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Is my Bounty Hunter calling range too tight? Pre Flop?
Bit of background; been playing tournaments on this site about a year now. I seem to do better in standard format freezeouts and suck big time at Bounty Hunters. Just trying to pin point why I fail so miserably at BHs in particular. Im fairly happy with my raising, 3 bet range pre flop in regards to the hands Im comfortable playing from different positions. Its been suggested that I need to widen my calling range both for pre flop (especially in position). and more so for calling off shoves.
Ive been railing a few BHs recently following players who I know to be winning MTT players on this site and particularly in BHs and I think its fair to say that their calling ranges are somewhat wider than mine (anything from Q8, A2 etc).
I guess what Im asking is, is it really good correct play in BHs to be calling shoves with A10o and weaker Aces and hands like K10o, K9s and basically any hands which could be massively dominated (few more examples being QJ, Q10, Q9, J10, KJ). Is my calling range too tight in these spots against short stacks who could be shoving any 2? DOes the bounty element make up for the fact that Im caling off knowing Im probably going to be the underdog in a 60:40 a lot of the time and flipping against a small pair? Im mainly asking this in terms of early tournament strategy and mid tournament. Im fairly happy with my late tournament ranges from the number of scarys and turbo tournaments I play. (ps - I know this is heavily player dependent given different players have different shoving ranges).
In terms of pre flop calling to see flops, Id like to think Im fairly comfortable with my range depending on position but in 6 max are hands like J8s, J7s, Q8, Q9s worth peeling flops with in position and/or out of the blinds again given the BH aspect (ie Im paying a smaller admission price to try and stack someone off).
sorry if this all sounds a bit noobish but Im really trying to improve my MTT game and I think a of my leaks or failings are early to mid stages.
I guess the general question Im asking is, how much do I need to loosen up to play a BH over a normal well structured freezeout?
Comments
1. It's very hard to say 'you should be calling shoves with this range', partly because like you said it's opponent dependent, but more importantly because it's very stack dependent. If you know that people have good stacks to 3bet jam light and they're good enough players to do it, then you can call lighter for example.
2. Calling raises pre - At the start of a tourney, tight is right. Most people on Sky don't 3bet light in the first levels of an MTT (or at all lol).
3. You do need to make some adjustments to your game in a BH obviously because 50% of the prizepool isn't in payouts and you want a piece of that. Despite that, the real money is still in the end game because not only is that where the cashes get bigger, but by that point, most people's heads are worth alot more. I wouldn't worry too much about trying to take people out in the first couple of levels when it's less than 50% of your BI. Like any MTT, if the opportunity comes to try and take someone out, then you take it, but don't try to force it.
For the most part, I'd say play it like a normal MTT, especially at the start, it's generally later when stacks are shallower that you can make BH dependent decisions. Obviously it depends on your natural style of playing normal MTTs... some people are very aggro right from the get go, and will either build a massive stack or bust out (so this results in a lot of heads when it goes well), or if you're a slow and steady, grinding away winning lots of small pots kinda guy.
Paul