Hi
I play a fair amount of MTTs and more often than not my strategy is to play relatively tight. The problem begins to occur when I run into a bigger stack who is intent on raising every hand (2x or 3x) regardless of position. This makes me fold more hands than I would prefer (connectors, for example, from BB). Eventually patience wears thin and I go out. Any suggestions as to how I can tackle this?
Thanks in advance
JJ
Hi JJ,
I would take suited connectors out of your starting hands. I would become good friends with the fold button. Wait for the super starting hand and then push and hope for one caller. In other words get super tight until you are in the tent.
Scratch
Yeah, either wait for a hand or bluff re-raise when you’re in position. You might get a fold and you might hit the flop hard enough to shove.
If you think he’s raising light, you can re-raise light and maybe have a better hand anyway. Tournament end game, you can’t always wait for a hand.
In other words, wait until the end game. When in the end game change your style and start to become aggressive when dealt upper mid-range hands. The table of six or nine needs to be thinned out so your aggressiveness needs to prevail. If another is also aggressive stay away; it is too early for a showdown. Once you are down to three players then you ramp up the aggressiveness one more time until you are two. There is another thread on HU. Follow those tips.
Scratch
Thanks a lot for the advice SunPowerGuru and Scratch!
agressive players bring with them thier own pitfalls…
Say a person has 100k, and the rest of the table has 10k, and blinds are 500/1000+250… Part of the job of a chipleader or bigstack, is to as much as possible keep players playing margianal hands from see’n the flop. but if you see this and think its just “cause he can”, then you are going to get better odds (usually) with a premium hand. You have to be patient but not asleep, and you’ll prolly have to make a shove and pray somewhere along the line.
In addition to the excellent points made here by the others, you may also wish to consider using the big stack to do the work for you in terms of laddering up. If you aren’t familiar with it already, read up on Independent Chip Model (ICM) theory and strategy. This concept is the single most important one for dealing with a big/super stack in tournaments.
Hi JJ,
Personally, I love players that do this. Just remember, patience is the key!
Is it me or has the river been deciding a lot of winners, and most of it is against me.
Thanks a lot everyone for helping me out with this! It really helps 
wait for good cards and call them, you cant fight it so wait and call them. they are not bullies they have big stacks and you dont, they are bullying nobody.
wait for pocket pair and play for stacks preflop
Yesterday I won 2 on the river and lost 2 on the river… Kinda typical, but I have days where I’m 0 for 4 against the river… It’s about “Odds”… Virtually everybody feels the way you do - that tells me the odds are perfect… Then again there are days when they ain’t - that also tells me the odds are perfect…
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LOL…
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Some days you get the bear, some days he gets you… Life’s a beach and then you die…
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Have a great day - I nearly always do… And… It’s worth it!..
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Bless…
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If someone is in for the river, you didn’t bet enough on the turn.