Live MTTs: playing more aggressively than normal

[Tal]

Let me explain...

If you and I ever meet over the felt in the UK, you will likely find me to be the proud custodian of tight aggressive game (occasionally tight with moves, not all of them good, but moves). In short, tight early on and open up later.

It has been a useful strategy on the whole and I have been fortunate enough to get a bit of success out of it in lower and middle buy in comps.

On the three occasions I've been to Vegas, I've found a more effective strategy has been to attack early. I regularly add 30% to my starting stack and, although I yo-yo a bit, aggression remains king. I'm playing prob 40-50% pots in the first couple of levels and most action is bet/raise. People keep folding and I feel incentivised to carry on.

The trouble is, I get to the middle stages (say where the average stack is 20bb) and I struggle to get much further. A lot of this is - I suppose unavoidable - racing, but after something like 20 comps ($75-$300) without a single cash, I am questioning my approach.

It can't be bad to be getting chips early doors. That bit seems fine. The trouble is, where in the UK I can get folds to my 20bb 3bet-jams, the yanks look down at AJ/77 and recognize it's ahead of this mad Brit's range.

Picking up blinds and antes in the 200/400/50 level by jamming over a raise adds 2k to your stack and I need those chips! I'd rather not have to flip for them.

I haven't adjusted my mid-tourney strategy at all when I have travelled. It's a case of the UK strategy catching up with the aggression of the US, if you like.

My question to the floor is: should I adjust my strategy if I have a more aggressive image?

Hope this makes sense. I appreciate 20 comps is a small sample size etc, but it is enough for me to want some advice. If you are a more LAGgy player, do you keep your foot on the gas? Obv you are watching stack sizes, reads on opponents, bubble and all the other factors, but all things being equal, guide me, O blonde shepherds!

[rfgqqabc]

I've never really gone into a tournament with a gameplan, sometimes if its a smaller local comp with cash available that i know is good/starting up I'm willing to gamble it up a bit, but @ DTD etc I've always just tried to play each hand the best way i can in the moment. Follow your natural style, I've cant think of many spots where I've not taken the decision i thought was the most +ve, only one that comes to mind was a 6bet jam pretty early on in a 500 deepstack, where i decided due to table, confidence, blinds left, that it probably wasn't a bright idea. Probs was +Cev tho

[stato_1]

yeah gameplans in general are a bad idea. One thing to consider though is that the pots later on are bigger and matter more than the early ones, so if your likely to be at the same table for a while, it might be better to nit it up early, if you think it will get your steals more respect later on.