I'm only interested and willing to grind live mtts. I'm not willing to play online anymore. what things can I do to improve my game away from the table live? I wanna learn how to count chip stacks better and i got some poker chips so i can stack them up and count them from the other side of the table. watching live final tables too looking for tells and watching how they play. and reading some books and reading the mtt fourms at hands played. using pokerstove for equitys.

Since your opponents are stuck with you in a tourney until they get moved(unlike a cashgame where opponents may quit anytime), reads become more useful, particularly on the river.

preflop: depending on antes and the players behind me, I might adjust to be slightly tight, or slightly loose, but my adjustments are on the margins(If K9s is profitable from middle position, and you're up against a bunch of folders, then K8s is likely profitable as well).

postflop: there are so many different ways that poker strategies win and lose money to each other that it would take forever for me to list the ev sources. Just know that as a tight aggressive player, you're going to get your ev from opponents like this:

loose aggressive opponents leak money to tags by making too many weak bluffcatchers and second best draws(because the tighter player will have stronger cards on average due to preflop selection).

tight passive opponents leak money to tags by giving up too many uncontested pots, and missing value with strong hands.

loose passive opponents leak money to tags by calling down way too much and missing value with strong hands.

Knowing how the ranges involved affect the transfer of ev from one strategy to another is probably best shown with an extreme example:

player A limps in middle position, button raises 4x, blinds fold, player A calls.

how would you play as button vs these player types?:

A1) would have raised top 35%, limps everything else and calls a raise 100%.

A2) would have raised top 20%, limps other 40%, folds bottom 40%.

A3) would have raised top 10%, limps other 30%, folds 60%.

A4) would have raised top 5%, limps other 20%, folds 75%.

get ready to face these characters.

The largest ev shift will be for (A1) as this range most surely cannot turn a profit in real poker, sorry mr ultra loose aggressive guy, you don't get to win every pot. This is exactly because other players are going to get good hands to play.

The smallest ev shift will be for (A4) as this range is actually quite profitable due to its high card power and connectivity and nutty flushdraws.

"quite profitable" in this case meaning "wins a decent fraction of the pot on top of the 3 big blind call.

The reasons the in position player gains ev depends on how the ranges stack up against each other and I think it's illustrative of the idea that a tight aggressive approach wins vs all player types.

The 4x raiser has stronger hands on average(player A doesn't have top x% of hands because he would have raised them, which only compounds this problem) and this equals showdown ev and protection value, which are the ways strong hands benefit from betting. Some of the weaker hands(like JTs, which is a raise there even vs (A4)) need to receive a certain amount of ev from semibluffing, or else they become unplayable for a 4x raise(I would limp it in very loose aggressive games after a limper). With the stronger suited connectors, raw showdown value and big draw value leads me to think that raising is always the best play vs a limper with KQs.

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There's something else to be said about game play:

Learn the rhythm of the game. For example, If I call a raise in the big blind, I'm checking almost 100% of the time, except on some boards that allow many strong hands to be in my range that are flipping with AA unimproved, boards like 876 with a flushdraw or a made flush comes to mind as a very scary board for my opponent that I would often bet at as the big blind. Except that type of situation, I check 100% to the raiser in heads up pots. I bet slightly more often in 3 way pots, and much more often in 4+ way pots.

In the same sense, if I call a flop bet out of position with a flushdraw, and I make my flush on the turn vs a strong opponent, I'm check raising, never betting out. However if I had semibluffed the flop by check raising and I hit the flush on the turn, I would bet out. See the difference? It's very important to recognize when you should or shouldn't disrupt the rhythm of the game.