Do you come in for a raise with your top 10 hands? How much?

Trying tight play right now, we'll see how it goes. Thanks for advice.

No luck so far in the MTTs. Grr.

Very close to the money but not enough chips to make the money: push with QQ, get called by AK and Ax, chance to triple up, K on the river = out. Only decent hand before that: get KK, raise, get called in 1 place. A on the flop and he bets out, had to fold. Yuck.

I have been running so well in ring games it feels silly to spend a couple of hours on an MTT and then get nothing. And I'm very uncomfortable trying to play ring games & a tourney at the same time. Trying to decide where to go from here. I want to get my share of the free $$ that are being handed out (especially when I know it's coming out of the rake I'm paying), but at the same time it feels like more trouble than it's worth.

Thanks for the help & encouragement, TK.

A trend I have noticed in the lower buy in and I am sure it is even worst in the free rolls as of late is a lot of bluffing or semi bluffing. The first sign of weakness and they are pushing all in with middle pair.

Players are calling big raises with Ax so they have no respect for KK or QQ. One thing I have found that works is if you have late position with a big PP and sevrial have limped then you can push your big PP because most fo the limpers have limped with Ax not leaving them many outs.

What I plan on doing is trying some trickery. Slow playing my monsters with position. I am talking about big PP and AK, AQs ect. That way when they push I can double up. Out of position I think you need to go ahead and take the pot down.

We have to adjust with what the game is giving us. When we see better poker being played then it will be time to start playing tight/aggressive. Chipping away at stacks.

I've been reading Sklansky's Tournament Poker book. (How desperate am I?) In it, he suggests what he calls The System. He has us go all in with AA, KK, QQ in EP--after the first two rounds with blinds not worth stealing. Then, he suggests we go all in with less as position improves. (Too long to quote right now.)

Basically, the all in with a strong hand, he says, would negate the advantage even tournament pros have, because they couldn't get a read, your decision making is over at that point, and the other players would be put to a decision they'd rather not have to make.

As always, playing Sklansky reduces us to number crunching robots. His "modified" system would require me to sit at the table with a supercomputer crunching numbers rather than Oreos, but no doubt playing any hands less than he suggests would reduce the EV. He says the only problem he's encountered in getting anyone to play it is the lack of patience, discipline, and--he sort of implies--lack of balls among his disciples. Hmm, sounds suspiciously like me.

Of late, I've not been using all in. I've deluded myself into thinking I can outplay them post-flop. I need to stop doing that, and, just as k3nt says, I'm thinking that MTTs are not cost-effective for me, so going all-in may be the better play. I'm intrigued by your thinking TK, but it also leads me back to thinking I can outplay them during the betting rounds, which probably overestimates my ability. As shocking as that might be. Overestimating my ability.

CJ