always make sure everyone knows you're there. if that means waiting a few seconds to fold...or calling a min-raise on your blind by a big stack if you're big stacked too. calling all-ins on your blind if its correct to...like they have 278 chips and the BB is 200 or something, no matter what i have i'm calling...they're not getting that much bigger of a pay-day off of it if they win and they're still probably in a toilet hole of trouble.
i've said before that i'm not fond of these. but at carbon poker, they introduced them recently. and thanks to a couple CC fr's ($30 worth), and about a dozen fun step 3 cashes...and now played 50 $1 don's, i'm up over $70 in a little more than a month's time (i think i got the $5 cash in aug though but wasn't playing there at all other than the cc tourney). the don's seemed like the perfect low risk deal i was lookin for.
i mean, at 1.08...you can play these really tight...and fold
equity is key. the levels per BB go 20/50/100/150/200/300/400/500. have yet to reach 500. fold equity is key by the time the BB reaches 150 if you haven't reached a decent stack, and its shove time. there are some god awful players in them...and taking notes is key and they've helped. but i've found no matter how short you are, if the whole table limps, you're better off just folding your A-rag that i was looking forward to shoving. i see ppl with big stacks playing each other and knocking each other out every 2nd or 3rd game, not even realize they were both sitting in good shape. tonight, i was in one...where i hadn't so much as played a hand. BB was 150...so i'm getting short. dealt AJs in mid-pos with 1 limper. i shove...everyone folds (a couple reluctantly by way of stall)...and we get down to someone who's limped every hand the entire way who's stack was 10 chips less than mine. they let the time run out...then call for time...and let their time bank run for 20 secs...then call...Q7o. wtf! since when does that require that much thought? that's a fold....nope...QUEEN HIGH! HMM HE COULD BE
bluffing! I COULD HIT A PAIR OF QUEENS WITH THIS HAND OR SOMETHIN!....really sat there and thought hard. i mean, i was thinkin someone was slow playing AA on me or something...nope. i laughed hard when they showed that hand...even after they hit a Q on the flop. i can't remember now, cause i was laughing, i either hit a straight or a flush and they were gone. Q7...note taken. but, over the course of 50 of these things in a couple weeks...i need to rethink my feelings on them...they are kinda fun. definitely are all-in or fold practice at the least. was just planning on using them to
bankroll myself for real sng's a little better...but i might bother with getting a better sample of them and moving up in stakes in them for more.
oh, and *EDIT*...a question for ppl who play a lot of these. i've run into trouble trying to multi-table these. regular sng's i don't seem to have this problem. maybe i need more practice...but i've found i'm shoving sometimes when its just a bad time to shove...mid-pos or cutoff with a marginal hand when i'm short and just feel like i'm
odds-wise, not getting a better hand before my fold equity is just not enough...where playing one at a time i'm cashing almost all of these things...(yeah i know, just 50 at this one site)...what's your all in or fold strategy when the situation comes up? i guess i just have a better feel for it in regular sng's when playing a bunch of tables at once