What’s your go-to strategy for early levels in online MTTs?

[jassine92]

Lately I’ve been struggling to build stacks early in online MTTs. Do you guys play super tight at the start or open up right away to build chips? Curious how others approach the early levels.

 

[GrannySmit77]

At least in online tournaments I see a lot of players in early stages jamming all in with any 2 cards and getting lucky. So my strategy is to wait a little bit- 5-10 minutes, depending how fast the structure plays. I would probably lose 1/3 of my chips. Then I'll wait for a good hand to go all in with. If I manage to double up, then I'll play GTO poker. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.

 

[flattershay]

Be tightish and play with hands that can flop huge combos.

 

[Mantinhoo]

Early on I just play solid and avoid big risks. The fields are usually soft, so I stick to strong hands, take cheap flops in position, and focus on value rather than bluffing. No need to force chips this early, plenty of time to build later.

 

[fundiver199]

The early phase of an MTT is very similar to a cash game with the main difference being the ante. Stacks are fairly deep, so you need to play postflop well, and you are just trying to win as many chips as possible. Which - like in a cash game - sometimes work and sometimes not. You are just playing poker, so rather than looking for some magic strategy for "early phase on an MTT", you should focus on questions like "how do I defend my blinds", "how do I play draws" and so on and so forth.

 

[Stringy]

wait for a strong hand and try to build up a bankroll, or if theres a lot of players sitting out then double BB all the time

 

[LUKADONCICMVP]

tight is right Phill Helmuth knows it

 

[anbu210]

For Early stage tight is right... You having huge stack in terms of BB... play speculative hands against tight opponents... Don't get married with AA,KK,QQ and bet bet in each street ... Control the pot when not in your favour, don't slow play trips, straights, flush build the pot be re-raising early streets.. Avoid conforation hands like JQo, QTo, TJo, KJo etc ....A9o or lower.... call and play small pocket pairs ...but if flop is not hit with set giveup ...like on 983 board you have 66, facing opponent cbet its ok to fold small PP OOP (opponent will not always have AK,AJ,KQ etc sometimes bigger pair also..)