Look for spots to win hands with aggression. 1) If a weak player opens from late or middle position, either call or 3bet from the button. Win the pot post flop. 2) If a weak player limps, raise from late position to isolate the limper. You should win the pot with a c-bet on the flop about 70% of the time. 3) 3 bet late position opens. 4) If it folds to you in late position, make a steal attempt.
Don't force the action at all but at the same time try to find a spot to win a hand per round to at least maintain your stack and when it feels you have been quiet for a while try picking on a late position raise form an active player.
Try to play your position, If I know good cards aren't going my way I'll play my position the best way I can, I'll raise If anyone hasn't done it yet, I'll try to sneak into cheap pots, I'll even try to squeeze (while on the BTN or CO) If a ton of weak players have called behind me.
I have seen times when I folded almost every hand in the first hour. The few I did play and win was just enough to keep my starting stack the same. I understand what everyone is talking about ways to pick up a few chips here and there, but during that first hour I did not even get a hand good enough to try a few tricks to win a pot. All I could do was fold and fold some more and I kept my patience and after that first break I started catching some hand I could play and win some pots with. Sometimes you may have to wait till the last minute before it turns around and it's well worth all the stress when the good hands start coming.
Like let's have said exploit your position and stack size is really you can do, and the irony is no one knows what cards you have unless you make it to a showdown, ever heard of single barrel, double barrel , triple barrel bluff , "emptying the clip" these terms didn't make there self up, I'm not a huge advocate of bluffing all three streets, but sometimes u need to take risks to win, and if your not bluffing your not winning
I probably agree with one of the earlier post. You just have to maintain your stack some sort of way by winning at least one time a round. If you can do that, you will almost 85% of the time or more make the final table if you have the chip lead already. Try hard to win one pot per round chip leader. That's it. Good luck. 🙂
Patience and looking for spots is key. I played an MTT the other day and literally for the first hour I did not get a single hand, and the hands I did win were because I was in the big blind and everyone folded to me. But I remained patient, and remembered the lessons I have learned and I also took solace in the fact that sometimes you are not going to get any hands but that there will always be tournaments. Anyway, after the first hour I got a couple hands and then it picked up from there and the next thing I know I finished in 7th place, and should have finished higher but my Aces got coolered by the same player who had coolered my Aces in another tournament. I actually think I'm jinxed when I play this player because as I write this I got knocked out of a tournament today by, guess who, the same player. Oh well. On I will continue.
Keep folding until you get a good hand. Once in a while, with decent hands, try to steal some blinds if only one-two players called.
But the main idea in this situation is : be patient. As you said, you have a good stack of chips, which allows you to scan for the best hand to take action with.
P.S: also, while folding, study the opponents. Some will try to take advantage of you if they notice you keep folding, and this way they can make you drop a decent hand even if you own their hand : this also can help you get "hot" again 😉
But the main idea in this situation is : be patient. As you said, you have a good stack of chips, which allows you to scan for the best hand to take action with.
P.S: also, while folding, study the opponents. Some will try to take advantage of you if they notice you keep folding, and this way they can make you drop a decent hand even if you own their hand : this also can help you get "hot" again 😉
Impatience is the worst habit for a player to fall into. Sometimes, you just don't get good hands or even if you do, you keep running into bad situations or coolers. If you have chips, and if you are not in that short stack situation, just look for your spots, and be patient. Don't make bad situations worse by bleeding your chips on ill-timed aggression because of frustration.
We want to enter the final table but if we keep losing chips in the end we won't.
We cannot just wait for the good cards to come .
I used to be very tight and the outcome was to to lose blinds and chips until I was blind-dead .
So I steal in position on weak players or not
I try bluffs or semi bluffs to opponents who raise or limp from late position
as much as my stack allows ,
generally not many as I have not mastered this procedure
but I'm doing my best on the right direction. 🙂
We cannot just wait for the good cards to come .
I used to be very tight and the outcome was to to lose blinds and chips until I was blind-dead .
So I steal in position on weak players or not
I try bluffs or semi bluffs to opponents who raise or limp from late position
as much as my stack allows ,
generally not many as I have not mastered this procedure
but I'm doing my best on the right direction. 🙂