some tornament tips to think about
(Most of these refer to the stage of the MTT after the first break)
1. Survival - It's only necessary to survive up to the first break. You don't need to be chip leader, you just need enough chips to be a threat at this point in the game. You'll probably find that you spent the first hour very inactive. As a matter of fact, I think I was under the chip average until I snuck into the top 40 in the tourney that I placed 2nd.
2. Well-times aggressiveness goes a LONG way. "Well-timed" means ALWAYS consider your position when you make a move. "Aggressiveness" means don't be afraid to push your good hands. If your hand is good enough to see a flop at this stage, it is then good enough to raise with. Hence, only play (raise) with premium hands from early position. The selection of hands to play (raise) does increase in late position. There's nothing worse later in the tourney than raising preflop in early position when the blinds are big with a hand like ATs only to have someone slam over the top of you in late position.
3. Don't be afraid to push all of your chips - It is important to play very aggressively when you have a premium hand. In order to become a contender for 1st place, you need to get a lot of chips. This happens through buying the blinds when they are large and doubling up with premium hands.
4. Extract as much value from your premium hands as possible - Too many people overplay their premium hands because they're afraid their opponent will hit a bigger monster on them. They'll bet too much postflop and push their opponent out of the pot - even with a monster. Use probabilities to your advantage to determine the odds of your opponent beating your hand. You need to trap with those big hands. I saw a guy raise 5x the BB when the blinds were 500/1000 with pocket aces (he showed). Of course everyone folded and he likely didn't get the value he should have with a hand like that.
5. Always protect your chips! This breaks down into a couple of parts -
a) Don't raise marginal hands out of position - Putting your chips out there in early position with a hand like ATs is not protecting your chips. You're gambling that no one else has a better hand, or at least is afraid to attack back, with the entire table to act behind you. What do you do if they slam over the top of you? Fold and give up a large amount of chips? Or call and risk your tournament life on a hand that is more than likely dominated? Not a decision I'd like to make, so avoid putting yourself in this position.
b) Calling a large preflop raise - You should never "just call" a large preflop raise. If your hand is good enough to call, then it is good enough to reraise and put the pressure on the original raiser. If you don't feel comfortable reraising with the hand, you should probably fold it. The only exception to this is if you want to slow play a big hand like AA or KK.
c) Folding good late position hands - It may be correct to fold what seem to be good hands with a preflop raiser in front of you for the purpose of protecting your chips. For example, if player 1 in early position preflop raises a fairly large sum and player 2 in midposition calls, do you really think your pocket tens or even pocket jacks will be good after the flop? Since you have an early position raiser and a midposition caller, the best case scenario for you is that your opponents only hold overcards to your tens. And even then, you'd have to hope for a board without any face cards to survive. So in this scenario, it may be best to fold your pocket tens for the sake of chip conservation.
If you can get past break #1, used well-timed aggression, and protect the chips you have, you are well on your way. These are just some quick points to consider. I know they're kinda vague, but maybe they'll get ya thinking. You may or may not totally agree with them, but this is what has worked for me. Take them for what they are worth.
Good luck!
