LOW STAKES ITM GUIDE

[mattak]

This forum has been very good to me. I want to try and give something back. I am going to try and give some thoughts on a subject that I have had good success at.


SMALL STAKES ITM GUIDE

The first thing you need to do once ITM is re-evaluate. The bubble has burst, take some time to assess the situation and decide your game plan. Too many people are either in attack mode or limp into the money mode and don’t switch gears for the new circumstances.

OBSERVATIONS
- Generally speaking players fold too much when ITM and aren’t aggressive enough.
- There is a surprising amount of post flop play available. Especially when heads up. Taking advantage of this can lead to a big improvement on your results. I strongly suggest playing some heads up matches to get more comfortable in this part of your game.
- Learn to switch gears rapidly. The size of the blinds and aggressive play makes for quick situational changes to your strategy.
- Somehow, it has become considered correct in this forum to have an equal distribution of placements ITM. I have more 1st place finishes than 2nd or 3rd place. I believe this is a result of playing to win rather than playing to survive. I have more 3rd than 2nd place. I believe this is because I tend to be so aggressive when I am short stacked and ITM.
- Read the tutorials on SNGPT. A very good explanation of the math of pushing all in and hand ranges.


Stack sizes. What to do when…..

I am the Big Stack?
- Raise, raise, raise. Especially if you have a wide lead on the second and third place stacks. Biggest mistake I see people making is not being aggressive enough. At this stage if you pick up 3 or 4 blinds in a row you can free roll with a desperate short stack.

I am the Middle Stack?
- Your cardinal rule here is “Don’t [censored] with the big stack”. Your goal is to outlast the shorty and get heads up with the big stack in second place. When you are middle stack you are in a much more passive state than either the big or small stacks. What you would like to have happen is to have the big stack do his job and starve the shorty of blinds. You should be calling the big stacks raises very rarely and only with a hand. For god sakes do not try to bluff him or get fancy, you have very little FE against him. You should however, be calling the shorty a little wider. Especially if he is very short, he will be pushing with a wide range of hands. When heads up in a hand with the shorty you have to make tough decisions about leaning on him to starve him of blinds and letting them go. The middle stack is the toughest to play.

I am the Shorty?
-I love being in this position. It’s crazy time. Assuming my stack size is less than 10x BB I am jamming virtually every hand. I mentally congratulate myself for making $ on this tourney and my mindset is that if I make it to 2nd or 1st it is just pure bonus money.


TAKING THE BEST LINE

Often we are in push fold mode when ITM. If the stack sizes of you or your opponent (effective stacks) are less than 10x BB this is usually the best option. However, often you will find yourself ITM or even heads up with 15 – 20 x BB effective stacks. This allows you the opportunity to actually play a little poker after the flop. I can't cover everything but here are a few points.


PREFLOP
- I do not believe in limping when ITM. However, I find great use out of the mini raise. I use the mini raise in situations where I don’t feel like making a marginal push vs. a bigger or equal stack but will play for all the small stacks chips. I refer to this as fishing. I make a mini raise with the intention of folding to a big stacks push and calling a short stack. If I happen to pick up the blinds then all is well.
- When I am in the BB and it is limped to me I tend to let bigger or equal stacks limp and see a flop. This is opposite to my bubble tendencies where I will push over top of a limper with a wide variety of hands. Position is such a factor in poker that if my opponents want to continually play small pots when in position and large pots when I have position it will mean a great advantage to me over the long term.

POSTFLOP
- Be aggressive. As I have already stated, people tend to fold too much in low stakes. Fire at it when checked to you and fire at it when you are first in.
- Check raises your monsters and semi bluff’s. I am not a real big believer in check raising as a tool, but ITM it seems to work well because most people tend to not be able to lay down a hand once they have some money in the pot.
- Don’t be afraid to give free cards when you feel like you are ahead. There is less of a chance of someone catching up, and more of a chance of someone hitting a card they are willing to bust out on.
- Try to get a feel for your opponent. What kind of mistakes does he make? Fold too much? Call too much? Limp too much? Figure him out and exploit him.


Pot Odds

Too often we hit our fold buttons automatically without assessing the situation. If you are on BB and a short stack pushes you should try to check out your pot odds before folding. Occasionally you will find yourself in a situation when it is correct to call with any 2 cards in order to eliminate one or even two short stacked opponents.


Co-operation Play

This occurs when one player is extremely short stacked and all in. The other two players will play the hand passively against each other in order to try to bust him out. I personally wont get involved in a co operation play unless the shorty in question is less than 2x BB. Tripling him up otherwise is just too dangerous. It is up to you whether to do this or not, however, for the love of god, don’t bluff the other big stack during a co operation play only to have the short stack win.



SUMMARY

- Assess and adjust on every hand. Learn to switch gears quickly.
- Try to come up with a game plan for your stack size. If you’re the shorty be aggressive, if you are the middle stack stay away from the big stack etc.
- Try to find post flop situations to exploit
- Be aware of your pot odds.
- Have some fun!

[Paul B.]

I don't mean to offend you, but this guide sucks. A lot of it is just general advice that's applicable to any situation in poker and a lot of it is just retarded crap. Notably:

[ QUOTE ]

I am the Shorty?
-I love being in this position. It’s crazy time. Assuming my stack size is less than 10x BB I am jamming virtually every hand. I mentally congratulate myself for making $ on this tourney and my mindset is that if I make it to 2nd or 1st it is just pure bonus money.

[/ QUOTE ]

[recondite7]

Nice work on the guide. It is a work in progress and has some fatal flaws however.

[ QUOTE ]
- There is a surprising amount of post flop play available. Especially when heads up. Taking advantage of this can lead to a big improvement on your results. I strongly suggest playing some heads up matches to get more comfortable in this part of your game.

[/ QUOTE ] This is not true in turbo sngs that most people play. You might want to mention if you are talking about regular stars sngs for instance.

[ QUOTE ]
- Somehow, it has become considered correct in this forum to have an equal distribution of placements ITM. I have more 1st place finishes than 2nd or 3rd place. I believe this is a result of playing to win rather than playing to survive. I have more 3rd than 2nd place. I believe this is because I tend to be so aggressive when I am short stacked and ITM.

[/ QUOTE ]
No Most people say that a 1>2>3 finish distribution is what a good player will get.

Also you need to focus way more on ICM in this. Having correct pot odds to call is sometimes not enough when you take ICM into account.