Stars $4/180 SNG HHs

[Jeff76]

Hands 102 and 103 both seem like great steal opportunities. Was there a reason you didn't try? Since I'm watching this in spurts I don't really have a good feel for the table flow, but once the antes come in I'm really trying to steal a lot.

[CybrPunk]

Yeah when a failed steal will take my stack under that magical 15BB mark I am a little more cautious about stealing. I prefer maintaining my reraising fold equity by staying above 15bb as opposed to risking 3bb to pickup 2.5 more. I figure that once I drop below 15bb my fold equity when reraising isn't as solid and I feel that I benefit more by maintaining some flexibility in relation to my stack size. I can still go one more orbit and allow the blinds to come through before I'm in that position so I figure rather than steal to pickup a small pot I can wait to resteal and pickup one that's more significant.

In other words, I value my ability to resteal higher than I value a single steal.

I also don't steal with A-rag very often because a large majority of the range that calls me are hands that either leave me dominated or playing with one card.

[Jeff76]

I like your agression once you finally get a stack to work with.

You had a really good flow at the FT- picking your spots well and getting away from the hands you needed to. You play a lot of STTs? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Jeff76]

[ QUOTE ]
In other words, I value my ability to resteal higher than I value a single steal.

[/ QUOTE ]Intersting thought. It would seem to me that steal opportunites come along a lot more often than re-steal oppotunities. Of course, a re-steal is more lucrative as well as risky.

[ QUOTE ]
I also don't steal with A-rag very often because a large majority of the range that calls me are hands that either leave me dominated or playing with one card.

[/ QUOTE ]A-rag is pretty strong 3/4 handed, though. How often are you going to get CALLED (not rearaised) by an ace and then hit one on the flop 3/4 handed?

But of couse, this is more of a positional raise anyway so the cards don't matter as much. A-rag just makes your hand better than average.

[Jeff76]

Wow, stars really blessed you with that weak/tight player to your right three handed. He just kept donating amunition into your stack. You must have been thrilled that he managed to get it to heads up with you.

[Jeff76]

Congrats on the win, and thanks again for posting this. I hope I didn't come across as critical or anything in this thread- just trying to provide whatever feedback I have, which probably isn't worth much! But seeing your game (which is a lot different from mine in some areas) has been very useful for me. I look foward to watching the second one.

[CybrPunk]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, stars really blessed you with that weak/tight player to your right three handed. He just kept donating amunition into your stack. You must have been thrilled that he managed to get it to heads up with you.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had a really solid read on this player throughout the whole final table as you can especially tell from the HU play. I was rooting for it to be HU with this guy the whole way because he practically played with his cards face-up. He checked when he missed and bet when he hit so his hands could be read as clear as day. Once it was HU with him I knew the tournament was practically in my pocket. He also was a blessing considering that the other player knew to be aggressive 3-handed against my steal raises whereas this guy almost never took a stand.

As you can see I don't play a ton of hands and only get 'creatively' aggressive in certain situations later in the tournament. It's taken me a long time to have faith that this is a successful style of play at the lower limits. I know that, in moving up stakes, it's necessary to find more +ev situations to take advantage of but with so many people at the lower stakes handing over their money freely there's really not as much need to be overly creative in order to be a winning player.