From the mind of a LAG:

You're sitting on the button, watching the action before looking at your cards. You're in the second round of a tourney and have about the starting stack. A tight player raises to 4bb under the gun. You've gotta guess he has a fairly good hand. Probably a big ace or a big pair. Two players fold, a fairly average players calls, probably with a small pair or a big ace. The cutoff, a complete loose passive fish, throws in a call as well. You look down at .

What do you do?



You call. No question. Here's why: You've already read UTG to have a good hand, so it's assumed he's gonna throw in a fairly large bet on the flop. The second guy, hopefully has a big ace, and might incline to call, or raise if he hits his ace. The fish, well, he's not gonna fold to anything short of an all in. So now you've got some damn good odds. If you hit a good draw, you'll probably get close to triplin up if you can hit it.

You aren't looking to just 'get your money in as a favorite' any more. You're looking to gamble here, while the blinds are low. If you can find a shot to quadriple up early, it doesn't matter what your cards are. Get in there. The goal of these tournaments is NOT to make money. Contrary to what people will tell you, the ONE and ONLY goal in an MTT is to get every single chip.

Ok, so here's a basic outline for these tournaments. Change things around as necessary.

Ok, just played my first online MTT in a month, and the only thing wrong with this, is you're gonna have to stretch everything a bit.

First few levels. GAMBLE! You want a big stack, and you want it now.You need to be playing nearly any two suited or any connectors higher than 7, in position of course, and with at least two people other than the blinds in before you. Do NOT play weak aces, or weak kings. You will get screwed by them over and over again. Do this until around the first break, I guess. I'm not sure about the standard blind rates in online tourneys.

After the first break, or somewhere around there. You should have a big stack of at least 30-50BBs depending on the structer. You're gonna want to tighten up as right now your TAG brethren are playing SUPER aggressively, and probably playing better hands than you. Steal blinds when you can, and try to only play top ten hands for a little while. This is based on a 200 player tourney, so in case you aren't playing one of these... this is around the bubble area.

A couple of levels later, after the bubble, a lot of the competition will be out. Many TAGs have probably gotten sucked out on, and the remaing ones all have doubled up a couple times, but you should still have a fairly big stack. Now it's time to loosen up a bit. Start playing decent suited hands like [js] and . Again, make sure you have at least two players in the pot before you play these hands. Also, on the flop, you are going to start playing a bit less aggressive with draws, and more aggressive with top pair sorts of hands.

Ok, now you're in the money, assuming top 30 payed, and you're down to about 25. Start gambling again. Be sensible though. Your stack right now is probably a little less than 2x the average stack, so feel free to see some marginal hands, but don't get stupid. Do NOT play table captain and try to knock people out. Especially short stacks. Now if you have a hand, obviously call. But the last thing you wanna do is give some midget stack 1/10th of your stack with . Don't try stealling the blinds without a legitimate hand. Everyone at the table knows you're loose and is just waiting to reraise you with any two cards. Play this way until it gets down to short-handed, before the final table.

Until the final table starts, try to earn some respect here by... FOLDING. Yeah, most of the players left are probably pretty good, and they're gonna be aggressive as hell, so just wait patiently for a good hand, and show them down if you can. It will help you out later.

You're at the final table. Fantastic. Pat yourself on the back, you stud. Now it's time to turn the heat up. Again, don't play table captain. Let someone else risk half of his chips to move everyone up on their pay day. Make note of how many BBs everyone's got, and how they're using them. For example, you notice that a player two to your left is down to 3BB's. See if he's pushing all in a lot, or if he's just praying someone else will go out first. This helps a lot in stealing blinds, etc. As far as hands go, high suited cards are fine, the usual top ten, and some hands like [Qc], etc. Don't get involved TOO much til it gets down to 7.

No need to gamble anymore. Play decent hands, and play them hard. Don't be afraid to re-raise suspected blind stealers, etc. Just play your semi-short-handed game.

Now it's down to three. Guess what? Gambling time again! Yay! Alrighty, one of (hopefully) your opponents is going out next, and YOU need to get as many chips from as possible. It's hard to tell someone how to play short-handed... just remember that just because they raised doesn't mean they have top pair.

Heads up. You (hopefully) have at least a 2:1 lead over your opponent. You're gonna actually play somewhat tight post flop. Any pair or decent draw is worth betting, and you should raise any top pair or better. Just keep pushing and you'll be fine!

You won. Good job. You owe me.

Hope this helps some, guys.

That was a very good post but I'm not sure I could play that way but it gives me some food for thought to loosen up my game. watching my Ah Qh and seeing an 4 6 8 rainbow flop makes me think sometimes the "crap" is good.

Thanks acidjoe!