STT final 2 or 3, what's a good strategy?

I routinely make it to the final 2 or 3 in STTS, but I rarely make it to 1st.
Its gotten to the point where I just all in constantly when I get to the end, because this seems to lead to better results for me.

Any strategy tips on what to do in these situations, assuming the blinds are about 200ish and stacks are roughly 5-7k


what about when what has the bigger stack? should you try to blind steal or what?

what if I have the smaller stack? then what is the right strategy?

Once ITM and blinds are ~100/200 (as you've suggested) if you have ~12-15 bb's, you don't really want to open raise with hands you're not willing to get it allin with ( you don't want to raise/fold preflop on a stack of this size). With ~20bb's you don't want to be open-shoving because you're risking too much to win too little (instead, look for spots where you can re-steal shove.. ie. if villain seems to be stealing alot, look to shove it allin over their raise with a stack of say 12-20bb, as your stack will be able to do significant damage to villain's stack & they likely won't call you unless on a decent hand (< this is player read dependent obviously).
On a big stack in late levels (once ITM) you'd typically want to adjust your raise size to 2.5xbb (instead of 3x) but again it depends upon the table (also depends upon 'effective' stack sizes, ie. if you're raising 2.5x into the BB who is sitting on 7bb, you might as well just shove on them preflop because you're not going to raise/fold to their smaller stack shove because you'll be priced in anyways, so just get it in first if you're planning on raising).
There are other variables (situational differences) involved once ITM in a SNG (ie. 2 bigstacks & 1 small, 1 big stack, 1 med. stack & 1 small, 3 med.-sized stacks, etc.,... also whether or not your opponents are playing too tight, or if they (or one of them) is playing very loose,... real aggressive, or real passive).
Think ahead in hands (ie. if you raise will you be priced in to call the villain's shove if they shove it allin over your raise, what about if they flat call preflop but then leave enough behind to shove the flop with ~pot-sized bet). Also use earlier player reads to determine if villain calls down wide. Another thing to consider is, "Is villain(s) familiar with ICM", "Does villain believe we are familiar with ICM", "Does villain seem to have knowledge of good shoving ranges". We need to make necessary adjustments according to how villain plays & the extent of villain's end-game play knowledge.

thanks good info

yw,... anytime.
If you have a specific end-game situation that you want to ask a question about.... fire away.

when you get to about your end game about 3 people left i still play around 18 to 20% of the time, then if i'm the short stack then i would play small ball poker with only prem. hands

PO, I tried the style you mentioned.
I also tried something else which i seem to be having some success with now (won 4 of 8, though 4/4 when NOT exhausted).

Basically, i do 3 things:
1) I don't push all in except if i have an AA/KK/QQ. I don't call a pre-flop all in ever, unless if i have AA.

2)I limp into the pot, unless if the villain seems relunctant, than I double raise them. I go in when they raise the blinds
3)I always do a 1-3 BB raise after the flop, regardless of my cards. I read to see if they have anything, if they don't and keep hanging on, i make them pay with the same level raises all the way down. I pay attention to flop texture to make sure they haven't made their hand (if they were waiting for one to develop)

Eventually the villain gets annoyed and starts to counter with all ins whenever they have something post-flop, because they are slowly losing chips. So I keep doing this till I have something better than a high pair (2 pair usually) and all in call.


this only seems to work when I'm not tired though because it demands reading the other player each hand & not making dumb mistakes. I won 3 in a row, then lost a bunch. I just played one again (now that i'm rested) and won again.

Poker Orifice gave you a lot of good advice and I agree with all of it. You don't need to be open shoving when blinds are 100/200 and stacks are as you described.

Re your post above - your shove range is way too tight for some circumstances. Stack sizes are critical when determining your shove range but if you are the short stack you are going to be shoving very wide.

Depending on the specifics you should be calling all-in shoves with a much wider range as well. You could call 10bb shoves as wide as 66+/AT+. Less bb's than that you are calling even wider.

You should never open limp during high blinds. A good player will be re-raising you almost every time.

I strongly recommend that you read Collin Moshman's "Sit 'n Go Strategy."