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I'm a poker beginner I use to play SNG 0.5 9Handed, 45Handed or 90 Handed and some micro tournaments.

I've been studing poker throught the sites and almost all of them says that I have to play tight-aggressive. OK, I'm trying to but I see my chips running out when I reach the 100/200 150/300 Level.

I play hands like AA,KK,QQ,AK,TT, broadway hands but as we know the frequency of this hands is low.

My question is, Is my game right? Should I be less tight? I know that micro limits have a lot of fishes that play big range of hands but these same guys seems to get to final table with good stacks and I'm very frustrated because I'm play tight and I'm not even able to get to final table.

What are your consideration about my situation?

Thank you guys in advance!!!

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  • What site says only play those hands?
    – paparazzo
    Mar 3, 2016 at 13:29
  • Consider that I had a bad understanding about the site's recommendations... What is your recommendation to me? What should I do by playing the MTT and SnG multi tables..?
    – Aitiow
    Mar 3, 2016 at 14:53
  • That is a really broad question. This is a conservative (tight) chart partypoker.com/how-to-play/school/basics/starting-hands.html and it has wider early range than you posted. Yes you are going to make it a while playing that tight as you are not in many hands and not likely to lose the hands you play.
    – paparazzo
    Mar 3, 2016 at 15:10
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    While just learning the game, stick with the tight-aggressive (but not too tight) strategy and learn all that you can about position and the role it plays. One thing to keep in mind about tournaments is that there will be a lot of variance in your results, and that variance increases as the number of players in the tournament increases. So while there may be lots of times where your stack goes nowhere and fizzles out, it will made up by the few times that you catch the right cards, play well and cash out for enough to make up for the losses plus some.
    – Dr.DrfbagIII
    Mar 3, 2016 at 18:41
  • @Dr.DrfbagIII Hi, that is a good answer you should post it as one. Comments section is for asking for clarifications and short comments. When you post an answer as an answer we can vote it up, and you gain from that and we can comment on your answer. And you also have a lot of room to write a good comprehensive answer.
    – Jon ♦
    Mar 3, 2016 at 21:40

2 Answers 2

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When chips are low you need to start picking more spots with hands that are not so good. Your objective is just to pick up small pots and blinds.

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Dan Harrington's books have a really great and comprehensive discussion about tournament play, I strongly urge you take a look at them.

In general you do need to loosen up your starting values, and take advantage of your position and try to get in with a raise that has a good chance to take the pot without a flop. Like the carton says don't wait for something to die, go out and kill something.

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You did say which hands you play, but didn't say how you play them. There might be some adjustment to do in this direction, but is is difficult to comment without more information.

One thing you could try to do from time to time is to use your tight image. Suppose you have been playing only premium hands for some time at the same table. Then you may try to steal the blinds when you are on position (say on the button) and everybody folds before you. To start with, just do that with hands like 97 suited to give you some reasonable equity. Bet 2.5 or 3BB. If the SB or the BB just call, you can do a continuation bet of 1/3 to 1/2 of the pot unless the flop is really scary. But remember that, due to your tight image, your range is supposed to be premium hands. It means that in practice, you are playing with four cards: your own cards (97 in my example) and the cards your opponents think you have. Typically, if there is an ace on the flop and the blinds check, your continuation bet is likely to take the pot immediately since your opponents will put you on a strong ace. Of course, this won't work that easily with good players or with maniacs. But you can experiment this and see how it goes. Don't do it too often, otherwise you may lose your tight image.

Finally, when you arrive to 10BB or less, you should play tight but in "push or fold" mode. And you should always be the first to be "all in", unless you have a very strong hand, like AA or KK.

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