weekly mtt $35buy in

[texas_muck'em]

so theres this weekly $35 buy in at my local, gets from 18 to 25 players, with an average of about 20.
I have won it once, getting to heads up by playing tight, severely short stacked against villian, 4-1 in chips, and I hit a rush of cards
busted out mid way through about 50% of the time, playing tight
come 3rd 2 times
and 2nd once
the prize structure is normally first and second when theres 18- players, and 1 2 3, when theres 19+
not a great deal of money, but its a stepping stone to bigger events.
I play it almost every week so it could make for a regular topic

the starting stacks are 10k, blinds 25/50 50/100 75/150 100/200 150/300 200/400 300/600 400/800 500/1000 etc or something close to that, with an ante of 25 right from the get go, and continuing at 25 until blinds reach 500/1000, when the ante becomes 100 and stays there (the ante system was put in to stop people leaving the table for a few hands, otherwise there would be no ante)
table sizes are normally 8players, so the pot starts at 275!!

ignoring the various personality considerations, what kind of strategy do you guys think would work with a ante structure like that?

last night I came second A7o(me) versus KK when I was 40k v 200kish blinds 4k/8k, started off with some trash hands while the blinds were 25/50, got pretty lucky, winning with QTs call v 77AIPF, QJs v KQ v J4 and hitting a jack on the river to make top two pair, KJs call v A4oAIPF, QQ v 2 very short stacks and I hold. not much to talk about really, just horse shoe up my ass.

also I noticed that most people at the final table played fairly tight all the way to the final, and continued that, except for a few short stacks who were going all in pre with what seemed like any ace or any two broadway cards, because of the general tightness, nobody had got a massive chip lead, and the blinds were starting to represent a decent proportion of everyones stack, so much so that ATo looked good to some people, propotionally 10% of stack.
so the question I have is, what strategy works with a table like that?

[RyckyRych]

I'll quickly comment.

With these antes I'd widen my opening ranges, especially against the tighter players when they occupy the blinds. As you undoubtedly understand, the pot is pretty big from the start and they are worth fighting for a little more than normal.

My best advice is to continue to observe these guys and take mental notes... hell even physical pen-to-paper notes if you want. A $700 prize pool is pretty nice to fight for each week. I wish the bar games I use to play allowed cash, I guarantee you people would play much more scared.

In any case, keep up the good work.

[bambini]

Sounds like you have a solid strategy already, given your results (although you never mentioned how many times you've played that tourney). I'd echo rycky's comments, but also add that you have to be prepared to fold your marginals in the early stages.

Remember that task number 1 of MTTs is survival. Although stealing the blinds and antes is essential (and profitable on a tight table), it can be easy to wind up committing too much of your stack when you ramp up the aggression. In the early game, be prepared to fold hands like A9o if you come across resistance like a reraise. You'll be better off folding and choosing a better spot than shoving and getting called by aces. Save the big risk taking for later in the tourney when the blinds are going up and everyone is forced to start jamming with any ace or face :)

I'm sure you know this already, but its a mistake I still occasionally make :)

[RyckyRych]

I'd slightly disagree. The main task of an MTT is to win all the chips. The main task of a single-table SNG is initial survival. MTTs are usually too large to just sit back for too long.

Now I'm not one for taking huge risks early in MTTs but if you find yourself with a chance to double up, I'll take it. This doesn't mean I'll play every hand early, no, in fact I'll play more hands late. However, you can't just survive in a MTT or you'll lose your fold equity too quickly.

I do hear the echo of what I'm saying in your post though however I just want to point out that you can't just fold away to the money. I'm all for playing tight but once my FE is in jeopardy I'll open up considerably.

[J_Verschueren]

I've been mulling this over too and, to me, the first few levels present a strange situation. On the one hand there's a huge ante compared to the blinds, which, in theory, means you should get after them both more often and more aggressively, but on the otherr hand you can't really smallball, because to open a pot with some sort of a credible raise during the first blindlevel you have to make it 8BB and that's not really comfortable, even 200BB deep.

I think I personally would still play a strong value range in the early levels and then just open up when the antes receed to a more reasonable portion of the blinds.

[texas_muck'em]

"chance to double up, take it"
"observe and take notes"
good stuff
because I don't really know the players I'm folding alot of hands, and I find myself having to shove preflop just to pick up the blinds and antes. I think priority number one should be learning the players, what they c-bet with, what they call with, how much they call with.
work commitments means i cant play tomorrow, but next week I'll put up an update.
PLUS! day after tomorrow I'm in a heads up tourney yay
max entrants is 64 @ $30 each, not sure how many people will buy in though.
its supposed to be a round robin stage, groups of four, where the top two advance to the knock out rounds. gonna be fun, I love heads up, cards that normally go into the muck are playable.
only 36 hours to go!
I'll take "texas muckem", if you guys are even awake at that time

[texas_muck'em]

So I forgot to bring texas muck em, but a recap of what happened, great day of cards, 14 entrants, 2 groups of 7 in a round robin, top 4 from each group advance to quarter finals, my stats 5w 1L in group(though 1win was against another player who already qualified, so it was AIPF first hand) I tried to remove alot of luck from my equations by limping 95% of my buttons and playing post flop with smaller pots, I wouldn't collect the big blinds pre like normal, and sometimes I would end up folding what was the best hand pre, but hands like pocket fours got to the river, and collected a small bet from king or ace high, instead of folding to three overs after preflop raises and flop raises. And my hand strength was concealed, so perfect opportunities arose when I had over pairs, or top pair better kicker. Plus my value bets were so affordable and I slowly built my chip stack. There were a couple of lucky moments and unlucky moments, like K J river a straight v villain raise my min raise and call all in with K Q, or A4 v A9s chop pot, but both times I was the short stack, so I couldn't have folded.
There were two opponents I lost to, the first, I played my strategy wrong, and I can't say I would have won, but I played wrong, big pots with third pair, urgh.
The second loss was my quarter final match, and this player told me later she was shoving my limps with 34, 68, etc, Donkey hands, and not once did I have better than queen high, I just had to pick up pockets or average aces, but nothing hand after hand. I'm finally so short stacked I push with JT she calls with 75 and hits two pair. Got some things I need to work on, but looking good.

[RyckyRych]

What were the stacks and blinds to start with, and how fast did the blinds go up? Depending on how often that woman was shoving on you you needed to change your strategy quicker. Sounds like you let yourself lose fold equity.

Still, nice showing. Winning 5 of 7 HU is pretty good.

[texas_muck'em]

yep, lost fold equity

got beat like i just stole something

lost a couple of early hands, couldn't formulate a plan, shoved to late

the starting stacks were 6k, blinds were at 200/400, I had 2000, she had 9200, blinds were going up next hand, so I was gonna shove that too

[RyckyRych]

Did the blinds start out at 200/400?