Set Mining

Having done a forum search for set mining threads, there seem to be a lot of threads relating to set mining in cash games, but I don't play cash games.

OzExorcist has clarified that set mining is unlikey to be profitable in an STT except perhaps very briefly initially when everyone has relatively deep stacks.

What relevance does set mining have, if any, in MTTs?

At first I'd assume that set mining in STT's and MTT's would be very much the same. Not overall very profitable unless stacks are deep compared with the blinds (30BB+ I'd say) because you would have to put in too much of a stack you cannot reload if you miss, to hit your set.

Also, there are less chips in play overall (1500chips x 9players) to eventually win in order to make the risk woorthwhile.

But thinking about it now, I (and correct me if I'm wrong in this) believe that due to the fact that there are significantly more chips in play, and more players to wade through, that it might just be profitable to set mine longer (blind wise) into the tournament.

I do not have HEM or any tracking software, but I do take fairly accurate paper ( ) notes during an MTT and according to them, I set mine (these are from the last 7 MTT's I've played, including one Rush and one turbo) roughly 1 out 3 small to mid pp's in position, with what appears to be a slight gain. I do this until roughly the 150/300 level, where I just stop altogether. Now my subjective feelings on the topic tells me that it still isn't really worth it, but since I seem to be doing it anyways...

So this has been my experience, but I would be really interested to hear from our "expert" members about this.

Good post NWF, got me really thinking about this subject.

Same deal. You need deep stacks to make strictly set mining profitable (you'll want to have implied odds of 15 - 20 times the amount you need to call) and an opponent with a really strong hand range.

Lets say you have 55 against a tight villain who raises from early position.

The flop comes QK5. He three bets you. He could very well have QQ or KK and you have to hope he has AA or AK. Do you risk the rest of your stack as calling effectively would mean or do you fold?

NEVER FOLD A SET.

Snapcall / fistpump IMO.

K, you can now lock this thread. Its done.

Meaning a really tight range of hands that they play?

Yeah. Like if a normal player opens UTG their range is generally big pairs / big aces. These are the times we can set mine profitably when the stack sizes are right. Take that same player and have him open from the BTN and doing things like set mining from the blinds is not so good. He's rarely going to have a strong enough hand to want to play for stacks with a BTN open and since we're relying on implied odds we need to play for stacks as often as possible when we hit our set.

Right that makes sense, thanks