I think many players come from a background where tight is right and abc poker is entrenched in our psyche.  We might even do ok but generally we getting down to 5 to 15bbs really quickly and then just hoping to flip ourselves to the money. This appraoch has worked ok for me in terms of low stakes 45 man sngs and it may veen be somewhat optimal so long as you have the pushbot game reasonably worked out.

However I am trying to break out of this mould as I am currently quite excited about MTTS and I dont think that abc 16/14 kind of routine is good enough to crush in todays games. In the last two weeks I have made the top 40 or 50 in 4 or 5 2000+ field MTTs and have had stacks to go further in most of them. I have stepped way out of my comfort zone and have at some times when conditions have been favourable been playing as loose as 30/25ish for extended periods in the mid game (with antes). Admittedly most if not all of my deep runs have been in the $2 and $3 6 max tourneys where I can maybe get away with it a little more. And also, I have specifically been trying to push the boundaries and learn something rather than worry to much about profit.

I can honestly say though that every deep run has ended in a way that I would have to classify as pure spew. Its frustrating in that you see yourself dominating a table for an hour or two and chipping up a lot by playing tons of small pots and it seems to boil down to the fact that eventually I get over aggro / over confiident and play that big pot with a marginal or worse hand.

And ignoring the spew factor I feel like really trying to become a super aggro player is a difficult thing to learn. You see some of the most successful players in the world opening all sorts of hands and 4 and 5 bet jamming hands like 5d8d (wp fslexduck) but as a micro or small stakes abc break eveninsh kind of player anytime you post a hand where you do something even vaguely out of the ordinary you almost always get told to “wait for a better spot”. It doesnt really matter what reasoning or what questions you posted. So figuring out what those better spots are(apart  from the obvious ABC ones), is kind of hard.

So, to the pros and to any other mtt monsters out there, what learning suggestions, tips, tricks and any other guidance can you provide. What are the common mistakes when people try to go from a nit to a decent aggro player? What are some of the common spots you guys are exploilting that your typical nit is passing up?

I realise its a broad topic and there may be differing views. All thoughts are welcome!