Live MTTs: ATo/AJo in EP in mid/later stages with 25-40BBs - MTT Poker Strategy

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Live MTTs: ATo/AJo in EP in mid/later stages with 25-40BBs

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10-07-2017 , 12:14 PM

HawkesDave

adept

Join Date: Jul 2016 Posts: 1,173

This is more regarding smaller tournament buy-ins in the $100-360 range:

On an active table I'm starting to find these to be an auto-fold from UTG/UTG+1. It just seems like you always get put in gross spots by a re-steal from a bigger stack in LP or you end up getting a short-stack jamming their 12-14BBs and you're flipping or dominated.

I just don't feel like I've been +EV with these hands over the last few months in EP. Was it a mistake playing them from the start? I'm having a hard time deciding whether to chop this up to limited sample size so I'm interested in how some of the rest of you have been handling these two hands specifically.

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10-07-2017 , 03:18 PM

OutPlayU27

old hand

Join Date: May 2013 Posts: 1,688

I don´t play much live poker, but it really depends on how table is playing, stacks etc.
My opening range looks something like this : 77+, A5s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, AJo+, KQo (13% aprox which i think is fairly ok) but i will def adapt to the table as i said and tighten/loose up if i have to.

In poker tournaments is all about stealing the blinds/antes as much as you can esp if you have good image,and if blinds/table are tight and straightforward.
Hope it helps.

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10-07-2017 , 09:21 PM

RiverDood

adept

Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 738

Quote:

Originally Posted by HawkesDave

It just seems like you always get put in gross spots by a re-steal from a bigger stack in LP or you end up getting a short-stack jamming their 12-14BBs and you're flipping or dominated.

I tend to tighten up a lot in EP if I'm a middle-sized stack, midway through the tournament, and a couple big stacks are getting noisy. It takes a pretty passive or tight table for opening early with ATo to work out. AJ is worth a little more of an effort.

In general, playing too tight with a mid-size stack is exploitable long-term, but getting stuck playing bet/fold against deeper stacks is a serious chip drain and exploitable right away.

There's got to be some stage in the orbit where you act after the larger stacks. That's a lot more fun. Hope the tables break before too long and you get a better seat, with more chances to act right after the big stacks.

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10-12-2017 , 05:59 PM

BDHarrison

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Nov 2016 Posts: 4,529

It's possible that you are either folding to a 3bet too often or not enough.

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