How To Improve My Tournament Results?

Another day, another multi-table tournament without hitting the money.

I'd survived until about the halfway point but with a severely short stack. So when I was dealt K-K I had to push in, even though I was out of position. Two other people called. It turned out that each had a single Ace - and another Ace fell on the board. Bye bye Valeyard.

My tournament poker play isn't too bad. I often win money in single-table tournaments. On multi-table I always outlast the fish and usually finish near the bubble. A few times I've won money and once got to the final table. However I'm still going out too early too often. Why?

I try to play fairly tight, fairly aggressive. That gets me quite a long way, but by the middle of the tourney I'm usually pretty short stacked. That restricts my options and often results in beats like the one above.

So what I need to do is to find a way of getting to the same place with more chips. Sounds easy when I put it like that...

What I want is to build up a bigger stack early, then protect it strongly until the blinds start getting high. At that point I can use it to attack.

My guess is that I should play looser and more aggressive early when the blinds are low, especially when I have position. Then if I can build up a decent stack I need to pull in my horns and play ultra-tight until the middle of the tournament.

Essentially it's a gamble. If I'm right then that strategy will probably mean getting into the money more often, at the cost of going out of more tournaments early.

Which won't do my ego much good but should help my bankroll.

Labels: improving my game, poker, strategy