Help with end game (final 4) of tournament

[jared701]

Ok, I'm still really new to playing poker online and at first had some success at 1 table tournaments but lately have had a string of really bad luck. I can almost always seem to get to the final 4 in 9 man tables or final 3 in 6 man tables, but then the blinds are faily high and I will find a hand I feel like I must go all in with after I am under 10 big blinds and get busted out. Now my question is, considering I am at this stage (short stacked and 1 away from the money) and have a not killer hand, but say like A5 so if no one hits I have the high card what should I do? My brother taught me once you get under 10 big blinds it is either all in or fold. With 9 man tables I have been doing turbo tournaments, so maybe I should just go back to regular? Any advice is appreciated.

[Mike MacIntosh]

GET SNGPT!

[vMario]

^ or SnGWizard, which has 30-days tryout period.

http://sngwiz.com/

Good luck!

[wiggs73]

Hi jared, welcome to the forums.

You'll definitely want to read about ICM. If you can afford it, purchasing a tool like SNGPT will help you.

Other than that, it's impossible for us to help you when you make a post this vague. "What do I do at a 4 handed table?" - The answer is, every 4 handed table is different, and every hand you get dealt is a different situation.

A lot of things matter besides your hand and how many people are left. Some things you'll want to think about in EVERY hand are:
- your position
- your stack size
- stack sizes of other people, and their relative position to you
- reads
- there are a host of others.

Start by skimming the FAQ and the tools sticky. I believe in the FAQ there's an 'anatomy of a hand' section or something similar where it breaks down several things to consider in a hand.

A great way to improve your bubble play would be to follow this process.
1. Purchase SNGPT.
2. Review a tournament. Look at every hand you played once you're playing push / fold poker. Do your best to assign calling / pushing ranges to players. Think about all the different factors of why they should be loose or tight.
3. For any hands SNGPT can't handle (2 all-ins, etc), convert the hand and post it.
4. Read the replies.
5. Repeat.

[jared701]

Another quick question. After reading the site about that software, does the software not actually tell you about the hand at the time it is happening? It sounds like this software is only for review (which I'm not saying is a bad thing, I just wasn't sure if it showed you advice at the time or was just for reviewing once the tournament is over)

[vMario]

No, It's not giving u live suggestions or anything like that - u can just analyze ur game afterwards.