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Just going to write some concepts here to discuss. Here's my view on them. Be interested to hear how you guys think about this sort of stuff , whether consciously in the moment or sort of in your general strategy
Image creating and exploiting
Metagame and adjusting
Balancing range
Targetting players
Unorthodox plays
Game flow
In play I usually play instinctually but I def think and use all these concepts , I just don't think about them consciously whilst playing . I think these concepts only really apply when you're deepish in a tourney prob $11+ buyin . In a $3 , opponents just don't think or recognise enough to make it worthwhile applying any of this.
So image creating and exploiting. I think you can develop an image naturally . If you're carddead then you will have a tight image usually. If you're getting a lot of playable hands then your image will be looser . What I like to do is cheaply exaggerate my image one way or the other . So if I have a tight image i will play even tighter for a bit until i'm sure everyone has me tagged as ubernit . Then I'll start opening and 3betting light or playing aggressively postflop because opponents are going to give me a lot of credit and fold to me a lot more. The key is to win as many chips as you can from your tight image before opponent's view of you changes. If I feel I have a somewhat loose image I'll be opening even more and ignoring gameflow to try and make my image even looser. It doesn't matter if you get 3bet preflop and fold because it's an investment to create a situation where when you get a big hand you are going to get action or get people to spew against you.
A tight image is the safest to exploit because the nature of it is that opponents will just fold to you when you get active. A loose image is tougher because you have to figure how much people will have adjusted their ranges to you and play back at them with more marginal holdings.
So for example in the $27.50 big antes the other day , I had been getting some good hands and had a top 10 stack with a loose image. Another guy (supernova) had been fairly active and he had me slightly outchipped . I had around 18k with blinds at 200/400 . He raised to 1000 from mp , I was on the btn with TT and reraised to 2500 . He 4bet shoves on me for 18k effective . Now usually this is a pretty tough spot imo and I could easily find a fold here . With my image tho and him being active , i figure his range is way wider than normal so I call . He shows 88 and I hold and take down a huge pot
Another hand in the $55 30k I have been playing very tightly . A biggish stack minraise opens from utg+1. I 3bet from the sb with 86s and he calls. With a tight image its a pretty good play to 3bet pre with suited connectors and non-picture cards . The reason for this is 1) you get a lot of folds preflop anyway 2) If you get called you can represent a big hand on flops that are terrible for your hand like AJ4 and because of your image you are going to get credit for having the goods. So a huge nit 3bets you pre and you just flat with TT because he's such a nit. Flop is AJ4 and he cbets solidly , you just instafold right? The nit has AK obv. 3) More aggressive players will call the 3bet looking to take the pot away from you postflop . They figure if nitboy misses the flop then he's going to take a weak stab at it and then give up . So they call your raise with hands like A5s looking to outplay you. Flop is 752 and you put out a half-assed cbet . Opponent raises you because he knows your nitass is going to fold . You snapshove with your 68 and straight draw . He can't call with A5 , he's got to be putting you on a big overpair here , so he folds and you scoop a big pot
Ok so this isn't particularly advanced stuff but I think the important things are to a) work out what sort of image you have naturally b) cheaply try to exaggerate that image ( by cheaply I mean tweak your marginal decisions to help with your image creation. So if you're going for the nit image then you might fold a few more hands that you would usually open with , dont fkn openfold TT pre just because you want an image we're talking about subtle adjustments here. Image creation is just one of your tools to help you go deeper in tourneys) c) exploit that image for as many chips as you can before opponents start to adapt. If you are clever about it you can maintain an image while actually playing the opposite for quite a long time
I would make the point also, that it's important not go nuts and 3b light out of prolly anything less than about 30BB. Also, this is a reason why it's so important on knowing who are the regs and who aren't deepish in an MTT, because some people will have real tight opening ranges.
Interestingly enough, the 86s is not like always a 3b for me depending on a bunch of stuff, but I to love to 3 w/ suited connectors so it sounds pretty std, obviously we throw out like a 1/3 pot cbet when the flop's that good, and when he raises we either make a smallish raise back to look crazy strong, or yea we put the pile on like you suggested.
The big antes hand sounds real interesting, depends on the reg, I can find myself calling because he doesn't really jam back anything that crushes us imo, except maybe JJ anyway. When he's outta like 45BBs and he's a reg, I can see him 4bing to induce us to spazz w/ like QQ+ and maybe even AK, so yea his range is prolly like 77-1010 and like A10s plus, and that's when we give him a genuine range, he may well just be putting the 4b pile on us w/ like 910s or any decent hands and even any decent blockers.
You didn't really talk much about 4bing people light, I think that would be an interesting concept to put forward, and as I mentioned the 3b to induce a light 4b to then pile w/ the 5b. I can talk about some of these concepts, because I do understand and apply them a decent amount of the time (except the 3b with a view to 5 in, because it's more of a HS play)
EDIT :
Also, to add in the idea of making balances to do w/ your ranges. I mean, I find that a really good move is to cbet a missed flop and then c/r turn w/ ATC when we think opponent has just floated us, and then obiously it's exactly the same kind of move we might make when we flop a set. Also, when we 2 barrell our air and our nut hands, just put a bit of explanation into these kinds of spots too, I think that the double barrell is a concept of huge important in MTT play from early game to late game, not only can it be profitable, but it has to be in one's game for them to be that +EV imo. So yea this was a good post, but I think a lot of people can add a bunch of stuff and we can make this a real good thread for MTT strat.