9/30/2010--The MTT mindset

There is a highly-recommended book on poker psychology, which I have not yet read, entitled The Poker Mindset. That's where I got the idea for the title of this post.

I've played the $1.10, 1000-player MTT that runs at 1720 (PokerStars/U.S. Eastern time) the last two days. The 28th I came in 62nd for a cash of $2.20, and the 29th I was 35th for a cash of $4.00.

First place in that tournament is $180, and I didn't get close to that, but the back-to-back solid finishes are encouraging. To change from a SNG style to an MTT style, I had to reexamine everything: what percentage of my hands to play, how aggressive to be with those hands, when and how often to bluff, and several other aspects of my game. There is a huge difference in strategy between getting one of the three cashing spots in a 9-play SNG, and getting into the top 1% of a field with thousands of players. I needed an MTT mindset.

It's not just a difference in strategy, it's a whole different way of thinking, of approaching risktaking. SNGs were my original specialty partly because the idea of grinding it out with a whole bunch of small cashes with a fairly predictable win rate, best fits my personality.

Now, I'm specializing in MTTs, knowing that I will go many tournaments without much of an income, waiting for the occasional big score. A few months ago, "going for the big score" would have sounded to me like a degenerate gambler tyring to "get lucky".

Once I started out studying on the 2+2 poker forums, I understood pretty quickly that what the MTT players do is every bit as math-based as someone who grinds out an income playing 24 9-player SNGs at a time. The trick wasn't understanding the concept, it was executing it.

I was so averse to the relative high-variance strategy and increased aggression required to play MTTs that I actually had to come up with some hand selection charts, and follow them no matter how uncomfortable it felt, just to get myself used to doing what needed to be done. Without the charts "forcing" me to play a wider selection of hands, I don't think that I could have done it.

Once I started playing more hands, after a few weeks I could start to get a feel for how and why it worked. Again, I understood the concept, but reading about flying an airplane isn't the same as doing it.

Once I got comfortable with a different playing style, then I could start thinking more deeply. I have a long way to go on this, but now I'm starting to think past a list of hands that will be mathematically correct in most cases. Now I starting to be able to think about things like: What if this is a more agressive table than usual? What if it's a tight table? What if the players on my immediate left (the ones that act after I do) are different than the rest of the table--how does that affect how I manage hand selection and agression?

It's an exciting time in my poker development. I know now that I'm going to be a very good MTT player, it's just a matter of time, practice, and a little patience. And once I can get up to playing $2 and $3 tournaments (where of course the prize pools are 2 times and 3 times larger than in a $1 tournament of the same size), there are going to be some fun and lucrative times ahead as I build my bankroll and continue to play at higher levels.