Is there any merit to loosening up UTG opens because you are going to get a lot of folds due to perceived range strength? I have been experimenting with this opening some low suited connectors and I'm taking the blinds quite a bit, or I get a call from BB and often fire a c-bet on boards that hit my perceived strong range.

Obviously, you don't want to overdo it or your more perceptive opponents may catch on, but I think this gets the pop to overfold.

I think there is merit to the idea. I like it better later in the tournament when it is shove or fold or at the final table with the "better" more observant players are behind you.

There's definitely merit if you have a highly exploitative table, but keep in mind some % of the time they will pick up strong hands and some players might not think you're opening a tight range. I also like experimenting with different opening sizes depending on stacks/position - more players need to think outside the box especially in tournaments where the player pool is highly exploitable.

It depends. Deep enough I think you should mix in some % of opening those suited connector hands in EP. When you're shallow enough or late enough in the tournament that you don't really have the odds to hit big and blockers are important in a hand, I wouldn't do it.

Suited aces can still work for this purpose, between the ace blocker, ability to hit a good draw, and ability to represent big-card flops as the raiser.

It depends on the table dynamics. If people are overfolding to an UTG open, then sure. If you usually either get 3-bet or pick up 4 callers, then no.

I like this and have been doing it for a while.

At the Borgota many years ago I opened UTG with 64s and had two callers both IP on me. It was relatively early in the tourney. The flop came 964 and I bet out, next guy raises, last guy calls and I shove. Both call. It was QQ and A9s with a flush draw (and I held miraculously). I'm guessing QQ called because I was UTG...

At FW though it is a little bit of a different story because I am a reg. There are two regs who will call me virtually 100% regardless of my position. Ironically because they are always just calling I have no problem continuing to do this but the element of surprise is lost on them (and I do tone it down especially later in the tourneys because eventually the other players catch on).

I like to follow gto opening ranges mainly. Feel most live players will just call and play fit/fold way too often to defend a lot of early raises with hands like 67suited etc type hands. Early in mtts I kinda hate opening these small suited connectors where you will be called at a high freq by late position players that tend to call a lot more often than 3b proper ranges like Q-10 and KJ suited per se. I feel most live players (not people posting here) would do better if they 3 bet these types of hands however I feel most live mtters will flat these types of hands even though they should play as 3! A higher freq of the time (I think). I like to follow ranges whenever possible and I remember them from apps like preflop + or solver+. I always like to err on aggression in mtts as it’s so much easier playing a hand like KJs vs one opponent vs seeing a flop 3-4 ways per se.

Like another said, I think around final tables it can be very profitable to really open your ranges up a bit- spots where bubbles exist and people may look to fold to ladder up in spots. I know like say when 5-6 are left and you have a top 1-2 stack, you can really open your ranges to really bully/ dominate the players looking to ladder. Like online, I’ve seen hh reviews where a player may open trash like q5o etc to really punish people that are playing far too tight.

Always gotta look at your table image also as people tend to realize when you are opening too wide. I had a coach that told me I needed to vpip more online and I should be opening almost all Ax suited hands even from very ep. I have this knack to love 3betting light hands like A4 and A5 suited as 3!/ folds.