I believe the middle stage of an MTT is the most crucial to the outcome of your tournament endeavours. If for example you are not getting any cards and thus not playing any hands you are missing out on a lot of chips. In my opinion chip accumulation is one of the three most important skills to have in tournaments (the others being maximising winnings when ahead and minimising losses when behind).
During the middle stages I believe three-betting and raising with otherwise marginal hands is imperative to your tournament chances. If you feel someone is on the steal and you think you’re able to get them off their hand then you should be reraising with any two cards. If someone shows postflop weakness you can just start flat-calling them and then leading out on the flop to take control of the pot. Hands such as 8-9s and A-J, which I’ve said to avoid in the early stages, become reraising hands because they have the potential to hit big even if you are called and thus will offer good disguise on the flop. If you miss the flop you’ve already shown strength and will often be able to take the pot down on the flop.
Controlling the table
Imposing your will on the table is vital at this stage. You should pick on the weak and the tight and refuse to allow the bullies to bully you. It often only takes one instance of you fighting back for most players to start looking elsewhere for easier targets.
In a recent MTT I was moved onto a new table straight into the big blind and it folded to the small blind who raised. I re-popped a standard amount and he folded. It wasn’t the greatest play in the world but it made a statement in the very first hand to this guy: ‘Don’t touch my blinds.’
Plays like this make players more tentative when it folds to them in late position because they know that if they raise light they may have to fold, so they tend to just pass to make life easier for themselves.
Read part I
Read part III