Overall Gameplan help

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rumsey182

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Here is some help on how to create and morph what i keep hinting at in a lot of my posts here: A very simple guide to overall gameplans

This is tailored to sngs but can be done for any game and is only meant as a model to show what i keep trying to point on in a lot of posts

The idea of an overall gameplan is to more or less come up with a rough estimate of how you want to play with little or no knowledge of you opponent and adjust only when you have reason to

The way i would think about it is to imagine you are going to play a SNG, now imagine what your opening ranges will be for the first level from early position, middle, the button, and the SB

Start thinking about what your general ranges for flatting out of these positions are (if any) and also what your raising ranges generally are

keep this simple, bin things by saying "if early position open" and stuff like that

Now think about when people limp, again keep it simple and bin with easy assumptions the goal is not to create a perfect gameplan to be followed perfectly this is not meant to be your exact guide but think of common situations

Use some basic guides for your postflop play now, like saying " im generally cbetting except when X, Y, and Z either make it bad or another play given this texture or stack size is superior"

Now this about all of these things when you are:

50BB+

30-49BB

25-29BB

18-25BB

sub 18BB

again try and keep it simple this isn't an exact guide but have a general plan in your mind of what you generally want to be doing. Some examples would be:

cbetting a high % in heads up pots

not cbetting as much in multiway pots OOP

barreling in good spots

trapping someone when you crush the deck

I don't love to use axioms in poker too much but using some to help form a fundemental plan is fine, we are attempting to work out what we do 80-90% the time and the idea is that most of these spots are basic and straightforward

Now armed with these ideas and thoughts in your head, you have homework: Go play a sng and keep an notepad next to you. I want you to write down how this overall plan you came up with worked (outcome is not as important as just seeing if it felt right and if you seemed to have a solid plan).

I also want you to write down what forced you to deviate at all from this. I don't want you to deviate a lot thou, focus on the big things. This does root into note taking but realize you don't need to know everything about someone just big notes to help (again keep it simple)

You don't need to know that: "villain limp called 104off checked the flop called the turn multiway OOP when he hit the 4 and called a second time on a safe river when he hit his 10". That is a lot to write, you wanna stay focused on the big picture just say "passive weak whale didnt raise safe river w 2p"

You now no basically everything about this person, you have a point where you def will deviate from your general plan if this guy does in fact raise a river (or honestly any point) against you because you now have an idea about his ranges for doing so

So armed with you deviations, how your overall game went ( play a few if you get busted out early) go back and look at how you played. What could you have done better? Do you have questions about your ranges for things? Post somewhere and ask for feedback, think about it yourself and establish what you think you did wrong.

Once you seem happy with what you have done, go over your overall plan again and adjust anything that now sticks out. Rinse and repeat this whole process again and again until you feel like you aren't really making too many changes.

This post isn't supposed to be a by the book how to play, in fact I didnt give you a single range for anything on purpose, because the whole idea of this isn't to tell you how to play or how I play it is to allow you to develop and improve your own game.

If anyone actually does this let everyone here or myself know how it went, I'm not a coach and honestly rarely have time to properly grind anymore but I hope i can still help people along the path.

RJ
 
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chakatak

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I find myself getting away from my game plan as i get closer to the money. I seem to get fustrated when i see people with 60 xs BB and i am constantly struggling to stay with 10-20 xs. Does anyone else have this problem. I end up making bad moves and afterwards know i shouldnt have but continue to do it.

Any suggestions on how to stick with a game plan??
 
Arjonius

Arjonius

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I find myself getting away from my game plan as i get closer to the money. I seem to get fustrated when i see people with 60 xs BB and i am constantly struggling to stay with 10-20 xs.
Unless you're very good at chip accumulation, you'll have a short or small-ish stack more often as you near the money than you'll have a big one. That's just how tournaments work because of the escalating blinds. The main thing you can do is try to get there somewhat more often with with a medium stack instead of a smallish one.

This largely involves ramping up your aggression during the middles stages. Look for situations where you can steal more and play small / medium pots against opponents who are naturally tight and/or who tighten up in these stages.

This does mean you'll bust out before the money a little more often, But when you don't you'll have more chips on average, and be in better position to make a deep run, which is where the real money is. One more deep run because of the added chips will mean more profit than a number of missed min- and small cashes.
 
Jacki Burkhart

Jacki Burkhart

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It's funny, I am teaching one of my girlfriends how to play...

I feel I've been overwhelming her the last few times we went out to the card room, so in preparation for tomorrow's game I decided not to give her any new info....just to re-hash the old stuff and make sure she gets it all...

so....I basically just typed up a whole "game plan" for her....it's not the way me or you would play, but a fairly unexploitable style for a newish player to test out the waters while she learns the ropes.

it was fun doing it, and it ended up being multiple pages long because I broke it down into 5 different stack size strategies....going back to the basics is a good refresher for any of us...and as I was typing it up I realized how far I've come, but also how much I've strayed from optimal play in a few areas....
 
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Jdawg0913

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A great book for you would be the raising edge by elky. It details everything you are looking for. It has really helped my tournament play and will be a good resource for you.
 
R

rumsey182

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I find myself getting away from my game plan as i get closer to the money. I seem to get fustrated when i see people with 60 xs BB and i am constantly struggling to stay with 10-20 xs. Does anyone else have this problem. I end up making bad moves and afterwards know i shouldnt have but continue to do it.

Any suggestions on how to stick with a game plan??
do you use a push fold chart? short stacks should be pretty scripted unless you develop some reads

is it a nerves thing?
 
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