HU SNG blinds high villain limps or min raises rather than shove?

[Pokerpun]

When in a SNG HU someone has a stack of less than 7BB I believe one should play push or fold from the button, there are plenty of sources now on how to play push fold with short stacks.

BUT what if youare BB and the SB/button limps or in raises what policy then? should one just push with the same hands one would have called apush in the BB or should one check/call with marginal hands?

I guess it helps to have a read on whether SB/Button is likely to be trapping in this situation.

Any thoughts? thanks

[Fliff]

If limp, push appropriate hands. If raise, push hands you intended to call with, or call and push any flop. Barring reads.
I have no evidence for this claim.

[hra146]

Its confusing at first but pretty simple if you start to think about it the right way and get a feel for the situation.

The fact that people minraise or limp with less than 7bbs first of all implies that they suck and dont know SAGE (either of that is true 99% of the times). Now your job is to interpret either action.

When very weaktight players minraise (which is what they do when they have a playable hand) rather than shove they are essentially committing themselves. Sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously. (You can observe that when you do shove over their raise and they sometimes think for <20 secs before calling)

What that means is that you want to be ahead of their CALLING range. Since you have zero (or very close to) fold equity you cant shove stuff like 34s hoping that you wont be dominated...


... UNLESS blinds are so high that pot odds make it worth while. What you are doing when shoving or folding is that you weigh your hand vs. their calling range TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the loss of your big blind if you fold.


Slightly more advanced is to think about whats gonna happen later in the game if you fold and if you shove. Some people are so incredibly tight-passive that I can easily fold a hand that would qualify as a A+ call-all-in SAGE hand to a minraise. Thats because I know that Im never any better than 50% (and sometimes crushed) AND because I know that my edge is HUGE on the button [and in general as long as he does not shove!!]. If they fold too much to your raises (pushes) and if they fold their SBs too much (= not applying SAGE) YOU HAVE AN EDGE. And dont underestimate that edge. It can get pretty pretty big. So while you are guaranteed to make a profit in the longrun by calling AI with A2o [7bbs deep] you are not always MAXIMISING your edge.




When people limp however the entire story grows a little more complex. You will have to determine what kind of a player he is and WHY he limps.

Some people:

- never raise, ergo always limp
- will limp big hands to trap you
- always only limp weak hands and raise strong hands
- limp weak hands and fold to a raise
- limp weak hands and call most raises


Against all of these you have to play a little different. Vs the first guy I will pretty much apply SAGE. Maybe set your standards a tiny little bit higher if you can safely assume that he isnt limping 100%.

Second guy can turn ugly, but in general still SAGE the [censored] out of him. Those times dozens he loses an extra 0.5bb by limping/folding never make up for the one time he limps with aces and you do shove.

3 and 4 are self explanatory and 5 will sometimes be the reason that youre weaking up your neighbors at 3 AM.

You get the picture. Its not rocket science. Think logically about what your opponents are actually doing, why they are doing it and why they think they are doing it. Then act accordingly.


High blind situations are a great way to feel bad about yourself or your play and to be results orientated. Dont. Trust your instincts and do some ranging and math. High blind poker is still poker, just without postflop. You can still use reads, you can still gain edges and all that there is to it.



... have I mentioned that Im drunk yet?


cheers, Ima go sleep

[Vinetou]

Hra, you might be drunk, but this is one hell of a post. Great post. Maybe you should drink more often when you post on 2+2.

Generally, I find that in the past I was too afraid that a weak tight guy will trap me if I push a lot of hands so I didn't push them. This was a mistake. They try to trap, but don't be afraid of that. This guy will limp fold a lot to try to set you up and when he finally gets a hand to trap you with, you will be on a freeroll from all those blinds you stole from him early on so you really don't care if you are an underdog. You should push a lot when he limps. His strategy doesn't pay off in the long run because good cards don't come that often. Well, if he is one of those guys who think KT is a good hand to limp call all in with, GL, I probably have 3 to 2 shot.