mavman said:

i play mtts on skypoker ,what strategy videos would boost my game and what advice can you give me to improve ,thanks mavman

Depends on your skill level.

Brendoor has a great series and explains the game at a level that everyone can understand.

If you want to get into some brain busting Vids which are excellent, you cant go wrond with Daryl Jace.

I also have done some videos with Casey where i ask him the ? that we want to know as I am basically learning mtts as we speak.

gl to you

TiltedEV said:

How confident are you in your mtt game? I feel like its improved a ton in the last few months.

Thanks you Ryan for the complement.

In general, I am not a very confident person and it shows in my lack of play on Sundays.  I literally do not play on Sundays.  Mainly because of the NFL, but I cannot stand the variance involved in playing a hefty schedule.  Now that i consider myself an mtt grinder I have become much more confident in my play.  At first I was having major mental issues and struggled with the meta game involved deep in mtts.  Studying and adjusting to players and different situations has improved my game drastically.

 When it comes to a 20 bb stack, I literally feel that nobody has an edge on me(yes, a lil cocky).  This ability and my improvements in postflop play have resulted in some great success.  I dont fear anyone and am looking for big things this upcoming year.

Cant wait for our next vid and thanks again for the kind words

loxxii said:

Marc,

 

Thank you for being active on the forums. Seems like you might be one of the only ones that do this. Should be the Ask Marc section. Please keep this thread going.

 

Ok, so im watching your vid “Merge $60/$3.5k Win by Marc “aznAllin007″ Alioto (Part 2)” and had a question that I know would not be answered if I posted there since it's an old vid.

At 16mins, you shove KJs with 40bb from the SB into the BB with 20bb because you didnt want to induce.

1. What hands do we not want to induce that would fold to our shove? My guess is A2-A7o maybe? I think a lot of guys would call bvb with bigger aces and suited aces.

2, What if BB defends wide? Would you like minraising and hoping he flats with some hands you dominate or gets it in post flop with a draw vs your top pair or bigger draw? KJs plays so well post flop vs everything but Ax, which you can rep post flop but he probably cant since he just flatted.

Thanks for the kind words.  I love chatting hands because I want to be the best and this is one of the best ways to get better.

1)  Again, I am transitioning into mtts so looking back on this spot, we can def. induce profitably with KJ suited.  As I am sure you know, I am DON schooled so protecting one's stack is super important.  I dont think shove is bad, i just think people are reshipping way lighter bvb so hands like this often dominate the BB's reship range.  I think small pairs and k8 to k10 should be open ripped here.  Obvy some qx hands and jx hands as well and a2-a8.  I think we can induce a9 off bvb, which i would have never imagined while playing this tournament months ago.  I am 90 times better now and have had discussions about this exact spot so i have def. started to induce a lot more from sb and the B.

2)This is another spot which has brought me great diffuculty in my transition to mtts.  I now use the “BB defend ” stat on my HUD (ty James Lambert) and have adjusted accordingly.  AGainst someone defending heeps, I am totally fine playing KJ suited OOP as it destroys postflop as u mentioned.  we can check shove a lot of boards and cbet get it in a ton as well.  Especially when a guy defends like 50% of bbs and folds like 60% to cbets.  I hope you are using a HUD because in spots like this it is an amazing tool to have.  Totally agree that we can rep ace high flops which is why we should be 2.2 xing kj suited here based on villains stack.

Great ?'s

Azn

MrStooks said:

I've been watching your DON vids and I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of what you're trying to get across.  I'm curious, though, if the DON situation is still worth going after since Lock left Merge?  After Black Friday, I dabbled a little on Lock, but in the past year or so, I've put almost no volume in online.  When I play, it would normally be for bursts of a couple of hours at a time, so DONs seemed like the best avenue. I just wanted to make sure they are worth the time.  Thanks.

100% dons are worth your time, especially the 6 mans.  I'm not sure what your average buy in is, but if you play above 25s there is little volume.  Under 25 avg buy in, you can get good volume playing the 6 and 10 mans.  I agree how with little time Dons are the best choice especially when there are so many fish that just play them like normal 9 men sitngoes.  Our edge can be so much higher in these and the fact that they are lower variance allows us to move up the levels quickly.  They are also the easiest form of sitngo to multy table so we can increase our hourly rate by putting in massive volume.  Rakeback is great and dons allow one to build a bankroll.

Gl to you

Azn

I received an email from a fellow TPE member and felt it was important to answer here as there are some really good ?

I notice that for some reason the non turbos fill up significantly faster than the turbos which makes no sense to me since you can achieve higher hourly rate at the turbos getting in more games per hour but,anyways when you were grinding these games did you have to mix turbos and non turbos because of lack of player base and frequency of the reg sppeds going off much more than the turbos? And if so did you find it difficult to constantly differentiate from the two and would you recommend mixing them for the sake of actually getting in relevant volume?

Furthermore in the past I have grinded multi table SNG's and HU hypers a small bit so I have a knowledge of proper push/fold,but is there anywhere you can recommend researching  and learning in depth info/strat on DON's ??? I know SNG Wiz ,Pokerstove etc. but are there any forums/videos/free good ebooks

marc alioto said:

I received an email from a fellow TPE member and felt it was important to answer here as there are some really good ?

 

I notice that for some reason the non turbos fill up significantly faster than the turbos which makes no sense to me since you can achieve higher hourly rate at the turbos getting in more games per hour but,anyways when you were grinding these games did you have to mix turbos and non turbos because of lack of player base and frequency of the reg sppeds going off much more than the turbos? And if so did you find it difficult to constantly differentiate from the two and would you recommend mixing them for the sake of actually getting in relevant volume?

Furthermore in the past I have grinded multi table SNG's and HU hypers a small bit so I have a knowledge of proper push/fold,but is there anywhere you can recommend researching  and learning in depth info/strat on DON's ??? I know SNG Wiz ,Pokerstove etc. but are there any forums/videos/free good ebooks

 

You will have a higher hourly rate playing turbos, but your roi will be higher in the non turbos.  When i first started grinding DONs, i had a small roll so i took the lower variance route and stuck to the nons.  If you have a nice bankroll, def should be playing more turbos and continue to add the non turbos.  It isnt hard to mix in the two as you are shoving based on Big blinds and stack sizes which obviously does not change.  I have never had issues but i will say that i try to put the nons in a different section so I know that i can pass on certain plus ev spots because the structure allows it.  

There are good don articles out :

…..2-9045.htm

black666 said:

I've just read your article and I loved it. Awesome to see TPE members/pros succeed. A couple of questions:

 

1) Give us the schedule of your regular grind day. When do you wake up? What do you do before grinding? Do you prepare food before a session? Do you go straight to bed after a session? When do you study? etc.

2) How many tables do you play on average? Have you ever thought about playing lesse tables? (I usually play on 8-10 tables at the beginning of a session but I'm kind of glad when I bust MTTs at the end of a session and it gets down to 5-6 tables. I then take waaaaay more notes on people, notice tendencies, take / notice every 3bet spot that I missed earlier while on autopilot etc)

3) What does your bankroll management look like? How many BIs do you need before playing a MTT a) on a regular schedule and b) taking a shot?

4) Do you think that MTTs will stay beatable in the future and what is the minimum ABI someone needs to play at to make a living by playing MTTs?

1) wake up around 8 or 9 and the first thing i will do is grab my coffee.  Than i usually check over some hands i played the night before that were in ?.  I go over the different lines i could have taken, maybe folding some hands pre, different shove spots that were close…  I do not prepare food, but will have plenty of water and will eat roughly 3 hrs into session during a break.  If i could, i would eat before grinding as sometimes i get dizzy or feel weak because of lack of food.  Coffee fck that up.  After session i will usually do some back work, stretches, foam roller etc etc.  Watch sports and 99% of the time will fall asleep to TPE vids or different poker shows.  high stakes, epts and live streams if they exist.  My studying consists of reading books, watching vids which i usually do about an hour a day.  Studying is so under-rated imo and a must to become the best.

2)  I have lowered my tabels from 16-20 to 6-8.  I play so much better and use the HUD way less because i am so much more focused on the games.  Game flow and player tendencies are impossible to gauge if we are 20 tabling so i def. think less tables is the way to go.

3)  I likw to have 50 buy ins for anything i am playing.  The only way im taking shots is if i satty into something or if someone buys a piece of me.  I believe taking shots on my own dime is negative EV and i would rather grind with what i have and move up stakes that way.

4)For me, as long as I work as hard as I do, I feel any game i play will be beatable.  Poker evolves weekly and I make it a point to pay attention to the new trends.  Work hard and poker will alwys be beatable imo

TheDrake said:

Hey Marc,

New subscriber here. I was an online MTT pro for 4 years before Black Friday and am now getting back into playing but mainly live. With most live tourney structures not allowing for as much play as say a regular online tourney would, are you more apt to amp up the aggression and take chances as the blinds catch up to you or do you think it's +EV to remain patient with anywhere from 10-30bbs?

I've only played in a small sample size of live tourneys so far(Borgata Open, Circuit events,etc.), but I've exercised patience and my typical fold/shove/squeeze ranges that I would use online without much success so far. I'm wondering if I need to be taking more chances even though I always felt like my short stack play was one of my strongest skills while playing online.

Thanks,
Jameson

Welcom Jameson,

I apologize for delayed response, but im sure you understand as i was grinding in Vegas.  Staying patient can be good in certain spots, but i believe aggression is the best recipe for success live.  People are not calling correctly live so pushing wider and calling tighter is the best strategy imo.  In the early stages i play way more pots live than online because players are way more likely to make mistakes.  Casey and I talked about this on several occasions, and both agree that playing tons of hand in the early levels is the way to go.  You just cant get value online doing this but live the fish wont fold a pair.  I had a lot of success in the ventians doing this and Casey was able to accumulate monster stacks in the 1k and 1500 wsops.

The only major adjustment i have made live is calling ranges.  I was calling way to wide (online wide) and it was a huge leak.  Remember, the live fish wont call properly hence why we can still ship our normal online range(sometimes wider).  

PLAY MORE HANDS IN POSITION early.  A lot of the circuit and borgatas have great structures.  I would rather play less tournaments that our bigger buy ins and better structured than a bunch of turbo small stakes.  Bigger stacks allow the better players to prevail.

hopefully this helps

Gl jameson

TPE NATION all day everyday

Sen said:

Hey marc,

great thread so far.

Now, after a terrible full month with lots of bad beats before and at FT that cost me several k of $ I was wondering what you can tell us about variance.

In my case I was playing about 1100 games in May and had a ROI of 145%. Next month I had a much bigger BR, so my ABI was 4x of previous month but played only about 450 games. My ROI was slightly above 0. Now this month I have slightly reduced my ABI but am down to about -60% ROI playing approx 140 games so far.
Any advice on this?

TheDrake's question on low BB play is something that interests me as well. Do you tend to 3bet shove marginal hands or do you try to tighten up a bit and get it in with a better chance to actually be ahead?

Thanks a lot for taking all these questions!

SO were talking online—

I am the wrong person to ask about variance as I haven't been into mtts that long.  If i were you, i would look at a bunch of pro's sharkscope graphs, Officialpokerratings graphs, to see the swings they have gone on.  From the looks of it everything that has happened to you seems pretty standard imo.  I have heard of way worse swings so its probably nothing to worry about.  Def depends on if you are playing turbos as well because the swings in turbos can get insane.

Against certain opponents, i will 3 bet shove much wider with bigger amount of bbs.  FOr instance, if B opens and he is opening 75% of B i willl reshove up to 30bbs with smaller pairs and certain broadways.  I basically take what the table will give me.  There are many situations where i will fold down to 8-10bbs from an 18bb stack because the table just hasnt given me a spot.  That doesnt mean i am passing on spots, sometimes we just dont get them.  I always say its “player dependent” which makes this ? really tough to answer because every situation will change based on someones' aggression.

Do you use a HUD?

If so, you should def be using more steal % in order to get your reship game to where it needs to be.  Some players open 60% of the time folded to in the cutoff, but only 20% of the time from the hijack. These types of stats make it really easy when we are deciding to ship light or not.  

Also, think about your opponents calling range.  If he is calling a10 plus, dont ship a4, ship a hand like 76 suited.  He is going to fold most of the time but the times he does call our equity in the hand will be higher because we are less likely to be dominated.

Hope this all helps

GL my man

AZN

TPE NATION!

bennymacca said:

its important to distinguish if you are talking about maximum buyin or average buyin here. 

 

i really like the 200-250 ABI rule – i.e for a 3k-5k roll i play ABI 15-20, and maximum $50 tourneys. 

 

i think this works well and gives you great flexibility, because dropping out a couple of the highest buyin tourneys if you are on a downswing lowers overall buyins significantly, and it doesnt really feel like you are “dropping down” in stakes either. 

Could not agree more.  

This doesnt mean we should shoot our shit in a 215 turbo and play a 1 dollar freeze to keep the ABI down.  I prefer using a maximum buy in approach as i feel its more suited towards my style.    Think this could be a good article IMO

bennymacca said:

yeah it seems that without thinking about it i keep close to to a 100BI for my maximum buyin, though it may even be somewhat more aggressive than that. i think it matters how often you play too. 

 

i.e i play only one or two $50 tourneys in a session, which usually has 12-14 tourneys. even with a 4k roll i might do this, so that would be 1/80th. but these are small field tourneys so i can prolly get a way with it a bit. i wouldnt go playing the nightly 30k every single time etc. 

 

i guess if there is a ton of games at any given stakes then maximum might mean more, but in australian night times when i pretty much play everything that i want except for a couple of 75s and 109s, it means i have to be pretty flexible with what i want to play, but i almost prefer that. i play a mix of higher buyin small field games, i also register for the $5 hypers etc. thing i like about the way i do it is there are no step changes in skill level – to “move up” stakes i just drop out a $5 and play an extra $40-$50 for the night

 

so it might come down to your individual style and goals. but until you find your niche, i would be as conservative as you possibly can be. 

 

“”””so it might come down to your individual style and goals. but until you find your niche, i would be as conservative as you possibly can be. “”””

Love this, everybody has a different attitude towards the game.  Stay conservative until you find exactly what makes you the most money.  Lets face it, no matter what our style is, we are all trying to make money.  Whatever approach keeps you mentally focused on what you are trying to achieve in poker is the way to go.