question Do you tighten right up early in tourneys, or nah?

Been mucking around with low stakes tourneys lately and the early levels are doing my head in a bit. Blinds are tiny, stacks are deep, half the table is punting... and I still can't work out if it's better to just sit back and wait for decent spots or start putting chips in while everyone's playing any two.

I keep hearing different stuff from mates. One bloke reckons the first hour is basically just survive and don't get cute. Another says that's exactly when you should be nicking heaps of small pots because people are calling way too wide and paying off rubbish. Both sound sort of right until I'm the drongo trying to decide what to do with AJs in middle position.

Mostly talking tourneys here, but if you've got thoughts from cash games too, chuck them in. Do you change heaps depending on table vibe, or do you stick to the same approach most of the time? And how much weight do you put on position early compared to just raw hand strength?

Keen to hear how you lot play it, especially if you've found something that actually stopped those early-level spews. Feels like I'm either too nitty or getting dragged into bloody nonsense pots for no reason.

Zoe WildSpin wrote >

Both sound sort of right until I'm the drongo trying to decide what to do with AJs in middle position.

yeah this was me for ages. I kept talking myself into pretty suited broadways early, then ended up guessing on every street once three people came along. What helped was watching who actually folds pre and who just clicks call no matter what. Curious if anyone else sort of plays the table first and the cards second in those opening levels?

little tip that helped me a fair bit: first few levels I stopped flat-calling from middle spots almost completely. Open or fold. And I c-bet way less multiway, because at those tables someone always has a piece and then you're just lighting chips on fire. If it's a limp-happy table, raise a bit bigger when you do come in.