Re: Theory - Late Stages
Some tips, take em or leave em.
First, Whenever we have less than say 30 or 40 bb in our stack, we need to be concious of those that can resteal against us. One thing I recommend is whenever we raise, we are subject to a resteal, so we need to make sure we are stealing enough to stay ahead, but not so much that we subject to be restolen from. Personally I have done a lot of math to know exactly where a hand is so good from a position that mathematically its highly likely to be the best hand at the table, and in this range I play pretty tight.
First tip, make restealing from you unprofitable: How? Relatively easy in concept, hard in practice. Try to never allow your raising range to be more than double your calling range. If you find yourself "raising any two" from the button, but only calling with a premium, thats a problem. If you are only willing to call with a top 7% hand from a position, then only raise 14%, (just as a rough guideling, thought experiment), it means that for someone to resteal from you they need to be laying greater than 2 or 3 to 1 on their wager, and since you half the time will have a hand your felting, they arent getting proper odds (appx)
Second tip: When you get under 20bb in your stack you need to be constantly watching for resteals. Wether you are in a hand or not. Whether your stack size allows for it or not. IF your stack is under 20bb and someone raises, ask yourself, if someone behinds him pushes, what are the chances he folds? This is a thought exercise that can really help your play. Whenever you are in this range, if you see a raise, and then a push, ask yourself what are the odds this guy makes a call or folds? Practice practice practice... Your ability to find situations will improve. You will start to notice players that Raise too loose, but call too tight. Thats the optimal resteal. Our stack size is 11bb to 19bb and we see a late position raiser (or any raiser enticed to raise wide), and we are in the blinds maybe, here the stack sizes and positions matter a lot more than our cards. If I have decent cards also, I may consider making a Stop and Go play, where if I am towards the lower end of the stack size for a resteal, and my cards have decent showdown equity (like an ace), then I will call from the sb/bb and push any flop.
Third tip: Don't waste valuable fold equity, and get maximal amounts called when we have low stacks. I open push probably earlier than most MTT'ers. Its certainly a debateable point, but personally I really dont raise if my stack size gets under 12bb. I open push. I play relatively tight here, like I would fold low pocket pairs from the first 3 position, but a hand like AJ from middle position with 12bb should really just be open pushed. Raising to 3 and then having to fold on the flop just sucks, two out of three flops we dont connect and then we will only have 9bb which hardly is enough to even get fold equity. This situation/hand in my book calls for just an open push. We dont mind if they all fold. We dont mind if they call too loose and we flip for stacks against 77, but what we dont want to have happen is have AT or KQ behind us flat call a raise and blow us off our hand on the flop.
Fourth tip, any time we are middle or late game, don't raise out of the small blind. Like if it folds to you, either your hand is way better than the random hand in the BB and we push, or its not and we can fold our blind to him. Maybe with a mix of calls. Maybe if stacks are really big yet we raise... But by in large dont play from the small blind much. Worst position. Making a raise here is usually easily called by the big blind with almsot any cards since he's mostly priced in and gets to play you heads up with position on you. If stacks are thin its quite a disaster. Same with when theres a bunch of limpers, and were in the small blind. If we raise, they are enticed to call due to the price and overlay in the blinds and they have position on us in a raised pot. Its very hard to win oop. Its hard to get more money in when we out flop them, and its really hard to steal the pot when we don't. I usually play all in or fold from the SB, mid to late in tournies.
Fifth tip: Really really really, work on learning proper hand strength by position. Most people dont get it very well. Most people see AJ late game and think its likely the best hand at the table. Its not. If theres a raise in front of you, or if you are in the first three position, AJ is unlikely to be the best hand dealt. If the stacks dont warrant an open push, I will often muck a hand like AT or AJ from utg or utg+1. Same with 77 or 88. Some people say its weak, I say, do the math. 9 handed, 14bb stack. Open push 88 from utg, or raise it but fold to a shove, either way the math doesnt work out in your favor. Sure we steal the blind some percent, and sure we end up the large end of a coin flip some percent.. but with 8 people yet to act the odds of one of them having 99-AA are actually good enough that our bet is bad.
Hope this provides a few things to consider, even if you reject my thoughts entirely.
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