PS $5 SnG. Triple up on the first hand, now what?

[icemanjmw]

Last SnG I played I triple up with AK on the first hand vs A5 and AJ after an A flopped. Similar situations have happened in the past, me ending up with 3500+ after the first couple hands.
Now I didn't know what to do here, I picked up a couple marginal hands like A8, 66, right aftwards, plus a few crappy suited hands. Should I raise with anything to put pressure and abuse my stack size, limp with anything try to catch a monster and stack someone else, or play normal?

[Little John]

Play normal. You cant abuse oppoents on L1-L3 of a $5 SNG with a big stack. Don't play margianl hands, it will lead to chip spew.

[Gaudd]

I think you have to stick to your basic tight early model. Don't risk spewing those chips off again. With the very small blinds early there isn't much to play for out there, just hoping to flop something huge to someone else's almost huge. Small pp's like those sixes are still worth a limp because you know exactly where you are on the flop 9/10 but I wouldn't change basic strategy because you are very likely to end up right where you started by the time you get to bubble play. It should, however, allow you to make better decisions come bubble time because those extra chips keep you out of push/fold game for awhile and you have the opportunity to pick your shots where as someone who didn't pick those up will be in a corner much sooner.

[DaN_05]

[ QUOTE ]
Play normal. You cant abuse oppoents on L1-L3 of a $5 SNG with a big stack. Don't play margianl hands, it will lead to chip spew.

[/ QUOTE ]

[icemanjmw]

Okay, thanks for the tips. I did donk off a lot of chips with 68o, K5s, etc. limping basically every hand for the first couple levels. Then I tightened up and got back to where I was.

[Jake M.]

Play it tight now. You have plenty of chips for this level. Make your move in the later stages when players are trying to survive for a simple 3rd place cash. Also by you playing tight, that keeps those chips out of the wreckless idiots' hands. Don't start calling all in's with A4 and junk just because you have chips. Don't let the big stack take over you!

[BradleyT]

I would disagree with everyone and say you should play more when you have a big stack - but not with crap hands like A8 or other likely dominated hands like KJ. In addition to your normal hands add suited connectors and some connectors in position. Of course this relies on you knowing how to play draws decently postflop.

I started with regulars, played 2500 turbos and now am back to regulars. If you're afraid to play postflop in the first 30 minutes when blinds are still 25/50 or less and you have doubled or tripled your stack then you should be playing turbos.