Right now, I am trying some different strategies in the MTTs I am playing.

I used to be more of a TJ Cloutier disciple, but Paul Phillips' writings have really changed my opion.

Paul states that in tournaments, especially early you should not pass up any edge.

There is nothing wrong with getting knocked out of a tournament early if you are playing withing your budget. Just go hit the ring games and you can and start earning.

While TJ says to play tight early, and save the risks for later.

Here is an example hand

I have 5500 in chips, blinds are 200/400 plus a 50 ante.

I get in the pot cheap somehow with : (ok Daniel and Gus are having an effect on me too).

The flop comes

I check, and one guy bets about 3k, it is called (but not raised) in 3 spots before it gets to me. Now my pot equity should be 35% at this point.

Normally I would muck, but this time, I decided that I would play the pot odds, and raised in my last 2k or so and of course got called. I picked up a on the turn but blanked the river and the pot went to AQ.

Some may say "idiot going all in on a non-nut flush draw" but I hit limping into the money, and I want to have the chip to be contentious at the final table. Thoughts?


as a side note, I folded two suited hands earlier to raises and one flopped a straight and the other flopped a flush (but you can't be results oriented I know) THere were positional considerations for both folds.

i dont like this play at all. its not even that early in a tournament anyway. about 3 or 4 levels and you are in the money yes?

theres a big difference between gus and dan and the way you played this hand. they like to ''splash'' around in pots and like to see cheap/a lot of flops that dont affect their stack at all.

a few things why i dont like this is
1 the pot on the flop will be around 2500 and your stack is 5500. its pretty hard to see the turn where it doesnt either put you all in or leave you with 3k~.

2 you basically called an all in with a flush draw... i would have like it much more if you were the aggressor. AQ isnt folding for 2k more so there is 0 folding equity. seems more like chasing than ''not passing up any edge''. i dont really see where your edge is here lol. calling an all in at 35%

3 you should have folded this in a second to that big of a bet on the flop. obvious you were beat. there will be other flops to get your money in in a much better spot. you still have 5k~ at 200/400 thats more than enough. no need to get your money all in at this spot

Actually, depeneding on the suits of the hands that the others held, and they had AQ A10 and 33, I was ethier a slight favorite, or a slight dog.

I agree that this should go in the muck if it were heads up.

but I was getting 3:1 on my money for a 2:1 shot.

ok so forgot the end of #2 i guess then, but everything else should still apply (i missed the multi way action)

i still feel there is no need to gamble. you dont hit you are out and possibly drawing either dead or very very slim.

unless you are playing $150 buy ins its much much easier to pick better spots.

if your outs are live and you do hit you will have 20k~ or so??? anyway 20k at 200/400 wont guarantee you anything. unless you are perfect with a big stack and having that kind of stack that late in a tourney guarantees you a FT, i still like chipping up and getting my money in with the best of it.

I have never agreed with a lot of TJ's stuff, but who am I. And I am a clear disciple of Blockhead and Dan (See STUPID thread lol)

I like the choice to continue to play on the flop. BUT, you had early positition, so call/check/fold if you miss the turn would be my play. But you didnt miss the turn, your draw iproved from 9 to 12 outs.

I dunno. I like the aggression, but you didn't have enough ammo to back it up. BUT, if all the other players had folded, then an all-in checkraise would have been ideal. Only an an ace is betting here, so obviously they have no strong redraw outs if you hit.

If you are playing with the same buy-in to Bankroll ratio that phillips has, this play may have long term gains in Sklansky chips (LOL).

I dunno.

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Well your pot equity is around 35% if no one has a higher club.

Also with less than 13 BB's I dont think getting in the pot cheap really matters. You really need to win one more mid-size pot before you can start splashing around.

Also boo to marm for improper use of the phrase Sklansky Chips.

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“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann

I dont think that 86s was the best hand for this kind of play, KQ suited would have been better. But I am just expirementing right now.

I ran www.twodimes.net simulations, and even is one player had a higher club and another club was in a players hand, I was still 31%, if no player had a higher club, I was actually ahead of a TPTK hand.

It also be unlikely for this many chips to go in with-out being far moe out-gunned than I was.

Possibly a good indicator to toss this one perhaps.

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