I'm part of the "baby boom" of poker, getting interested in the game only after it was televised. Up until now, though, I haven't been able to play poker with real money because I was under 18. Now that I'm older and have a little spending cash, I've been going down to the local poker room to push my luck.

I've noticed that I enjoy tournaments much more than cash games, so I play those much more often. This post is more about what changes I need to make in my game, so here's a list of recent tournaments I've played this summer:

$76 ESPN 760 Radio Tournament

• This was my first tournament. I came to the poker room to play $100 in cash games for a few hours, but saw the tournament starting in 5 minutes and decided to play that instead. To be completely honest, I don't remember how I played. With 41 total players and the top 5 paid, I made the final table with a small stack. I was able to grind it out to the final 7, when the top stacks decided to give us a break and guarantee #6 and #7 a little to go home with: $100. I came in 6th.

$5k Guarantee Freeroll

• Never having played a freeroll before, I was stupidly shocked by the numerous all-ins happening all around me. I played tight aggressive (my normal style) and came in 56th place of 301 total players, top 30 paid.

$5k Guarantee Freeroll (2)

• A week later, I felt more prepared for this freeroll. I never played in early position unless I had AA, AK, AQsuited or any face-card pocket pair. In middle position, I allowed myself AQ offsuit and pocket pairs down through 8. In late position, I played any pocket pair, any Ace, any K5+, any Q7+, and any J9+. Low stacked with 24 players remaining, I needed a double up fast (I only had one blind remaining). Someone with a larger stack went all-in, and I called (with hesitation) with QQ. He had pocket 4's and hit a 4 on the river, knocking me out in 24th place with the top 15 paid out of 141 players.

$30 Buy-In, $10k Guarantee

• This tournament was last night. I used the same strategy as in the previous freeroll above. I never had a huge stack, but my tight aggressive play kept me around average until the final 40 people. I became low-stacked then, and was forced all-in 6 times (and doubled up each time). A woman made a joke that I had nine lives and, believe it or not, I won 3 more all-ins. With how large the blinds were, though, I was knocked down quite fast and that's why I had to go all-in so much. I was able to grind it out to the top 17, where I was forced all-in on a blind with K-4, losing. Lucky for me, the 17 remaining players all agreed to give #16 and #17 a $100 bill, so I did walk away in the money.

$5k Guarantee Freeroll (3)

• This tournament was tonight. I was above-average all night. With 300/600 blinds, I called with pocket 8's and folded when it was raised to 3,600. My gut wanted to call but my brain said no, so I folded what would have become a boat with a ~12,000 payout. Later on, a man went all-in for 6k while I was sitting at 14k. I called with AKs; he showed KJo. He hit the Jack on the river, a huge hit. I was forced all-in later (being low-stacked) with AJo, losing to pocket 6's. I ended up in 46th place out of 337 players, top 33 paid.

So there's my quick tournament history. What do I need to improve? If you need other specific examples or have questions for me to answer before giving me advice, please let me know. I'm very close to cashing out every time and know I can win a tournament, but I just don't know what I need to do to stop myself from getting knocked out right before the cash.

It's variance, and the more players in the field the more variance you will have. Also the quicker the structure (blinds going up) the more variance you will have. Even the best tournament players have only a very small edge over the field which is why they don't play for a cash, they play for the final table and to win.

One thing is to make sure you don't get short-stacked. This should be your ultimate goal throughout the tournament. The fact that you went all-in 6-times and were not the overall chip-leader tells me you were extremly short when this run started. As soon as your stack dips to 20BB you should be looking to find spots to pick-up pots.

My advice is to just keep playing and studying MTT strategy. Check back here for tournament strategy, post some key hands that you are unsure of, and maybe even grab a book on the topic. I'd suggest Jonathan Little's Secrets of Professional Tournamnet Poekr vol 1 and 2 (you could also join an online poker traiinng site like Floattheturn or tournamnet poekr edge)

My basic rules for what to play (depending on position and stack size) can be seen under $5k Guarantee Freeroll (2). Do you think I play the right hands, or do I need to become tighter/looser in my play?

Originally Posted by Zeralonde

My basic rules for what to play (depending on position and stack size) can be seen under $5k Guarantee Freeroll (2). Do you think I play the right hands, or do I need to become tighter/looser in my play?

This is 2006 strategy. If you want to survive in today's poker world you'll need to be more maleable, and adjust to your opponents, the table dynamics, and your own table image. Sometimes this means playing looser and some times it means playing tighter.

Also, if you are only playing hands with cards of TT+ and AQ+ your opponents (the ones that pay attention) will bully you off of all flops that are under Ten and somewhat connected. They either can bluff you, or even worse flop a big hand like 2-pair or a set and stack you off when you have aces --which might look like bad luck but its really a product of your predictability.

You need to balance your range by also raising some suited connectors and smaller pairs, so when the flop comes 378 your oppoennt won't know if you have improved or not. This doesn't mean play all hands between pocket 3's, 56s, and AA, hands like KJ and AT are still junk up front. hands like suited connectors and small pairs can take action from a 3-bettor as long as the stacks are deep enough.