in that respect. I'm not looking to go crazy early. Some players like to gamble to get a stack or move on to the next game. They play a lot of games and see which few remain. A 'Running the numbers' type approach. There is merit to this approach. The psychological effect an early big stack has on opponents and being able to survive losing a few flips during a tournament can certainly increase your chances of going the distance.

Personally, I look to pick off the fish who are just giving their chips away - especially at our stakes. Worst case scenario, don't bleed too many of my own away so that it doesn't impact our ability to play correct push/fold strategy later. That's something I picked up from my turbo MTSnG days.

The majority of the rest of my strategy is just stealing, cbetting effectively and, when needed, playing a solid push/fold strategy. Nothing too fancy. Tournaments are long so I'm just looking to grind out lots of small pots and slowly accumulate chips.

I don't advocate playing to cash (Play to win!!!) but I'm certainly looking to avoid constantly flipping in large amount of chips on thin edges in exchange for a few more deeper runs/min cashes. Usually find it's better to leave the gambling to the times when you really don't have any other options (short stacked). Often player gamble too early and deny themselves the opportunity to pick up hands and run deeper.

Lots of fish hang on for the money, get scared when really deep and then won't play anything but AA on the final 2 tables. If you can recognise these players, you can abuse them and really build some chips with little risk. Gives a huge boost to your chances of going deeper and make final tables with a strong chance of finishing top 3, which is where the big money is.

As you've seen in my PG&C, the final part is volume. Put in the games to get through all the bad luck and search for the 1 game when everything aligns. Celebrate your win and then go for another round.

I guess both approaches I mentioned above are forms of being active and playing a post-flop orientated approach. The more common alternative is to sit and wait for hands and pray you get paid with them. Works at our small stakes because of all the fish giving chips away.

A good question now is what approach is right for you? Usually matches to personality/temperament/tolerance for risk I find.
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Ever write an essay like this and don't know if it's even worth posting? Hope that was the kind of thing you were looking for? If not, I just wasted a good 15 minutes haha.

Hahaha hell yea man!

I'll be completely honest here too dude, because of the job situation, sometimes I do crap out and slide into min cash just so it's not a negative impact on the bankroll (told you it was laughable! but to get a couple dollar profit is better than losing when it's all you've got!) but if it's 66 or higher or a suited Ace... pushhhhhhhhh


But fo sho my bubble play is weak cos above all, bankroll management is lyfe right now.

This is def an aspect that needs work on, thanks for bringing it to my attention, for real.

Again, bankroll management. It's not just having enough to buy back in if you lose, it's freeing yourself mentally from being scared money.

Hard to word this correctly....

How much of an emphasis on defensive or isolating the other dude do you do?

I'll be completely honest here man, straight up for real, I ****ing hate getting AK off suit in a blind with a raise going on and a few callers. I dislike having to go first preflop, esp when just completely whiffing it, no draws, no pairs, nothing but ****ing floaters.

In a live cash game situation at a 2-5 this exact situation happened to me. I'm in small blind, get AK off suit. Can't remember if it was two or three dudes limping, or a raise, but I raised / reraised. Flop comes rag city rainbow. I c-bet the flop, by the book, but the other player (heads up) was a very seasoned dude and raised me to see if it was overpair city or big whiff. I had no draws, nothing but floaters and folded.

HOWEVER in tourneys, depending on stack size, AK for me, esp AK suited might be a push all in to avoid shenanigans. If you got KK or AA, well.. poop. If you got QQ or less, it's a flip or 65 / 35 if you're live, or I got your Ace dominated.

So early on, I'll play AQ, AK, AJ conservative as HELL depending on position, (flat call to see flop) but later on it's shoveshoveshoveshove can't stop shoving.

And by isolating I mean, if you have AQ, esp suited or even AK off (and sometimes the biguns like QQ-AA) , if there's a raise and everyone folds, depending on table climate, even in the earliest rounds, I'll shove all in. If there's been questionable all ins before, or if they have AJ or 10-10 or Jacks, (when you have AQ) or AQ or Queens (when you have AK) chances are rare they'll fold. And I'll take a coinflip this early with this strong a hand. It isolates the top range of pocket pairs to a coinflip and it's hard to fold that strong a hand, even early on. If you have AA no one's folding KK. Again, this is all based on table climate.

Today, did a Sit n Go where there were raises all ovah the place so I limped in under the gun with AA. Unfortunately, ****ing half the table called, and there was no raise and I was sweatin. Flopped an ace for a set but there was a flush draw too. Bet it pot sized and everyone folded. Dodged a bullet there.

Sounds like you're an adrenaline junkie. Nothing wrong with that as long as it doesn't override good play. Seems like you have a handle on the fundamentals so just play your game and enjoy the ride.

The AK thing? I totally feel ya brotha. Just remember its only a drawing hand like any other connectors. She a mistress.... play with her all you want but Dont get married to it .