overall 180 man tournament strategy

[tournamentplayer77]

I been playing the low level 4.40 180 MTT tournament on pokerstars as my main tournment, play at least two out of my four tables that I play at once. I've been doing this since September and figured in October I would give playing poker as a job a chance. I ran real good in October and made a little over 3K, not just from 4.40, but playing the low level horse MTT ($1-$10) seemed to work to. So far my most profitable tournament has been the 4.40 with an ROI of 160%. I never played in a tourney over a $10+$1 buy in. That is my backround and the reason for this post is most for me and others to improve their overall strategies. My style is to play very tight in the beginning and bascally survive if I don't get a good run of cards, I am usually at or below chip average by first break, but I almost always make first break. Then when I am shortstacked I look for the best possible time to double up. Reraising all in when I know I'll be called by a loose cannon with a with variety of hands or when every pot is raised just calling with AA or KK to go all in to a later raise. The 4.40 is filled with bad poker players. I almost never bluff, except for of course when players are playing to make the money with like 19-24 players left. I'm loose aggressive at that point. It seems like almost all players can't get away from a raised hand, so no point in slowplaying a monster against a random player, because when I reraise, an ensueing all in is highly likely in this tournament. I make notes on the players i should slow play, and think flopping top pair is a good hand against me cold calling 25% of my stack in position. Those are just a few basics on my overall strategy. The reason for this post is to hear from others with the same or different strategies so that we can all get better and incorporate different strategies into our games. Thank you

[guitarpoker]

I use basically the same strategy and it has worked great for me, but with some details. I never raise early in the tournament with hand like A K , A Q, A J, and low pocket pairs because they lose value since there are so many donkeys that will call with any hand, and youll put yourself in a situation (if you dont hit) with 5 people in the hand without position, so i normally limp and call if somebody raise and the others fold. i only raise with over cards when no one is in the pot and im in late position. late in the tournament I get really aggresive, since everybody wants to get in the money and blind stealing is VERY important in that stage of the tournament.

[raythelaw]

Time for my first post:

I been playing the low level 4.40 180 MTT tournament on pokerstars as my main tournment...I thought I would give playing poker as a job a chance.

You really want to focus on mastering that lvl of competition then moving up. think about the 180 sng $20 where if you kill it and mix in your horse winnings you may have a foundation.

I like much of your overall strategy, but you may want to think about the notion that there are endless helpless fish in the early lvls to exploit.

I also like the idea of building a big stack in cheap buy-in rebuy MTTs, where the play can also be very soft ROI can be big. Also, for many players you can attempt to build a big stack OR make a quick exit and move on to a different tourney quickly, avoiding the hours of grinding while playing tight in MTTs (assuming you are comfortable adjusting to the loose rebuy play) I play tight early as well, but watch opponents closely (and/or PT stats) and capitalize on the easy money.

Good luck!