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How to play more agressive

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  1. barr_b2 barr_b2 is offline

    Columbus, OH
    United States

    Posts: 7
    Joined: Feb 07

    Jun 18th, 2007 (6/18/2007 7:28pm)

    I've been lurking here for a while so I think this is as good of a time as any to jump in and start posting.

    Lately I've been trying to force myself to loosen up in tourneys as we get to the middle stages as I find myself cashing enough to be ahead but not getting too deep in tourneys. For the most part I feel I play a pretty tight game and look for spots to get my money in good, but inevitably I find myself short when the bubble approachs and having to push with a pretty weak holding. For some background, I'm talking lower buy in tourneys, $3-$5-$10 rebuys, $5 - $15 MTT's.

    Anyone have any good tips to force myself to loosen up and look for good situations to steal? Any players I should spend some time railing?
  2. smwatkin smwatkin is offline

    Toronto
    Canada

    Posts: 1,241
    Joined: Jun 05

    Jun 18th, 2007 (6/18/2007 7:39pm) in reply to barr_b2

    bel0wab0ve, UGOTPZD, brsavage
  3. bad grr bad grr is offline

    Madison, WI
    United States

    Posts: 1,107
    Joined: May 06

    Jun 18th, 2007 (6/18/2007 7:46pm) in reply to smwatkin

    exactly, watch some of the better players and see what you can learn
  4. pariah pariah is offline

    United States

    Posts: 1,730
    Joined: Apr 06

    Jun 18th, 2007 (6/18/2007 8:00pm) in reply to barr_b2

    Play a SNG w/o looking at your hole cards.

    Play a SNG open-raising every hand.

    Play around with PokerStove a lot, running hands til you realize what hands play best certain situations -- and for nits like you and me, it'll help you discover that 75s or T8 isn't as bad as you think.

    Note that my 1st two suggestions aren't actually for 'real' MTT play -- it's just to get you used to being aggressive and playing a scenario (position, people, stack sizes, psychology, etc) instead of your cards.
  5. Duffy08 Duffy08 is offline

    KS
    United States

    Posts: 3,182
    Joined: Jun 07

    Jun 18th, 2007 (6/18/2007 8:12pm) in reply to pariah

    I like the suggestions pariah...but not looking at ur whole cards...sticky note the screen or something?
    As far as being aggresive in low buy-in MTT's. You will have times of extreme frustration as people will constantly smooth call your pre flop raises and then smooth call again your continuation bet giving you no info. on their hands at all as people in these limits hate to be pushed around and love to see flops.
    I have tried playing like a nit and without a sick run of cards you do eventually get down to push shove before FT bubble, but on the other hand ive built a stack countless times and then watched as my aggression cut my stack in half as people think a big stack raise means race time. I guess it becomes completely table dependant on whether or not aggresion is the answer as antes kick in and blinds go up.
    If you do create a LAG image in these lower buy-ins be prepared to spend 3 hours and win 4 times your buy in as Ax races ur QQ or KK deep in these tourneys as no one lays an ace down.
    GL
     1
  6. iamtheflash iamtheflash is offline

    Wentzville, MO
    United States

    Posts: 1,932
    Joined: Feb 07

    Jun 18th, 2007 (6/18/2007 8:14pm) in reply to barr_b2

    Playing aggressive usually means playing more preflop poker. At first it feels totally wrong to push so much but it is necessary to win flips to win a MTT. Open push preflop more or start if your not with strong starters and smash the short stacks. GL
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