Online Poker Forum - Help me loosen up

Omega Operative · Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:45 am Post subject: Help me loosen up

When ever I play MTT (18, or 27) I have a really hard time loosing up in the middle of the tourny. I usually play tight aggressive early on, and get a nice looking chip stack. But then I get too concerned with 'protecting' my chip stack, and I start to play too tight.

I know what hands I should be playing early on, but I guess I have a hard time determining what hands I should be playing mid-tourny, or nearing final table.

Some example hands I have come across recently.

27 person MTT. 16 players remaining. I'm currently in 7 place. (Sorry I don't have actual chip stacks, HH, etc....jut a general example.)

Should I be calling the BB with hands like; J9o, A3o, Q10s, 67s, QJs UTG? Should I be raising with any of these hands in late position?

I know, this is my biggest problem in SnGs, and MTT. Because I always fizzle out. I'm usually always calling all in with like 400 chips left.

So any tips, on loosing up, mindset, hands to play later in the tourny, etc.... would be really helpful. I just wanna learn to keep my chip stack gradually growing, and not peaking early on, then fizzling out, like I do now.

Pokergal812 · Full House Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Jersey

Good question -- I'm often in a similar boat... trying to learn to loosen up as well. Have had small gains but still need to go further... I'll be stalking this post.

NilesMonkey · Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 8:57 pm Post subject:

PJs Ronin · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 4:18 am Post subject:

You'll notice that there aren't many posts in the SnG strat section. I have my own feelings as to why this is so, but I digress. I play SnGs (up to say 27 man) in three phases.

Phase #1. Play tight... line around 17/10/5.0. If I get my fair share of AA, KK, etc I'll be trying to get as many chips as possible and knock out any player I can a get a bead on. Other than that, I play depending on the quality of the holecards, my position, and what the other players are doing. Nothing new in all of this. However, My Phase #1 also comprises an allowance for how many people there are at the table and for me, this is 7-9 people.

Phase #2. Combines higher blinds, but more importantly, fewer seats occupied. For me, this is 5-7 seat section and here I loosen up. I don't necessarily increase the range of holecards I'm playing, but I do increase my bets/raises. I think getting locked into looking at the value of J9s vs QTo is pointless. The fish at your table is going to screw any plans you had of playing hands 'by the book'. However, with just 5 seats occupied your table is about to reform/collapse and the other players know this... introduces a degree of uncertainty. Time to take some chances as reflected in my line of 25/20/6.0.

Phase #3. 4 or less seats occupied. This is war and I'm not going to tell you what I do... so nyer nyer. My line numbers are off the chart... 80ish/80ish/throughtheroof.

The only real difference between Phase 1 and 2 for me is bet/raise size. Phase 3 is insane.

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