Good job.

I would be all in pre-flop there 100% of the time.

Good work though.

Thanks a lot guys. It was because of alex's, beavis', and jason's responses that I made it this far. Found some spots that normally I would've lost a lot of money on but held back (Two med. stacks get all-in and I have pretty good odds with 99 but I wanted to stay in the top 5 and at least MAKE the final table. Normally I'd have played along)

Just a note, the only reason I wasn't all-in PF was because of that other JJ hand I had. Got scared of the hooks!

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BOSS

Probably too late for this post but I'll do it anyway, and would like comments on my decisions.

When in this situation I do tend to close down and play only top hands with the odd move on the weaker players. This guarantees a return ITM ... who knows you may hit a couple of monsters in this time and keep chip lead.

As my chips begin to get back to the average stack (which they always do playing tight unless getting very lucky) I begin to open up and usually get respect because of my tight previous play. This is like the second push.

I feel just because at some moment in time because you are chip leader it doesn't give you the right to win the tournament. The more you push with your chips at this stage when you do get called the more likely it is to be by a good hand against your marginal hand.

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http://gthejester.blogspot.com

A closed mind is like a closed book ... its just a piece of wood.

Jester,

I think this all depends on what type of player you are.

Agressive players like myself can do a lot of damage with the big stack . . . in fact, we often need it to go deeper in the tournament.

More conservative players often do well with just a medium stack and building it throughout the tournament.

Neither way is the "correct" way to play NLHE tournaments, each type of play has it's strengths and weaknesses that fit people's playing styles. And the best players in the world can play any style . . .

So if a tighter more conservative game is what you're good at (as your M increases, you become increasingly tighter, as it decreases you become increasingly looser) then that's fine. If you don't do these things already, here's a couple things you might want to consider adding to your game:

1) A lot of conservative players don't take advantage of their image enough later in a tournament. Bluffing - even the infrequent ones, are a deadly weapon if weilded by a tight-aggressive player. For instance, Dan Harrington uses suited connectors in EP as a bluffing randomizer (anytime he picks them up in EP he plays them PF like a big pair). When he does get called, he is usually throwing the hand away. When he gets called and he hits a big hand, it's a well concealed monster. But mostly he probably just picks up the pot, as few observant players are ready to come at a tight player who makes an EP raise.

2) Taking advantage of pot odds in the BB. Even against a tight early position raise, if there are calls, there are likely to be good pot odds in the BB. Hands like 86o, while unspectacular by themselves, are very playable in these circumstances. Why? Well first, you're getting incredible direct odds to play. Second, you're getting great implied odds to play - if you hit a monster flop like 4 5 7 against a hand like AA/KK/QQ/JJ, you're likely to win a huge pot.

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Jason75: Ok, you check and the button bets 400. Now what?
Beavis68: You play poker.
Jason75: Darn, I was really hoping for canasta. Maybe Gin.