$11 ITM strategy

[kevkev60614]

I feel like I lose the "selectively" to go with "aggressive" once I get ITM. I guess I've kind of built up a strategy, and I'm not sure whether it makes any sense anymore. All comments appreciated.

In general: I find myself fold to any raise where I'm OOP, and any non-minraise when I'm in position, unless I have a tremendous hand. When I don't cave, I end up all-in and it seems the $11ers always have a hand.

From button: I find that I am very tight as the small or midstacks, but raising with KT+, A6+, 22+, QJ if I'm the bigstack. I almost never limp from the button.

From the SB, I'm probably open-raising top 40% and open-completing with bottom 60%. I find that if I complete, I can frequently lead the flop and steal the pot that way. I like to mix up these two different types of steals. I very, very rarely open-fold from the SB 3-handed. If the button limps, however, I'm folding a large percentage of the time. I hate giving up 1/2 a BB, but I don't want to get in a 3-way pot where I'll be outkicked. It'd take a really strong hand for me to raise the button.

From the BB: I'll occasionally raise the SB's completion if blinds aren't too high in relation to stacks, but I rarely do the same to a button's limp cuz I'm OOP if he calls. If the button limps, I sometimes check and lead the flop, hoping he missed, stealing OOP like I do from the SB.

It all looks kind of formulaic. I guess that's bad, but I don't have a lot of fear that the donks at the $11s would catch on. My ITM play just doesn't last that long, and it's different than bubble play and HU play. The problem I run into is it seems I steal a few blinds, and then attempt to steal and I'm played back at. I either give it up, or by that point we're all-in with a dominating hand.

I know this is all vague, and I'm sorry about that. Rereading through my post, it looks like I'm not stealing enough from the button, and too much where I'm OOP. Thoughts? Who thinks I'm probably too loose ITM, or too weak to resteals?

[seke2]

Honestly, I think you're too tight from reading that. I play very aggressive heads up. The advantage of that is usually, by that point, I've been pushing so much that I'm bullying the table and they are likely to call with much worse hands. That means when I do get called, I'm almost never worse than a coinflip or slight dog, even if I'm on a stone cold steal.

When you steal, unless you have the a big stack, don't bother with a raise. Just push. Don't give them a chance to "play back at you." Put the pressure on the other players. Yeah, you're reducing your ability to play post-flop, but honestly, when the blinds are so high and the stacks are so small, postflop play isn't exactly rocket science.

[kevkev60614]

I appreciate the feedback.

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Honestly, I think you're too tight from reading that. I play very aggressive heads up.

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I assume when you say HU, you mean a battle of the blinds. I told you that I'm raising top 40% of hands, and you feel this is too tight. Would you guess that you're raising the top 50%, 70%, 100%?

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When you steal, unless you have the a big stack, don't bother with a raise. Just push.

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I didn't make it clear, but I follow the 10BB rule. I'm pushing if either I or all of the players yet to act have less than 10BB. Are you pushing even if you have 15BB? More?

Any other suggestions are welcome.

[seke2]

Well, blind battles, and I guess even 3-way when it's ITM. I like to be the one putting the pressure on. If you're raising the top 40%, that's probably good. As far as what I'm raising, it largely depends on how much I've had to push to get this far. Sometimes, I'll get lucky and build a big stack without being the bully. If that's the case, then I bully the crap out of people once we're ITM. If I've been pushing relentlessly through the bubble (as is often the case), then I'd reign it in a little so that when I'm called by someone else, I'm more likely to be ahead. It also depends on what I've shown down so far. If I've had the luck to only show down strong hands, then I'm pushing more until someone picks me off.

As far as the 10 BB rule...I guess my range would be closer to 15BB, since I follow M more than BB, and I tend to push at M = 10 or less, which would be equivalent to 15 BB without antes. Depending on stack sizes, I probably push a wider range than you from the button too. I'll also mix it up a little, if I have the stack to do it, and occasionally just limp or make a standard raise to keep my opponents off guard...only doing that if I can afford to fold it, or I'm trying to induce a bet. Most of my raises once we're ITM are pushes. I mean, it's rare that blinds are less than 100/200 when you get ITM, and it's rare to have a stack over 3000-4000, so how often are you really on a very comfortable stack?

One big caveat here is that I don't multi-table, so I'm probably a lot more focused on my table when things get ITM. I have strong reads on the other players and will use them to my advantage. Many multi-tablers are probably following more "formulaic" standards, but I prefer to just do 1 table and play it the best I can.