When you are the chip lead, should you play wider or tighter?

both

When I'm chip leader I usually play more aggressively, specially when I'm on position and when is close to the bubble time, because those are great opportunities to steal blinds.

Here you need to expand the range, but not too much and push with the stack, it’s better not to play tight then it will be crappy on the stack

First of all its pretty normal, that an early chip leader dont even cash. This is just simple math. If a tournament play 1 out of 7 entries, that dubbling or even trippling your stack early on still dont give you, what will be an average stack, when players are ITM. So at this phase of the tournament the biggest problem might be a misconception, that you are supposed to play any differently or always cash, just because you are among the chip leaders.

Both of that is completely wrong, and you should just continue to play your normal game, since ICM is still not important, and its just like playing a cash game. You might get into a deeper stacked hand, if for instance you have 200BB, and someone else does at well. But thats the only time, you need to do something different, which is then to only stack off a stronger range and pot control more. Again just like you would in a 200BB cash game hand (many MTT players suck at this).

Where a big stack matter, is when there is ICM-pressure, which is mainly near the bubble and on the final 2 tables. At this point a big stack can loosen up his game and be a "big stack bully" taking advantage of other players risk aversion. Except of course against another big stack. If you are the chip leader on the final table, you dont want to get into some huge confrontation with the only player, who can cripple your stack.

Your game must be stable. Of course when you have many chips you can play more comfortably. But your game and your strategy must be in a stable course, and you must not exaggerate and overeact because you have many chips.

I my limited experience, I f you have a huge stack close to the bubble you can bet a large bet or reraise with almost any two cards. Nobody wants out on the bubble and it is a great opportunity to gather a lot of chips which in turn you will need to get you deeper into the cheddar!

It doesn't matter that you have a lot of chips if it's an early stage of a tournament. Play as always, maybe occasionally allowing yourself more than you would allow if you had a stack of an effective stack's size.

If it's a middle stage, you obviously can play wider and put pressure on the table, but again, it should not be your main goal. Your main goal is to use your stack advantage for going as deep as possible. That would mean you should rather maintain your stack advantage, than target opponents. Also be mindful of the table too, not at all tables you can put pressure on the players. Sometimes to play tight-aggressive is the best exploit.

If it's a late stage of a tournament, meaning it's final two-three tables or it's the final table, that's when you are fully can use the advantage of your stack size. But remember, that it's a disadvantage for you to eliminate short stacks or double them up. It doesn't mean that you should play tight against them or deliberately keep them in the game, but you should not think you can call their re-pushes with whatever hand you have, or taking chances against their pushes with a sure losing hand, just because your stack allows this.

Your goal here should be to maintain your advantage and play loose with your open-raises and contbets, but to be very level-headed when someone re-pushes or open-pushes, or showing strength postflop.

All of this is going to lean to a looser play, if we're talking about knockout tournaments. But still, hunting for bounties, especially with a big stack, is for the middle and late stage - when bounties are big, not for the early stages when the bounties are small, starting ones.

If I'm at least in the top three players in a tournament, I play very tight and as cautious as possible. My goal is to win as much money as possible, so excessive risk in such situations is inappropriate in my opinion.

iwont20 said:

If it's a late stage of a tournament, meaning it's final two-three tables or it's the final table, that's when you are fully can use the advantage of your stack size. But remember, that it's a disadvantage for you to eliminate short stacks or double them up. It doesn't mean that you should play tight against them or deliberately keep them in the game, but you should not think you can call their re-pushes with whatever hand you have, or taking chances against their pushes with a sure losing hand, just because your stack allows this.

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Excellent point. A big stack is mainly a weapon againt mid stacks, for whom its an ICM disaster to bust before short stacks. Lets say its the final table, and we are in CO with a 60BB stack, which gives us the chip lead. BTN, SB and BB all have medium stacks of 25-35BB. The shortest stack is UTG with 6BB, and he has open jammed. In that situation our range for calling him off is not any wider, just because we have 60BB rather than 30BB. As you say, its even a strategical disadvantage for us, if UTG bust, so if anything we are slightly more inclined to fold as the chip leader.

However if UTG has folded, and it folds around to us, then we can open quite a bit wider than normal, since its unlikely, any of the players behind want to mess with us, as long as UTG is still around with his short stack. So we get quite a lot more fold equity preflop, and even postflop people are less inclined to get sticky with marginal hands or try some fancy check-raise bluff, when they know, its their tournament life, which potentially comes into play, rather than ours.

Ideally if you have the chip lead you want to pone.

You want to use your chips and the icm to pressure the smaller stacks.

This does not meaning calling off light, but it does mean you should be looking to steal blinds.

There is no better place to be than the chip leader on the bubble picking up chips with a min raise.

Well, of course they should. Especially if it's later in the game, pre-bubble.

Hello! when I'm the chip leader, I try to play more tight-aggressively

I play as I played before. I play when there are reasons for it. If my pocket cards, my position and the situation in general give me these reasons, then I am always ready to take a risk.