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This article was written by Andrew Wiggins, AKA Muddywatter, an instructor for CardRunners.com.

I was taught how to play MTTs by an extremely tight player. The strategy he used was one that certainly worked, and it allowed him to have a great deal of success in MTTs. However, looking back on that strategy, I can now acknowledge that it was far from optimal.

Recently, I decided to start focusing more on MTTs. I had barely played any in the past few months, and I felt my MTT game had really slipped. I started playing some with my old tight style and had mixed results. I made the money a few times, but I would always lose with a dominant hand late. The problem was that I didn’t have enough chips to stop people from gambling with me. In addition, I definitely didn’t have enough chips to cushion a bad beat.

I started watching ActionJeff and Stinger play, and I knew that they gambled much more than me, but that they also won a lot more than me. I’ll be honest, when I first started watching Stinger play, I thought to myself, “Boy, does he run good.” While I won’t argue that he wasn't running well, I think his recent success is more attributable to his solid play. He was taking chances. I just happened to rail him when he already had a big stack and could easily afford to gamble. He could lose KK vs JJ or gamble AK vs 1010 late and not be out of the tournament. That was never the case for me when I played TAG. It finally dawned on me that I needed to stop being a nit in MTTs.

I will start off a tournament by playing a cash game style. By this I mean that I raise a lot in position. I am raising in position not to steal blinds, but to play a pot that I am in control of. I want to be the one dictating the play in the hand, and when I have position and I am the preflop raiser, I will be in control. I am looking to pick up a number of small pots by attacking preflop and making continuation bets. I will also make solid value bets when I have a hand. In addition, when I flop a monster hand, my LAG image should help me double through.

Those are the goals of playing LAG early in a MTT, and if you are a reasonable post flop player, I think it is very achievable. There are a lot of people out there, and I used to be one of them, that suggest playing like a rock early on in MTTs to avoid confrontations. After all, a tournament cannot be won in the first hour, but it can be lost. However, the simple fact is that there is a ton of dead money early in MTTs and you are making a mistake to not capitalize on that.

As the tournament progresses, you will want to continue to grow your stack. The best way to do this is to continue to attack in position. The second hour used to be where I would let my stack start to dwindle. I would want to wait for the antes to kick in before I started stealing blinds. If you have created a stack in the first hour, you can afford to continue to put the pressure on your opponents when you are in position. You will be able to pick up a lot of small pots this way, and that is very good for your stack.

Another thing that you will want to do with a LAG style that most TAG players don’t do is gamble more with semibluffs. You need to take some risks to build your stack at times. If you find yourself in a good spot to put your opponent to a tough decision, then go ahead and do it. If you have built up a stack, you can lose an allin and still be in the tournament. If you either take down the pot or suckout when he calls you, you will be in excellent shape. You also can’t be afraid to take a coin flip. When I played TAG, I would avoid coin flips at all costs. The reason was that if I lost, I would be out, and I felt I could get my money in as a bigger favorite. When you play LAG and build a stack, your opponents will be the ones thinking like I used to. That means that you have fold equity when you play a hand like AK aggressively, and if you get called, you are 50/50 to add a nice amount to your stack. Again, if you lose, you are still alive.

It is nearly impossible to get through a tournament without having a bad beat. The key to successful tournament play is to put yourself in a position that a bad beat won’t cripple you. A key way to do this is to play very aggressively in position and with draws. This will allow you to build a stack that will let you gamble and cushion any loses you will take later in the tournament. In the end, MTT play is about survival. Some think that the best way to survive is by not gambling. I now think that the best way to survive is to get yourself in the position where you can gamble with less risk. After all, even when you get all in with a 4:1 favorite, you are still gambling, as you will lose one out of five times.

Furthermore, I suggest stopping by www.cardrunners.com. We have numerous videos made by two of the best MTT players in the game right now, $tinger 88 and ActionJeff. I know that watching their videos has helped me evolve my MTT game to a new level.