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  #21  
Old 09-29-2007, 02:54 AM
Poker Clif Poker Clif is offline
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Default Re: Basic Sit \'n Go Questions Answered Here

[ QUOTE ]
I noticed the book focuses on the 50/30/20 model. I play on Bodog sometimes and was wondering what opinion and adjustment you make on the 30/25/20/15/10 model (Bodog Beginner tournaments)?

[/ QUOTE ]

Related to the above, the 18-player $1.20 SNG on PokerStars pays out 4 places: 4th $1.80, 3rd $3.60, 2nd $5.40, 1st $7.20.

IN a situation like this where the jumps in income do not get bigger as you go up the ladder, is it best to try to move up one place at a time, rather than take risks to jump up more than one spot?

Specifically, is it often true that you can be 5th of 5, avoid any all-ins, play conservatively, and move up at least one spot with little risk because someone will be knocked out before I get under 10bb.
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  #22  
Old 09-29-2007, 08:46 AM
kav kav is offline
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Default Re: Basic Sit \'n Go Questions Answered Here

Okay! I have one question.

I've been playing a very slow structure SNG. How should I adjust my play?

Most of the time the blinds are less than 50/100 when there's only 3 players left and it's almost never raised before the flop (sometives they will just go all in).

Now, I don't know what to do. Should I play more speculative hands and try to flop a big hand or should I play tighter?

I'm playing a very tight game, just waiting my opponents bust out and trying to get some chips with good hands.

Also, I have no idea how should I play hands like AJs from early position. If I raise, everyone will call anyway and its annoying to play OOP.

Thanks!
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  #23  
Old 09-29-2007, 01:22 PM
Collin Moshman Collin Moshman is offline
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Default Re: Basic Sit \'n Go Questions Answered Here

Art, before multi-tabling, you should: (a) Be confident you are indeed a winning player (otherwise you'll just be losing more per hour!), and (b) Be able to play your game almost as well while making decisions more rapidly. What I recommend when starting to multi-table is wait until your first game reach mid-high blind play, then starting a 2nd table. This approach allows you to build tables at a comfortable pace.

youbobaa, one excellent low-stakes rake deal right now is the Stars $15+$1 turbos. You don't get such a nice rake again until you hit the $215s.

DMC0627, specific hands like that are good ones to analyze with ICM-based programs like SNGWizard. But in general, if you are getting 2:1 odds or better you need a very compelling reason not to call an allin. (I go into this in much more detail in pp. 168-175 of SNG Strategy.) In the case you give above, you're getting 8:3 on your money, and if you decline this manifestly chip-winning gamble, you could easily bubble out anyway. So while it depends on your hand and how widely you think your opponent will shove, most likely you've got a call there.


MrX and Poker Clif, regardless of payout structure, there are certain absolutes. The most important of these is that players will tighten up right before the money, since everyone wants to cash. Solid long-term winning strategy is to exploit this tendency by becoming super-aggressive and accumulating as many chips as possible during these bubble situations, be they with 4 players left or 6. You rarely want to adapt a "cruise-into-the-money" strategy because of the enormous potential for chip accumulation when nobody wants to call raises near the money.

Kav, you should play an aggressive style with 3 players left, regardless of the blinds. Raise your button widely, and if called, tend to make a continuation bet of roughly 2/3 the pot if your opponent checks, even if you miss the flop. Wait for a hand with decent value before getting involved in pots out of position. AJs is a monster during 3-way play, but earlier on you are not looking to play large pots with AJs or AQ. Consider folding or limping UTG during 9-handed play, and make a standard 3BB or so raise from mid-late position.

Keep up the good work at the tables guys!
-- Collin
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  #24  
Old 09-29-2007, 03:27 PM
1fightnirish 1fightnirish is offline
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Default Re: Basic Sit \'n Go Questions Answered Here

Great book! My winnings have started going up from day 1. We just need to keep this book a secret [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]. What is a good rate of return when playing SNG's. I'm not multitabeling yet and my rate of return is about 20% playing low SNG's.
I have no idea if that is good, or not. I know its better than negative.
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  #25  
Old 09-29-2007, 04:09 PM
hitch1978 hitch1978 is offline
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Default Re: Basic Sit \'n Go Questions Answered Here

Question about turbo reads -

If we are on a site that doesn't allow HUDs, what should we be looking out for primarily in terms on reads. I try and keep track of how many hands a player is playing, and how aggressively they play them (Well I don't try, it's second nature.) I also obviously notice if someone shows down J2o in a raised pot etc...

The problem is, in a turbo, you change through the stages of a tourney, and stacks are shifting around so fast that it's hard to know how reliable a particular aspect of my read is etc.

Do you have any general rules of thumb in this regard? Are there certain types of things to look out for that are more reliable, or more likely to be indivative of how a player is going to play through the whole tourney etc.

Just a couple of examples to clarify.

EG1. 1st hand of tourney UTG raises to 3XBB, 1 caller to the C/O who calls. He shows down trash. But he may not be playing so loose in level 3/4 as the blinds are much higher in comparison to his stack.

EH2. Player has folded all but 1 hand in first 4 levels which he never showed down. In levels 5/6 he starts by raising 3 out of the first 10 pots. (Obviously I would tag him as likely a good player at this point.) Now his VPIP is still low, how much credibility do we give his next raise?

TY.
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  #26  
Old 09-30-2007, 11:09 PM
youbobAA youbobAA is offline
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Default Re: Basic Sit \'n Go Questions Answered Here

Thanks for the rake deal, Collin. I have to get my bankroll up quite a bit higher to get to $15+1 games. I'm doing $3.20 and $5.50 now. Once I get to $100 I may take up ps $16 games.
Have you noticed at the lower buyin tables, people will call big raises with J8 oop, but they often hit something? Last week my AA lost to J8, though I could have gotten away at the flop of xJ8. I called JJ all in preflop with my AA and lost to quad Jacks, and I lost with sets 3 times to larger sets. Tough way to make a living, lol.
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  #27  
Old 10-01-2007, 06:28 PM
Poker Clif Poker Clif is offline
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Default Re: Basic Sit \'n Go Questions Answered Here

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the rake deal, Collin. I have to get my bankroll up quite a bit higher to get to $15+1 games. I'm doing $3.20 and $5.50 now. Once I get to $100 I may take up ps $16 games.
Have you noticed at the lower buyin tables, people will call big raises with J8 oop, but they often hit something? Last week my AA lost to J8, though I could have gotten away at the flop of xJ8. I called JJ all in preflop with my AA and lost to quad Jacks, and I lost with sets 3 times to larger sets. Tough way to make a living, lol.

[/ QUOTE ]

At PokerStars, the lowest sit-n-go is $1+.20, and the next one up (at least for most tournament sizes including 1TT) is $5+.50. Because of the big difference in rake percentage, would I be better off moving up to $5, rather than mutitabling $1?
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  #28  
Old 10-01-2007, 07:56 PM
McGrain McGrain is offline
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Default Re: Basic Sit \'n Go Questions Answered Here

Hello!

I have a question and acutally opened another thread about it, I hope nobody minds me repeating myself here.

I'm having difficulty in heads up play when the heads up action starts with big blinds. It feels like a crapshoot to me. Any advice for maintaining control of the action when you have the chip lead?

I'm playing no limit hold em almost exclusively at the moment.
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  #29  
Old 10-01-2007, 10:33 PM
youbobAA youbobAA is offline
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Default Re: Basic Sit \'n Go Questions Answered Here

Clif,
Your question is exactly what I face.

The point of Collin's chapter on sng as a business is that if you increase the rake, you diminish your profitability very rapidly. Finding a rake deal is safeguarding your profit made from good play. Having a 20% rake in the $1.20 just about guarantees a loss over time. Playing the $5.50 might be a problem with bankroll management because you can't control suckouts, bad players hitting their hands and other things which increase your variance. Good luck Clif !!! What do you say, Collin?
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  #30  
Old 10-01-2007, 11:10 PM
Collin Moshman Collin Moshman is offline
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Default Re: Basic Sit \'n Go Questions Answered Here

Hitch, if you can't use stats overlay, then I'd pay most careful attention to pot-entering frequency, followed by aggression/passivity at high blinds. How often is a particular opponent limping during high blinds? Does he seem to shove just about any two cards when it's folded to him in late position? These are the types of things you want to be looking for.

McGrain, using commercial software like SNGWizard and seeing what you are correct to call/shove with for different stack sizes and opponent pushing/folding ranges is your best bet long-term. Cliff's Notes: shove your strong hands (aces, kings, pocket pairs, two face cards), fold your weak hands unless you are very short-stacked -- say 5 BB or fewer, in which case tend to push just about any two cards, and if your opponent just calls from the button, raise all-in often to win a 2BB pot uncontested.

youbobAA and PokerClif, you guys are completely right about the rake. Beating 20% is really really tough, even if your competition is very poor. I'd probably play the $5+$0.5 underfunded ($100+) rather than multi-table $1+$0.2's.

-- Collin
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