staying aggressive with short stacks at table?

Im playing in a sit n go or a mtt an ive been very active upto the third level, calling raises with suited connectors/ pocket pairs, making raises if im first to open a pot, limping along in a family pot etc, all of which am trying to hit big or get out if i meet resistance.

Say i have hit big and doubled up, because of the structure of the small stakes tournament (10-9 man table, 1200-1500 chips) by the fourth level (blinds 50-100) i seem to find myself tightening up because of the shortstacks that can just shove against me! for example i have 2500 in middle positon with 67s and 2 people left to act have about 600-1000. I know i shouldnt raise because im not getting implied odds neither am i feared because they only have 1 move left! this is where i start to tighten up!

I know i should go for the medium stacks however you usually have to get past a small stack first before the medium stack has his turn in the blind (if that makes sense)

this is what i hate about these tournaments as i feel my crafty play in the first few levels gets dumped on by having to gamble because of the structure of the tourney!

So my question is should i keeping raising small hoping that the short stacks dont push or should i tighten up?

Um, you are playing backwards. You should play very tight early when the blinds are still small and not worth stealing and then loosen up later on. an early double up does not guarantee anything.

Sit & Go Strategy by Colin Moshman covers it very well. It is also very applicable for turbos use the high blind play section (thank you Belgo for pointing that out to me) as well as tournaments.

I disagree with that you should just play tight in the sit n goes in the beginning. That plan can just end up hurting you. By playing tight early your not going to end being in the middle of the pack unless you picked up a hand that doubles you up. I mean you don't want to be too aggresive raising with everything. I mean you could build up a nice stack early by picking up small pot and being aggresive at these players like you who tigten up there game too much early

I really don't understand what you mean by, "the shortstacks that can just shove against me!" But I will try to help with a little advice that I think can help with your problem, "i have 2500 in middle positon with 67s and 2 people left to act have about 600-1000."

Basicly, you should be trying to determine what the last two player's hand ranges from those postions are, and how well your 67s ranks against that range.

A lot of players will open the table from 'any' seat or postion. Those players will ussually have a high pre-fop raise and attempt to steal percentage. Also, other players will open the pot fairly liberally from just the last 3 postions or SB and then play tight from any other seat. These players ussually have a normal range on thier pre-flop raise percentage, but they typically have a higher steal percentage range.

You might want to consider a a three-bet based on your opponent's "attempt to steal percentage."

Try these as a starting guide (note that these are not mine, as I have adjusted my own steal hands according to the tables that I play, but I started with these as a base to learn the discipline of the steal, and found them to be very helpful in getting past that bump you seem to be sitting on now)

If an Opponent's steal percentage is:

20% RAISE or THREE-BET
From Cuttoff or Highjack 99+; AJs+; or AJo+
From Button 77+; A9s+; ATo+; KQs+
From SB 55+; A7s+; A8o+; KJs+; KQo+


25% RAISE or THREE-BET
From Cuttoff or Highjack - 77+; ATs+; AJo+
From Button - 66+; A8s+; A9o+; KJs+; KQo+
From SB - 44+; A6s+; A8o+; KTs+;KJo+; QJs+

30% RAISE or THREE-BET
From Cuttoff or Highjack - 77+; A9s+; ATo+; KQs+
From Button - 55+; A7s+; A8o+; KJs+; KQo+
From SB - 33+; A2s+;A6o+; K8s+; KTo; QTs+; QJo

35% RAISE or THREE-BET
From Cuttoff or Highjack - 77+; A9s+; ATo+; KQs+
From Button - 44+; A6s+; A8o+; KTs+; KJo+; QJs+
From SB - 33+; A2s+;A4o+; K7s+; K9o; QTs+; QJo

40% RAISE or THREE-BET
From Cuttoff or Highjack - 66+; A8s+; A9o+; KJs+; KQo+
From Button - 44+; A4s+; A7o+; KTs+; KJo+; QJs+
From SB - 33+; A2s+;A2o+; K6s+; K8o+; Q9s+; QTo+; JTs+

45% RAISE or THREE-BET
From Cuttoff or Highjack - 55+; A7s+; A8o+; KJs+; KQo+
From Button - 44+; A2s+; A5o+; K9s+; KTo+; QTs+; QJo+
From SB - 33+; A2s+;A2o+; K5s+; K7o+; Q8s+; Q9o+; JTs+; JTo+

50% RAISE or THREE-BET
From Cuttoff or Highjack - 55+; A7s+; A8o+; KJs+; KQo+
From Button - 44+; A2s+; A4o+; K8s+; K9o+; Q9s+; QJo+; JTs+
From SB - 33+; A2s+;A2o+; K4s+; K6o+; Q7s+; Q9o+; J9s+; JTo+

55% RAISE or THREE-BET
From Cuttoff or Highjack - 44+; A6s+; A8o+; KTs+; KJo+; QJs+
From Button - 44+; A2s+; A3o+; K7s+; K9o+; Q9s+; QJo+; JTs+
From SB - 33+; A2s+;A2o+; K4s+; K6o+; Q7s+; Q9o+; J9s+; JTo+

60% RAISE or THREE-BET
From Cuttoff or Highjack - 44+; A4s+; A7o+; KTs+; KJo+; QJs+
From Button - 33+; A2s+; A2o+; K6s+; K8o+; Q9s+; QTo+; JTs+
From SB - 33+; A2s+;A2o+; K4s+; K6o+; Q7s+; Q9o+; J9s+; JTo+

Again these are just starting guides to get you more comfortable with some of the hand and positions you can steal with.........but if you never learn how or why to steal.....you will never get past that point you seem to be at stupmt on now.

what does the 20% and other %s mean? are these the amount of time the late position raisers steal? how am i meant to work out the percentage they steal? some players steal alot which ill reraise with basically anything, some players are tight so ill tighten up my resteal hands, but most players lie between these two types which means leaning towards the tighter side. Are the hands you have written meant to be what hands i resteal with depending on there style? Also does 'three bet' mean resteal?

Getting back to my original thread, i understand i have to blind steal which i do alot from every position, its just short stacks have no fear to go broke which means if im trying to steal blinds a short stack can push at any time which means i have to fold with my marginal hands (cos am not waiting round for big hands cos i never get dealt any!), but because of the tournament structure there seems to be at least 4 short stacks pushing allin all the time therefore resulting in it being impossible to blind steal. This is where are tighten up because you never know if a short stack will push?

Keep reading the threads here at the forums. I think they will help with each one those questions.

Maybe invest in a hud for the percentages if you are thinking of playing for money. Otherwise just try paying more attention to betting patters in relation to position. It's really not that hard to see the guy posted an open or raise 3 out of the last 4 steal positions when it was checked or limped to him.

Are you not paying attention to the betting patterns?

Good luck.

There's one solution if you hate the structures of SNG and MTT and it pisses you off like it pisses me off.
Play cash games!

So if I understand correctly you dont want to raise 3-4xbb (300-400) because then your pretty much stuck if someone with say 6-700 chips total shoves?
I guess I can see where your coming from, I say keep an eye on the short stacks and if you have to act before them, definately tighten up a little, especially if youve seen them shove alot. But also remember that if a SS shoves, alot of times it's with any ace, hell sometimes with any paint, so if your raising AK, AQ, AJ (even A10 sometimes)and they shove, then no problem, but if your always raising with connectors, gaps etc. then you might not want to do that before a SS. Just my 2c

well usually, i play tighter in the beginning. that is where i make the least "gambles." It is not the worst thing being a short stack as the levels increase. I find that as the levels increase, people are more afraid of losing their chips. Use this to your advantage. That is when you can play more connecting cards and lower pocket pairs. I guess you are the kind of player I would do this too. Nothing against you, or anything, because this is how you play, I am just saying that it seems to work for me.

You should still stay aggressive, but you can't be loose-passive, which it seems like you might be doing a bit. If you are going to make a 3.5BB raise or so into someone who has 8 or fewer BBs left, you have to call their all in, even if you just have 87s or so. At that point, unless they have 77-AA, it's a good call. Also, their m is so low that they're shoving with any decent hand. If you raise with these hands, you can't be afraid to show them down.