situation: I just finished a 45 man SnG (play money) on PS. After the first 3-4 hands or so, I decided to try something I've never tried. I started playing almost every hand. I would call the BB and only call a raise if I had a decent hand and I still raised-reraised with premium. When I say I was calling, pretty much anything 5-6s and up was a calling hand for me in this tourney.

Thoughts: I've thought of this stratagy often in the last month or so, but never tried it out. I've always been a really tight player, probably too tight. My thinking was that if I called more hands earlier on, it would give me a chance to draw a decent flop and hopefully win the hand much earlier on. I figured that while the blinds were still cheap (everybody started out with 500BB). I figured if I had to, I can always tighten up a little later as my chips dwindled or the blinds increased. I gave my self a setup where 100BB in chips would be reason to tighten up.

Results: I won a lot of hands earlier on by drawing out to straights and flushes that others either didn't put me on, or thought they had me beat because they had TPTK, while I had 2 bottom pair. I ended up winning the tourney. This is the first MTT table I've won, the rest I've played, I've never done better then 3rd.

Question: Is this a fluke because it's play money, or is this a viable stratagy in a MTT. The guy I ended up heads up against played like I used to and I dominated him because I had 2x chips and if he raised, I knew he had a generally strong hand. I stole so many blinds because he was so "honest" about his betting that if he didn't have pairs, he wouldn't bet into me. but that's an end game stratagy for a different thread.

On a side note, I would like to thank everybody on this forum for being so knowledgable and helpful. I feel comfortable asking questions here that I don't think I would feel asking somebody else. I attribute that to the fact that everybody here seems to have the goal of improving the game as opposed to keeping their information to themselves "just in case" I run into you at a tourney.

Trons

It can work if played very skillfully, but if the decent players at the table they will be looking for a chance to take you down in a single hit.

In most MTTs there are players who build a big stack early then bust out before the cash as the blinds get bigger.

It's sometimes frustrating to be grinding to double up in the first hour and see someone chase and hit straights and flushes and then lose it all.

Having said that I've seen people go to the final table this way, but you need a lot of luck.

Lowering starting hand requirements in late and mid position and playing pot odds are important to succeed early in MTTs but playing more than 25-30% of hands I don't believe is a long term winning strategy.

That was something I forgot to mention. I only stayed in with the looser hands to the flop. After the flop, I would check my outs and concider (obviously) a 56s to be drawing dead to a flop of 7ja, unless there were 2 of my suit. After that, any betting on the flop I would do a rough calc. to determine my pot odds to see if was correct to call. I never thought of putting a lot of money in the pot unless I had already made my hand and I was comfortable somebody hadn't made a higher hand.

The other thing I liked about this was that because I usually play very tight, very aggressive, I was shocked to notice (I'm sure it's been this way all the time, I jst didn't pay that much attention, shame on me) how many people show they had a decent hand, as if they needed to justify why they were in the hand in the first place. This made it easier later in the tourney to get reads on people. I should be doing that regardless of whether I'm in the hand or not, I jst didn't.

I will also say that I'm not sure if my nerves could take this style of play in a money game. I know I couldn't do it in a RL game because doing it in a play money game was almost physically painful. I never did get used to calling from early position with 97.

Trons

As the guy on the sprite commercial would say,
"congrats on your first place no prize victory"

In order to know if this strategy "truely works" for you, you would have to play many many more tournaments and see how you finish out.

You need certain conditions for this too work.

1. Passive table - not a lot of big raises pre/post flop.

2. Loose oppnents - you want the pots multi way.

3. You still need hands with potentional, 87s, Face-x suited, stay away from crap like 92s, T4o, etc.

4. Players that will pay you off nicely when you hit.

If people are raising a lot, you are just tossing away money. I have used this fairly effectively in MTTs. In-fact, I like playing junkie hands because I know I won;t go broke with them like I may with AA or AKs.

Most of the times you are looser earlier, you will be a loser earlier