Early game strategy

  • Thread starter Thread starter joe mckenzie
  • Start date Start date
As always so many factors that should dictate how you play... mostly the feeling you get at the table should help direct you to a style of play. If it is easy to pick up blinds with mid range hands doing so can get you ahead of the game for when you know you have the nuts and someone is going to double you up. Continuing to build a stack as the blinds raise is important and however far you get away from the average stack above or below can change the way you play.

If you fall behind you may need to open up when the table feels weak and steal some pots with continuation bluffs. If you get ahead and notice someone trying to steal blinds a lot then you can put a stop to this and maybe risk losing a decent lead to continue being dominant at the table. In any case if you just sit around and wait you can get behind quickly depending on how quickly the blinds are going.
 
Sometimes early on because the blinds are small its sometimes fun to take a look at more flops with mediocre or spec hands that you can't afford to play later.
 
If it were me

joe mckenzie said:
What is your strategy when it come to playing the early game of a tournament? I don’t think my aggressive start is working out too well and I’d love to get feedback on this.
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Early or late i recomend playing tight the whole way until you drop to say 15bbs then open shove with strong and medium stringth hands such as pkt 6s-10s KQ QJ and J10
 
Like said earlier, I also like to play tight at the beginning. The risk vs reward doesn't seem that much to play marginal hands out of position. At the beginning there are no antes so you are only winning the blinds. So I tighten up at the start.

Once the blinds start getting bigger and antes are in play, I definitely widen my range. A good mixture of pocket pairs, suited connectors, and etc. are thrown in the mix. I try to keep around the average chip count if possible so that I don't blind out by the time the blinds get too high.

MTTs are a marathon not a race so you don't have to get all the chips immediately. It definitely helps though to get a big stack going into the ante phase.
 
I play position and mix it up a lot the 1st few hours with almost no bluffs. MTTs are a marathon not a race so chipping up slowly is fine and getting more aggressive once in the money works well for me ...
 
Sil3ntness said:
Like said earlier, I also like to play tight at the beginning. The risk vs reward doesn't seem that much to play marginal hands out of position. At the beginning there are no antes so you are only winning the blinds. So I tighten up at the start.

Once the blinds start getting bigger and antes are in play, I definitely widen my range. A good mixture of pocket pairs, suited connectors, and etc. are thrown in the mix. I try to keep around the average chip count if possible so that I don't blind out by the time the blinds get too high.

MTTs are a marathon not a race so you don't have to get all the chips immediately. It definitely helps though to get a big stack going into the ante phase.
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Good advice, I get a little too aggro in the beginning, steal some worthless blinds them get called
For everything later in the game
 
when you start a tourney fromt he beginning your usually about 100bbs deep. So based on that and based on position you should be opening fairly wide!
 
I have a strategy in the early stages of the tournament, it's easy to wait for a good hand and play with it, while the blinds are small, you can go with small pocket pairs and small bunches.
 
How to behave with a hand like an AK on a tribet at an early stage of the game?
 
i like to play most hands early on if i can get in cheaply.... i play almost every hand the same way preflop even with big hole cards. Because, as an example, it's really hard to get weak hands like J7s to fold to a 4x BB raise when the BB is $30... it's 99% post flop early on.
 
It all depends on the cost of the tournament. In tournaments with small buy-in players often bluff and do all-in, so you have to play very carefully. In tournaments with big buy-in aggressive style of play is more appropriate.
 
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Hi there.My strategy when a mtt is at the beggining is total loose.I call all suited connectors when the blinds are small and then i am playing tight when tournament goes on.
 
If the game is slow , try to play suited connectors and small pairs, specially if the tourney is played with deep stacks. Playing early stages with Ax is worthless, since most of the time you will be in the middle of multiways hands, and hitting only TP is not enough to win a big pot. So, yes folding Ax preflop is not so bad in the early stages.
 
i like to start off slightly aggressive just to get up a touch, then i can relax and fall into my fold fold fold mode till i am known as the guy who only play good hands. after that you can be aggressive again.
 
I think at the beginning of the tournament you have to do a lot of hands, you must wait for good cards, BB are so small that not worth it, steal or do bluffs.
When the blinds are great and you can change your strategy and be more aggressive, and open your range of hands, I try to steal from position. gl😀
 
I play normal a bit loose, but I am tight with chips and betting at the start unless I have a monster hand.
 
joe mckenzie said:
What is your strategy when it come to playing the early game of a tournament? I don’t think my aggressive start is working out too well and I’d love to get feedback on this.
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Hey Joe! This really depends on how the table is playing but generally this is a great time since you are so deep stacked in terms of big blinds to get in see flops & people can make really big mistakes. Suited connectors low pairs make sense to get in and look to have someone overplay an over pair or even top pair. There is no need to go crazy raising and trying to steal blinds as the antes haven't even kicked in and your not looking to win much by raising and collecting just a single small and big blind. Playing in position w/ modest holdings is fine as well as 3betting an opener and building a pot in pos. Hope this helps! Good question!
 
My secret early is to play a lot of random hands while the blinds are low if you can limp in. Sometimes you get lucky on a flop and can build a strong stack early on then tighten up as hands get more expensive to play.
 
ive had times where ive tried to play tight and aggressive and ive had times ive played loose like a drunk, what ive come to learn is that it is important to study who is on the table, for the most part ive noticed peoples range in the first 20 hands or so most players play tight AX and KKQJT, what i have done recently that seems to work early on is play suited connectors, and also play broadway cards or mid straight cards work for me,

when i know the range of my opponents and i see that they raise bb by 5-10x i know they are holding AX KKQJT, and if my hand is 78, 9T, or so and i feel like gamboling i go for it.

it really comes down to gut feeling for me and does work out pretty well for me.

of course this is all live games, online is a whole different story.
 
Pokericon08 said:
My secret early is to play a lot of random hands while the blinds are low if you can limp in. Sometimes you get lucky on a flop and can build a strong stack early on then tighten up as hands get more expensive to play.
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i tend to play the same way. whenever its possible to get in cheap i get in
 
I play tight early in a tourney but it also depends on the cards I get.​
 
Play ABC poker until you find a fish to take chips from. Wait 5-8 levels before increasing aggression and in re-entry wait unit 5 levels before late registration cut off
 
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