Hi all, im new to this forum and would appreciate some advice. I play mainly low stakes sit and go on stars and to be honest with you all (and myself) im beggining to realise im probably not as good as i thought i was (the road to recovery begins here). Ok heres the problem i seem to keep recycling my bankroll which isnt big but should be aequate to beat downswings and bad runs, the problem stems from mid to late game play when i seem to go card dead. What always happens is players switch gears and begin stealing a lot of the time im indecisive about the range of hands i should be calling pre flop with when the game is four or five handed. Also is it just me but WHENEVER i try a steal from the button with hands such as K 10 or A 10 i almost always seem to run into something like A Q or QQ you know a genuine monster. Im not stupid enough to destroy my stack when trying to steal by over betting it just seems i can go from chip leader to short stack in less than a few minutes, after which i end up shoving and either double up and place or bust on the bubble. Any help would really be appreciated. Before any body screams donk at me as i say im here to get better and hopefully the advice you guys have will help.

I don't steal too much if I have an average kind of stack. I steal mostly if either I'm deep and can bully people with the fact that I can bust them and they can't hurt me too bad, or if I'm short-stacked enough (around 12xBB or less) that I can play push-or-fold preflop. Trying steals with marginal hands when you have an average stack just gets you into a lot of tough decision situations.

As for calling, you just have to pay attention to people and see how often they raise, and call with things that you think are either ahead of their range, or that will be easy to play postflop (like 87s and small pocket pairs, which you just throw away if you don't flop huge). Avoid calling with stuff like A8, which will tend not to get paid when it's the best hand, and might be hard to get away from when you're beat by a bigger ace.

thanks Xopods some good advice there. Well Wotawaster yes i play nine man mostly five dollar and a few 10 dollar games, i have around a $120 dollars in my account (which swings wildly). Having had a think about it if im getting decent cards i generally play them well, e.g in the first few levels im playing very little from early position, A A down to J J and AK with a three to five times raise (depending on how willing people are to call with a marginal hand, if its a loose game i usually up the raises and try and isolate one player). A Q and A J i usually limp with and probably call a raise behind and see what the flop brings. Mid position if there are two or more limpers in i might play a couple of late position hands such as j 10 suited or 9 10 suited and again see what the flop brings. Late position i tend to loosen up more but still find my self folding really marinal hands such as J 8 or gappers, maybe i should play more of them but im not really convinced. If i hit the flop hard i defend my hand aggressively and have a good idea of when im way ahead, slighty ahead or likely behind. As we get to about six handed and the blinds are about 100 to 150 im playing more hands such as suited connecters J 9 etc from mid to late position but still keeping it fairly tight in early position, the end stages depending on my stack im either in shove or fold mode or playing strong hands knowing that i cant be to badly damaged. The problem seem to be when i dont get decent starting hands or miss flops and my c bets are chased down or raised. Im sure all players have these down swings but i seem to end up in a rut losing more and more money til the cards come back. So a bit long winded i know but thats my strategy for sit and goes, Maybe i could be doing things differently.