bigger field mtt

lo again peeps,


im a reasonably tight plr.

i usually play nlhe freezeout mtt torneys with 200-300 runners and seem to be able to do ok. $5-$15 buyins

but... when i play the bigger fields say 800+ i find it more difficult.
i know im not going to reach the money as often, but when in a torney and i feel im going along o.k. ( say triple ur starting stack in the first hour ) then u look at the leaderboard and ur still 120th in chips say, and the muffcake chippys have chit loads of chips i feel im doing something wrong.

so my question is..

does anyone loosen their game for a period of time in the bigger fields?
obv its ok when u go well, but ur going to go out early more often.
i keep telling myself good poker will out in the end
p.s. i dont wanna become a muffcake
ty in advance
fluff xx

hi m8

first thing id say - dont focus on the lobby, focus on your table.

i know exactly the feeling you mean, you double up a few times and think ooo im doing ok here, and in a 100 runner you would be, but in a 1000 runner you look at the board and there's 50 people with 10 times your stack.

you really dont need to keep looking at the lobby, and most of the time it just dent your confidence, which is the last thing you need.

As long as your doing ok on your own table, and you're not in danger of being too low in a couple of levels time, then youre doing fine, and theres no need whatsoever to be checking out the lobby. there's always going to be a few muffcakes with millions of chips early on no matter what.

Also, dont focus too much on cashing. In a 100-200 runner, focusing on cashing is ok, because its so close to your actual goal, of getting onto the final table, which leads onto the main goal of top 3 finish.

In a 1000 runner tho, cashing in 100th is no real use to anyone. It may cut your variance down a bit, but really youre not achieving much. Its very possible to tighten up to try and cash, and completely ruin all your hard work so far. Onc again, dont watch that cash place come in the lobby, just ignore it and play your game.

This lack of attention to cashing does mean your variance is going to be fairly high, to counteract this, rather than trying to cash small in large fields, play a range of smaller fields as well.

gl with em!

ty for ur advice rick,

as i thought trying to play good poker is the way.

its just disheartening when some ppl start sticking it all in with nearly anything, then winning 6 hands in a row where they are a dog. then they bully u.

see alot of people like that eventually they lose 2/3 hands on the run and go out. Prefer smaller mtts there easier to get to the final table lol.

I play large field tourneys on a daily basis between 1000 - 4000 players and the Sunday majors running up to 30,000 if I can be bothered with the low buyin 1/4 mill on stars (which I do as I'm a tight bugger and FT'd it 3 times this year) and offer the following advice...IMO

The only places that even start to make playing these games worth while is between 1 - 20th (ok not true if ya sat'd into Sunday million) but on the whole its correct, take last nights $60k gtd $10 rebuy, tourney took nearly 8hrs and was 7hr's in to reach 19th which pays $179 less 1rb and 1 add-on as average $149 profit $21.** per hour where 18th paid $332 make $42 hr, for 1 place,,,,,,

1: Never EVER worry about the chip leaders, very rare early leaders stick around to the end, the reason is they play LSP (lucky shove poker)

2: Patience, Patience, Patience, Patience the more you have of this the less the variance, as 45 - 60 % of the field will be out by 1st break (25 - 40% for re buy events)

3: Your aim is the FT and nothing else, now you cant reach this on the 1st hand of the tourney but you sure as hell can get knocked out so depending on the starting stack and structure for the 1st hour you can almost play "Sklansky system" although I would mod it increase the range, this will work up $55 Re Buy, over that you will have a neon sign over your head advertising what you are doing, although impossible to defend against so not all lost.

4: Look to start changing gear around the 200/100 as pots now are getting to a good size, remember though patience don't become a lagtard.

5: Never get blinded out, this is a crime

6: Just after the cash bubble, drop back into "Super tight" mode for 15mins as the field will go crazy as the hangers on realize they have almost been blinded out and start to stoke all kinds of shit, lost count the amount of AA hands I've had beat by 9,6o at this point lol

7: last but not least, take bad beats on the chin, call the guy what ever you like but then forget it, the variance in large fields is all part of the game, and welcome the Donkey call station coming over the top with 9,6o to your AA it's these people you make money from long term.

ty for for ur reply.( must have taken a few minutes so it is much apprieciated )

i will try to take on board wot u have said.

im just glad i was going in the right direction on my own.

thanks again
fluff.

Another idea fluff would be to take a look at a tournament in progress towards the later stages. This will help in what kind of stack sizes there are and a general feel for what to expect and also the structure of the event.

I think i played a tournament where once it came to the bubble the structure had almost everyone in push fold mode so it was a crapshoot for the final table so be careful about which one you choose.

i think the most important thing about large field mtts is to make sure you dont waste your oppurtunity when you do go deep.

The payout structures on most sites mean that coming say 25th in a 3000 runner isnt going to be worth much more than 3 or 4 times your buy in.

If you go deep you need to up the aggression, and start accumulating chips. Theres no point hanging on for 10th-50th, just because youve taken 6 hours to get to this point and dont want to go bust.

Im not saying go crazy, but aim for a top 3 finish rather than a top 20, the time you make it there you'll be glad you did, one 1st-3rd is worth ten 10ths easily.