WHAT NOT TO DO IN ORDER TO BEAT 80% OF THE FIELD 75% OF THE TIME IN $25 AND LOWER BUY-IN MTTS
I've played in well over 2,000 tourneys of this general type. I've noticed pretty much that they follow the '80-20' rule. Seems like during the first 75% of the tourney, 80% of the chips are lost in a similar fashion. If you avoid these situations - if you just DON'T DONK YOUR CHIPS OFF IN THESE WAYS, you can get into the top 20% of the field 80% of the time?. The 80-20 rule both ways. 80% of the chips are lost in 20% of the ways. Don't do that, and you finish in the top 20% of the field 80% of the time.
Sure, you can learn a lot from great players in any sport about what to do. But you can also learn from people who suck, what not to do ? and those players are always more available to learn from!
So, here are my list of 5 no-no's. During the first half of the tourney, just don't donk off large amounts of your stack in this fashion, and you are good to go. If you wanna donk them of, find some other way. Here are the big 5 that appear to be the cause of 80% of the losing chips in the early/mid stages in the $25 and lower online buy-ins:
In no particular order - not in order of importance. Here are my ?5 commandments for early/mid play in these buy-ins.
1. I will not slowplay big pairs preflop
2. I will not go broke with AK after I whiff on the flop.
3. I will not go broke by attempting senseless bluffs
4. I will not go broke with underpairs to the board
5. I will not go broke calling with bare flush or straight draws
1. SLOWPLAYING PREFLOP - I laugh my ass offevery time I see some idiot limp from the 2 hole with AA or KK and then lose a 5-way pot. Whenever I look up one of these people on OPR or something, they are almost always a big % loser. Don't do it.
2. GOING BROKE WITH AK AFTER YOU WHIFF ON FLOP ? ok, be aggressive preflop with AK. Heck, even shove if you want. Certainly, try your continuation bet. But really, after you whiff, try to buy the pot and don't succeed, will you please GO AWAY and wait for another spot? Don't go broke with it. Please realize that if you don't connect, what you now have is NOTHING.
3. SENSELESS BLUFFS - stop it. Never mind trying to run complicated bluffs. If you are going to make a bluff, make sure that it MAKES SENSE. At any level, the key to successful bluffing is that the bluff must make sense. The goal is to deceive, not confuse. A bluff that doesn't make sense will confuse, and a confused player almost always calls. This is why it's hard to bluff idiots - they are easily confused.
4. UNDERPAIRS TO THE BOARD : please, stop donking off your stack with this crap. Even a decent pair, like Q or J. It amazes me how often people end up going broke raising with something like 10-10, they get called by 2 people, the flop comes with an A and a Q, and they simply refuse to believe that either one of them has an overcard. Same with little pairs. You wanna see flops, fine. You wanna shove them hoping for a race, fine. But give them up once you don't flop.
5. CALLING WITH DRAWS - again, it amazes me how many people at this level and lower simply do not understand the difference between betting with a draw and calling with a draw. They will call all in for all or most of their stack relatively early on in the tourney and then claim "I had outs". Don't do it. You wanna bet with draws, fine. You wanna shove, fine. You wanna raise, fine. STOP CALLING.
Well, that's it. You wanna get to the final 20% of the field a good of the time? It's not what you do - it's what you DON'T DO. And just don't lose your chips the way most of these donks are losing them, and you are ahead of the game.
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Originally Posted by Litellio
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. He snapped with 
and flopped trip 7s. You really can get away with playing tight but you need to make moves to steal big pots as the blinds get bigger, you can't hang around.
