Now, don't go turn into Gus Hanson because of me.

My biggest point is that people over value survival, and underestimate the value of adding chips.

You don't want to jump into neutral EV situations unless you suck, but you can't pass up obviously +EV situations. You are looking for overlay from the pot, the better the player you are, the more overlay you want, but don't overestimate how good you are. I don't think this applies as much to crazy single table games where you can make the bubble without playing a hand, but I am not sure about 3-table SnGs. The bigger the fields the more important I think it is because you have to double up so many times to even hit the money.


A 4BB raise was plenty there I think. I am not sure about raising a limper with 77, but your position was good for it.

On the flop, there was 1050 in the pot. The only thing I think you can possibly be afraid of is 33, 88 and 99. The pot is almost as big as your stack so, not a bad spot to all-in.

But what the hell do I know? Marm has been killing these games, I would like to see his take on it. This feels a little too aggressive to me, but I can't find any real fault with it. This would be a good one to post on 2+2 for some other input.

For the play of this hand, and look to my repsonses farther down to understand more of it:

PF, I'm not crazy about the raise, you did eliminate any other potential players, but the chance of getting repopped bothers me with mid pairs. I would limped and saw what the flop brought.

Flop, I think you over bet a bit, byt he math, but, you would be committed ont he turn anyways with a "correct" sized bet, so the "overbet" was good by pushing. I dont mean anything by this, just kinda a flow of thought thing here.



I don't like the PF raise, I prefer to define my hand more by seeing a flop as cheap as possible witht he hands that have great potential EV given a good flop (yeah that can happen for any hand, but with in reason) I discussed a lot fo this in my Limp&Go thread I posted a while back.


For general tourny strat though, I have found you do need to build a stack fairly quickly, and continue to build that stack. In the three tables, the continuation of building isn't as big of a deal as the large MTT's. We had a thread on Watkinson's run in the WSOP this year, I think beav should his Day 1 stack would only be 1-2 bb's at the final table. You need to try to keep a stack of at least 30 bb's, preferably 50+ to ride the rollarcoaster that is a MTT. Of course thats the ideal situation.

You need to get this stack (in the 3 tables I'm refering to now) By making some edgier moves, maybe by taking advantage of the propensity of players to move a lot of chips early in these things with weak hands. Of course I'm not saying start calling PF allins with AJo, but some situations early that may be margin al may be a good play.

From this idea I have Noticed an Interesting trend forming in the results of my 3 table games. I have a large amount of cashes (1-5), few 6-9's, few 10-22's, then a large grouping of 23-27's. This trend is great on a $/hr EV type of scale. I seem to be either making $, or not wasting my time. This is due to my willingness to push My smalelr edges early in the event.

My pace is like this: Early, I dont like raising a lot PF, people have a strong tendency to reraise (and alot of TC at that) with a wide range of hands, I then have to release my medium hands after putting in more chips thatn I wanted too. If I limp. I can frequently see a cheap flop, which is now >50% of the hand. I don't even really start to try and steal much PF until the blinds get a little bigger, 3rd level or so. This also lets me stay out of the way for some of the confrontations that may occur and get a read on the table. When I do enter a hand though, I'm not playing it weakly, I'm searching to find a cheap edge then exploit it big time. I may play it slow PF, but I'm making correct sized bets (at least I hope) on the flop and beyond. This stage Im looking to catch a cheap flop hard and take most of somebodies stack to start me on my way.

Afetr about the 3 rd level or so, I start trying to pick up some blinds, and raising with some slightly weaker hands. Also by now, each table has usually lost a few players, so its in that grey area between SH and Full tables. Alloys for a littel more agressive style, this is where I usually build my stack. I bluff a little more, steal a little more, and that allows me to value bet a lot more.

Then it drops back into a full table, and I try to ride my stack for a while. Let the short stacks work them selves out, steal their blinds a little, but not a lot. Nothing too aggro, just enough to maintain your stack at status quo. Then when it starts getting Sh again, I step it up and make my run for the Final table/Bubble. I need to build here again with smart aggressive play, because when I do get to the final, I need to tighten up again for a player or two, then the bubble hits, I open way up and really build. Then, as I mentioned in another posts, I have 3 goals to reach, 5th, 3rd and 1st. $, $$, and $$$.

Thats my thought process for these things. I hope this kinda fits into the thread, as I was playing a 5 table at the same time (2-1 CL with 10 left ), so I may have wandered a bit.