Hey everyone... I'm generally a strict ring player, but had a buddy of mine (who's ass I can kick ) just won $3800 in a $10 buyin multi... So I figured, what the hell... I'll give it a shot... So, I'm in my 3rd MTT (first I got my butt kicked... Second I came in 8th in GCs Freeroll...), and am stuck in this position...

GC $20 buyin... they were supposed to get 2000 people, but only 27 signed up (Easter?)... Anyways, I played pretty tight, like I always do, had some good hands, had some people meet those hands w/ horrible ones, and was 1st or 2nd in chips the whole time...

So, it gets down to the dreaded bubble... 4 of us, 3 get paid... There are 3 VERY large stacks, me (about 13000), to others about the same, and one shortstack with about 3500, and holding on for dear life... the blinds were 200-400, and it was taking FOREVER for someone to knock out...

Basically, my question is, do you sit around and wait to be in the money before loosening up, or do you take advantage of others ubertightness and play aggressively...

I had this hand... please let me know what you'd do...

SB w/ ... one big stack folds, small stack (as he has done the last 1000 hands) folds, I raise to 1200, BB calls...

Flop is ...

I bet out 3000, BB puts me allin...

What do I do... If I call and win, I basically can ride to 1st in the tourney... if I lose I'm out... Or I could fold, and I'm still pretty much above the small stack... BTW, 1st payed $270, 2nd $160ish, and 3rd $100ish... I put what I did in white below...

I called, he flipped Q2c, and pulled the damned flush on the river...

Thanks...MVP

You should have won the hand pre flop but he put you on a steal. A bigger pre flop raise might might have done it. I wouldn't be afraid to go all in pre flop with AQs short handed as it was.

I would have gone all in after the flop hit. 3000 you are now pot committed so go ahead and go all in if he wants to call great. If not get your chips and wait for antoher good hand.

The key to MTT's is patience, patience, patience. Yeah short stack folded the last 1000 hands but on 1001 he made $100. A few lucky breaks and some double ups and he could make $160 or even $270 but one thing for sure he made $100 more then 17 other players.

I just finished an article that Tetsuo is editing for me called avoiding trouble in MTT's. I might help a little.

You don't find many players that are good at both ring games and tourny's. The playing style is so much different that it makes it hard to adjust.

One skill thats a must in MTT play is being able to change gears. Near the bubble with a healthy stack you really want to pressure certain people to at least keep your stack from going down. You steal more from the tight players, so get your reads and use them as the bubble approaches. You'd like to steal from players that are medium stacked but you can also put pressure on shorter stacks. Medium stacked opponents are great because they have enough chips to wait to get ITM and they won't want to mess with a large stack. Short stacks are not so perfect to steal from although the real tight ones are easy targets. The reason short stacks are not optimal is obviously because they can't fold forever and will push allin with a wider range of hands that you will then have to call given pot odds.

When you are in a situation like this on the bubble its a little different because you are also playing shorthanded when the norm is to be playing near the bubble with mostly full tables. When playing shorthanded it becomes less about what cards you are holding and more about just playing the player. I steal more often from the button and I toss in the occasional raise to what I think is a steal. Waiting for cards here is pure death and you need to stay ahead of the game by being a thief. I don't see a problem with the way you played this out other than you got involved in a large pot with another big stack. I will do this as well when I have a great hand, but generally I will fold better hands to a stack that can take me out. Your mentality should be to have everyone gang up on the short stack while trying to avoid big pots with each other.

Keep up the good play and you'll fall right into the MTT groove. I play NL tourneys and cash games, often at the same time, and do very well for myself. It can be hard to use the proper mentality in each while playing at the same time but I also find that having a ring game going allows me to be patient and wait for the right spots in a MTT in the early stages. When it gets down to the final table I will sit out of any cash games because you have to pay full attention to the table but before then it's a good way to balance my play. I also make the buyin for the tourney often times while I'm playing it so the variance is masked and the big wins seem even better!

I must do something right, I won my third tourney this year this past weekend! $20+2 MTT on Full Tilt with 191 entries, paid just over 1k.