Lo limit sng problems. (Need help!)

[medeiros13]

Bvb?

This is a scenario that sometimes happens i call it that the bubble get stuck.
Let say we have 3 players. We all have around 3000 chips, the blinds are high 120/240. But i keep getting shit hands. Like 25o k4o. The problems is i cant make a move. Beacuse i only get dealt decent hands i am afraid of loosing my stack. But on the other hand i try to make small bluffs on the flop. So maybe this description of this scenario is bit short.
But i hope you understand.

I understand your point but you have to remember that you are 3 handed so even K high could be raised up. You need to stop thinking that your opponents are going to have big hands everytime they raise....if you're learning to loosen up, they are too. To that point, do you ever reraise a player who raised or do you almost always call? Something to think about.

Now, if you are going to try and bluff after the flop, I've found that small bluffs don't usually work. You need to hit that pot with a 2/3 to a full sized pot bet to get someones attention. Sometimes, you need to have the guts to fire another bullet or two in order to get your desired result. It is by far one of the hardest part of poker (IMO) to fire that 3rd bullet after you've been flat called on the flop and turn but I've found that you need to fire it to get the fold. Please don't take this as black and white because it isn't. You need to have a feel for the players left, texture of the board, your current table image and many other factors when deciding when to try to get creative.

It sounds like you're still playing a little scared and you need to work on that. Think about it, you run a bluff and get caught, what's the worst thing that happens? You're down to 1k chips and you don't even have to think about how to play; you're shoving to either double up or get knocked out. On the other hand, your bluff works, now you're the chip leader and you can start raising big and playing the bully at the table. Also, what are you losing anyway? A buck or two? If you're using good BR management, losing a SNG won't kill you

 

[Clambake420]

It sounds like you're still playing a little scared and you need to work on that. Think about it, you run a bluff and get caught, what's the worst thing that happens? You're down to 1k chips and you don't even have to think about how to play; you're shoving to either double up or get knocked out. On the other hand, your bluff works, now you're the chip leader and you can start raising big and playing the bully at the table. Also, what are you losing anyway? A buck or two? If you're using good BR management, losing a SNG won't kill you

One of my leaks, i know i play scared sometimes, been trying to work on it. I know i play even more scared after a ton of bad beats and losing sessions. i start thinking everybody always has me beat and i fear making that bet so i check/fold. next thing i know my game is spiraling downhill....hmmmm could be whats happening as we speak. God i suck

 

[joe steady]

Bvb?

Okay guys i played 4 tournaments. 2 out of the money (both third). 2 in the money
One second and one first. I did as mediros13 said I loosed up a bit, which i say made more profit for me. However, i think that played good at all tournaments. But i have question:

This is a scenario that sometimes happens i call it that the bubble get stuck.
Let say we have 3 players. We all have around 3000 chips, the blinds are high 120/240. But i keep getting shit hands. Like 25o k4o. The problems is i cant make a move. Beacuse i only get dealt decent hands i am afraid of loosing my stack. But on the other hand i try to make small bluffs on the flop. So maybe this description of this scenario is bit short.
But i hope you understand.

Yeah, well, keep in mind your opponents are getting sh*t hands, too. There's lots of info out there about push/fold ranges. Google "SAGE/Nash" and you'll see what I mean. By the time you're 3 handed, the cards you have don't matter as much, it's more position and chipstacks.

 

[hunden]

I understand your point but you have to remember that you are 3 handed so even K high could be raised up. You need to stop thinking that your opponents are going to have big hands everytime they raise....if you're learning to loosen up, they are too. To that point, do you ever reraise a player who raised or do you almost always call? Something to think about.

Now, if you are going to try and bluff after the flop, I've found that small bluffs don't usually work. You need to hit that pot with a 2/3 to a full sized pot bet to get someones attention. Sometimes, you need to have the guts to fire another bullet or two in order to get your desired result. It is by far one of the hardest part of poker (IMO) to fire that 3rd bullet after you've been flat called on the flop and turn but I've found that you need to fire it to get the fold. Please don't take this as black and white because it isn't. You need to have a feel for the players left, texture of the board, your current table image and many other factors when deciding when to try to get creative.

It sounds like you're still playing a little scared and you need to work on that. Think about it, you run a bluff and get caught, what's the worst thing that happens? You're down to 1k chips and you don't even have to think about how to play; you're shoving to either double up or get knocked out. On the other hand, your bluff works, now you're the chip leader and you can start raising big and playing the bully at the table. Also, what are you losing anyway? A buck or two? If you're using good BR management, losing a SNG won't kill you

Well guys i must say thx alot for the help. My roi have increased since i started this thread. I follow every advice i get to 100%. So i have played 2.25$ on FTP. One second place and one first.

But the problem i en-counted today. It was a calling station that was so lucky (i giggled a couple of times because of his luck). I mean he called every bet i tried to use him as an ATM. But he still manage to catch that miracle card. It was impossible to pot him of a range of hands. So how would you guys play against him.

One thing i really sucks at is HU. But often i still manage to win. How??? I don't know. So i need advice on this part to.

 

[RamdeeBen]

I've played everything from $0.10 and even a $10.00 (bad bankroll management but needed to see the difference in skill) Not an ounce of skill difference, in fact i found it easier at the higher range scale of buy-ins. It's very hard to put anyone on a hand at the lower limits as most players are just people playing for a fun game, not really trying to achieve anything so literally if the lose a few buy-ins in a few hours it doesn't bother them like it does me or anyone else does whos trying to follow a strict routine. I've justnot got the roll to start at $5.00 upwards to have to struggle down here lol. Guess it's a learning curve to a degree.

I think you have to weigh it up in terms of what people would gamble with on say an evening. Might be sat in one night and think they are bored so deposit say $50 and play 5 SnG's and be worse players than micros or $4 etc. I think anything under $10.00 buy-in you have to expect all sorts of difference player, if you got the roll to play higher, go for it.

 

[hunden]

Today i played it soo badly, even do i mange go + for the day.
I made really bad decisions!

 

[hunden]

What do you guys do when you are just dealt crap hands the entire tournament?

 

[heehawkid]

i have been playing poker for over 40 years. I have even made a final table in a wsop event with 392 people. Poker supported me and my family for a while and paid for part of my house.
My suggestion is to quit playing all online poker. Even free games. I have won money in live games from Monaco to Las Vegas yet I can't win $5 online. For several years and serious hand charting in my online playing I cannot believe they are allowed to call it poker.

 

[cjatud2012]

What do you guys do when you are just dealt crap hands the entire tournament?

shove anyway. (no seriously)

one quick comment. Don't get too excited if you've done well in your last ~10 tournaments, you can probably attribute your ROI to luck. At the same time, don't get too discouraged if in your next ~10 tournaments you lose a lot. You can attribute that to luck too. The really can't judge your skill from your ROI over just a few games, even if you have ~1000 tournaments your EV going into a tournament is surely higher at the end of that stretch than it is at the beginning, as you've probably made improvements in your game.

So the only way to see how you're playing is to review your games, and to make an objective analysis of your decisions. If you can't be objective or you're just not sure what the right answer is, post your question in the forum.

i have been playing poker for over 40 years. I have even made a final table in a WSOP event with 392 people. Poker supported me and my family for a while and paid for part of my house.
My suggestion is to quit playing all online poker. Even free games. I have won money in live games from Monaco to Las Vegas yet I can't win $5 online. For several years and serious hand charting in my online playing I cannot believe they are allowed to call it poker.

what?

 

[baudib1]

You don't want to move up where the play is definitely better. Those more experienced players will exploit your weaknesses - and they will do it with hands worse than K8os lol.

If the players are bad where you are playing be happy. Stop worrying about short term results.

This. seriously. at higher levels people will be shoving into your BB with 72o and snapping your shoves off with Q9.,

 

[eamesy4980]

i have been playing poker for over 40 years. I have even made a final table in a WSOP event with 392 people. Poker supported me and my family for a while and paid for part of my house.
My suggestion is to quit playing all online poker. Even free games. I have won money in live games from Monaco to Las Vegas yet I can't win $5 online. For several years and serious hand charting in my online playing I cannot believe they are allowed to call it poker.

Ive also played poker for over 30 years, ive won 2 wsop bracelets and i agree with you. gullible comes to mind.

 

[kidkvno1]

Most steal attempt's from the button are called, so i use the SB, CO with the button, to get my steals in.

Jump up to full ring..

 

[baudib1]

wat

SnGs are basically solved.

 

[Oil_Fan]

I have to say that I've enjoyed reading this thread. It also addresses a few leaks I have in my SnG's ($3.40). For me it's not late play when things tighten up. I'm actually pretty good at that. That pushing for a first place finish.

Me it's playing early on when there are a couple of LAG's at the table. It just drives me nuts. But I'm thinking opening up my range and being willing to shove preflop when they do a reraise and I'm dealing with a good hand.

 

[earneri]

I think the best bet is just to move up in limits if possible, the players at the very low limits either are not very good, or they don't care because the money isn't that much. But for fun I like to play the .10 360 person sit and go's on pokerstars and I mean, people move all in with anything, and I mean ANYTHING, until you get down to about the last 100 people or less. But for the most part I think that a lot of people in the lower limits just really don't care that much about the money so they are willing to take more risks, or just play like a jackass.

 

[Lofwyr]

I think a big issue in the low limit SNGs that people overlook is rake. You've already gotten advice to move up some so the rake kills you less, it's very good that you took it.

Rake as a % of buyin is a crucial figure to know for the games you play. Beginning players are usually in a bad spot because the rake at low SNGs is usually over 10%, which is pretty obscene. Smaller tournaments typically have a higher rake% as well ($3.00 + .40 9-man vs. $3.00 + .25 45-man). $.15 doesn't seem like a lot but it has a profound effect. Those 45-man games are more profitable just because of the rake difference (not to mention the fact that the larger field games are typically softer anyway).

For play-style, keep in mind that the "stage" of the tournament isn't really what you use to choose how you're playing. They work as convenient headers, but each "stage" really covers a handful of variables. Your style should be built on: A) your chip stack (primarily in terms of BB count or M), B) the chipstacks of other players, C) the blinds, D) overall table play (if they're tight on the bubble you should play more loosely), etc. Examples: If you happen to take a major bad-beat early on and have 500 chips when the blinds hit 25/50 guess what? You're pretty much in ATC-shove territory. If you knock out 3 players in the first hand you can probably afford to play tight for quite some time, let the blinds get big enough to threaten the remaining players and then open up for the kill.

Basically, it's best to just be aware of what's going on at your table on a "big-picture" level. That will inform your decision making better than anything else really (especially if your MT'ing, it'll be your most consistent indicator).

 

[spunka]

But the problem i en-counted today. It was a calling station that was so lucky (i giggled a couple of times because of his luck). I mean he called every bet i tried to use him as an ATM. But he still manage to catch that miracle card. It was impossible to pot him of a range of hands. So how would you guys play against him.

This might have something to do with your bet seizing.

 

[tombomb92]

get your stack before the bubble even if its through stealing blinds then on the bubble just cruze your way through

 

[palmerd2]

my advice

If you can double up twice before the bubble you should get first or second. True tight aggressive play should gurantee your having the better hand when it comes to showdowns.

Steal blinds by using this formula (assuming 6-7 players are left, and the blinds are around 50/100 or 100/200)

-if in ep, fold unless you hold a Tier 1-3 hand (JJ+)
-if in lp, fold unless you hold a Tier 4+ hand (99+)
-if in co or btn, raise if everyone has folded with anything.
-if in sb, fold unless you have JJ+
-in in bb, fold unless you have 99+

After the flop, cbet if first to act. if you have position, raise 3/4 pot if he checks to you; 9 out of 10 times villian will fold.

THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO MULTI-WAY POTS.

Hope this helps!

 

[cjatud2012]

Any more rigged type posts will be decimated by yours truly

 

[RamdeeBen]

I imagine you can become a winning player, if you play badly to a degree and take risks and gamble where you shouldn't be.

This is what the case is I've noticed at the micro limits. Cash games are quite similar. The theory of playing TIGHT at micro-limits just can't really yield a good result over the long term. More often than not, a raise preflop, will quite consistently get called by someone with Ace,rag or j,10 os etc. The list is endless. You either get out flopped or people will call and re-raise your hand even if they are so far behind and you can never put them on anything. Higher limits you get respect for a raise and Ace,rag, rightly so are tossed away.

Still though, play tight but to win you have to take risks. Playing tight just results in losses over time as I'v experience myself.