How to handle big stack early, live tournament

[madjek]

I tend to play wider range in the live tournaments I play because you see so fewer hands than online. I got a couple double ups early in last couple ones I played. The first I played a lot more hands than I normally would and found myself in bad situations (top pair bad kicker, facing reraise) and ended up below average stack pretty quickly. 2nd tournament, I tightened up, and went card dead anyway, but with pace of live game, I'm still at average stack 2 hrs later, without playing a hand hardly. (Yes, I'm playing this one right now) just wondering how you all would handle big stack, low blinds, can you bully table at this pt, or are you just setting yourself up

 

[TheDude6622]

It honestly depends on the table. If you have someone playing every hand, play tight and bust him. If they play tight, open your range and take down pots that no one wants.

 

[pescaofish]

Try the BSS, is a strategy to ply when you play with Big stack, try to play as many hands as possible and push as much as is profitable! :rock:

 

[gabpoker]

I usually just keep playing my normal game based on the effective stack size early in a tournament. I would only use a big stack around the bubble or other ICM spots.

 

[Drhat63]

similar to above posts, but I do play a LOT of hands, as cheaply as I can, early AND in position. You don't want to spew chips, but when in position, you have the ultimate last decision, or close to, and can control the pots much more. suited connectors, any pair, on suited one gappers, even for a min raise, because you can bust someone who is married to their BIG hand, like QQ-AA...

 

[RutgersOneTime]

Personally, I think it really matters how many other chips are on the table. If you have other stacks that are decent and are playing aggressively, I tend to tighten up. I also like to figure out chip averages, and roughly what the average chip stack will be when we get ITM. If I'm over the average chip stack at the ITM amount of players I really tighten up. If the stacks are small, or the other big stacks are tight I will definitely try to play more hands so hopefully I can see more hands and get a better read on players for later on in the tournament.

Best of luck though!