Ye this is a topic im interested in.  Mike Leah advises the min raise from the start, and so does Danny in his Turbo vids.  However, Big Dog likes to 3x early in MTTs to polarise ranges and build pots.

Iv tried both and after some time have kind of settled somewhere in the middle. I raise 3x up to 40/80 then 2.5x 50/100 then 2.25 there on. Im more comfortable 3x ing in early stages as i like to polarise ranges as well, and as im only ever playing premiums in the early levels, i also think its better to 3x so u get max value for these premiums.

Someone mentioned about writing an article on this subject, i think it might of been Danny — i would b very interested like u to hear the thoughts of Danny or other TPE pros on betsizing, i would especially b interested whether they think certain betsizing strategies work better at low, mid and high stakes.

Would it matter bet sizing whether you were playing in a turbo or not? I am tinkering around with both 3x at early stages and the min raise and honestly, to me it seems different in what type of game you are playing. I see that I minraise in turbos and I 3x in a regular tournament event because you can chip off earlier in a turbo.

I guess another question is effective stack depth. In a tournament such as the WSOP circuit, you are given 10,000 or 12,000 starting chips for the smaller buy-in (350/550) events. The blinds start at 25/25 for stacks of 400/480bbs. Min raising or 3xing in this level is really not going to make too much of a difference in calling ranges IMO, if anything, you can get the blinds to call any two cards with a min raise. Even at level 2, 25/50, a starting stack is still 200/240 blinds deep, so I feel the advantage in this spot goes to min raising so when you get 5 callers, the pot is smaller and you can lose less chips when your aces get cracked. The disadvantage of course is you have also built a smaller pot to win when you do hold.. Hence the dilemma at hand 🙂

At the micro stakes it is a different game IMO… I agree you are going to get called alot more by the bottom of range of these players. Micro MTT is a high variance spot from hand 1, this is where grinding a few nights a week in micro cash full ring will help with these types of fields…Even though cash and tourney trail are two seperate worlds, IMO you need that post flop experience in these low buy in tourneys, that part of your game is worked on in cash games.

I came to the realization that most MTT players or up and coming MTT players are not the greatest post flop, they might think they can out play their opponents PF but without some good solid practice full ring, MTT players edge comes from Pre with putting pressure. Of course I speak of players that are just now really getting into overdrive MTT skill building, unlike the pros on TPE or other training sites they are more than comfortable playing post flop. There is no doubt working on post flop strategy is ongoing for any level of the game, but there are a lot more sticky spots in micro buy ins because of the “Lets gamble its only $3” mentality.

This just a added thought to the thread, I am still a student of the game, which most pokers players are. The day we stop learning is the day we need to stop playing. Happy grinding and keep posting we all get better by sharing our strategy…