How to play levels 2 & 3?

[paddysreturn]

After reading TPFAP, I decided to make some improvemnts to my game. Previously, I had been folding everything except Aces until about level 4 and then using the gap rule to good effect. My results had been what i consider to be consistenly successful.

However, since starting to play a little more loosely for the first couple of levels my results have nosedived. I find myself in a lot of finishes around 6th-9th.

Obviously, my tournament post-flop play leaves something to be desired - which leads me to a couple of questions:

1) DS advises to go after small pots agressively. If I flop top pair with a good kicker and bet say 90 into 90 chip pot and get called do I continue to bet into the pot on subsequent rounds if I get no help on the turn? or do I just give it up?

2) How do I play in levels 2 & 3. For example, on the button would I call a 3 BB bet with AJs as it is still a relatively small amount of chips?

I seem to be getting dragged into pots and losing a fair proportion of my chips in the early rounds. If I can't master this section of the tourny then I must be better off going back to my old style of play as I am confident of my play in the later stages of a tourny.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[unfrgvn]

Where do you play and at what buy-in? How many chips do you start with? I think both of these make a difference in the advice you will get. I play at Party 10+1. One thing that seems to work for me most of the time is getting a hand like A 10 or A J in fairly late position. If it is folded to me(Yes this does happen, even in a 10+1!.) I open raise 3xBB at 1st level or 2.5 BBs after that. Almost invariably one of the blinds will feel the need to defend. So on level 2 I open raise to 75, get one caller, and we have around a T165 pot. After the flop, if he checks, I bet. No matter what. Usually 100 or 125. The majority of the time this will take the pot. If he calls or plays back at me and I've missed then I will be hard pressed to put any more chips into the pot without significant improvement on the turn and river.
I won't call a raise with these hands. But if I can get in the first raise I'll take a chance with them.

What hands are you playing now that you've loosened up? I think hands like KQ, KJ, K10, or QJ Q10 are hard to play on a full table. You tend to end up getting out kicked or two paired.

[paddysreturn]

I play at uk sites (Im English). t1000 at the start. Blinds are 8/15 (1) 15/30 (2) 25/50 (3). On level 1 I've started limping in with suited connectors and suited one connectors as well as combination pictures, AXs A9+o.

I got the impression from TPFAP that we shouldnt be raising with hands like AJ in the early rounds because we dont want to get re-raised.

[tigerite]

I believe TPFAP means don't raise if there's already been a couple of limpers (or a min raise) as one may be slowplaying. By all means raise first in if you're in late position, just be wary if there are others behind as it re-opens the betting..

Also for the same reason you should limp with AQo from early position, and limp or even muck AJo from there. (Depends on the game context with this one)

[captZEEbo1]

a hand like AJs I don't like calling raises with early on. I don't mind open raising in late position (if no limpers), but problem with calling a raise is what do you do when the A hits and he bets big? What about if the J hits and he bets big? He could easily have AK AQ JJ QQ KK AA, so you'll have no idea where you stand when you hit top pair. Another thing with AJs is take into account the position of the raiser. If the tournament is a real tournament, an utg 3x raise will be a strong hand, but if the guy open-raised in the seat right before you, you don't have to give as much credit to his hand. But basically, AJs is not the kind of hand you want to be calling raises with in early rounds (at least until you are very comfortable playing the flop, ie. being able to fold to bets on the flop when you hit top pair).

Continuing to bet without improvement is risky. A couple of factors are important here. Who acts first is very important. If the guy checks into you, then you bet and he calls. You need to bet the turn again, and if you get c/r'd, you are usually in a world of pain. But another way to control this is to not bet so big on the flop, but then bet bigger than before on the turn in order to show your hand is good. But then you won't lose so many chips if he has a really good hand and is planning on c/r the turn. If you act first, it's never good to bet the pot IMO. Usually you'll want to check-raise or check-call. Possibly check-call flop, and check-raise turn depending on how much he's betting, usually if he best smaller on the turn, a check-raise is in order (even if you have a draw). Another thing to consider is the board. If you have KQ, and the flop is Q72, it is likely you might be up against a set or a hand like QT if someone calls your pot bet. But if you have KQ, and the board comes up QT9 with two hearts, you are likely up against flush/straight draws, two pair anything, so you'll have to play this hand cautiously. One other really important factor is how many limpers are in the pot, or was the pot pf raised? If the there are like 8 limpers, and you have just top pair, there's a chance you aren't even in good shape. But if you pf raise with KQ, and there's only one or two callers, and the flop comes K82 rainbow, and someone calls a pot bet, procede cautiously. They likely wouldn't have called a pf raise with a hand that would give them two pair here; comparing this to a limping hand with 8 people, you have no idea what the blinds have, and many some people limp completely random suited hands that hit two pair.

It also very much depends at what level you play. If you play at the $5 level (or sometimes the $10 level), a pot sized bet isn't enough to get people off hands like bottom pair, gutshot draws, even hands like Ax with no pair and no draw. At the $20 or $30 level (I haven't gone above this), you can usually get people to fold crappy hands with a 1/2-3/4 sized pot bet.

I think one way to play early stages is to limp with hands like Axs and any pp less than TT, and try to get a monster. Be ready to fold your Axs if you hit TP and you have like A8 (top pair being hte 8s or the A). Another thing to be aware of is with your A8, if you are in late position you can bet the pot on it, but if you are in early position with many people left, never bet your pair of aces. If someone bets the pot, just assume you're outkicked and fold the small pot.

Levels 2 & 3 should be played roughly the same as level 1, except level 3, you can START stealing blinds if you think you can get away with it (the blind has to be tight, and you have to be in very late positon). Don't steal too many blinds though. It also highly matters what level you play at, for some reason, $5 sng players ALWAYS want to defend their blinds. $10 sng players will be less likely to defend their blinds at 25/50 but still do. $20's rarely defend their blinds. Strong $30s will defend their blinds, but only if they have a playable hand, sense your weak, and have a reasonable stack to push you around with.

[dogsballs]

nice post capt. Though I'd caution against limping in EP w Axs hands. I play stars SNG's tho, so maybe a difference.

In a nutshell, I play to make monsters cheaply in rounds 1, 2. Then tight as a ducks arse levels 3 through to blinds of 50/100, when stealing becomes important. By then I've built up plenty of steal equity as well.

Don't bother playing AJ (I usually muck AQ) to reasonable raises.

[Klak]

play very tight during levels 2 and 3. only play the premium hands and dont call many raises.

[paddysreturn]

Thanks for your responses everyone. I feel like I've got my game back on track. I played three SNGs tonight - 2 x 1st ($100 entry) and 1 x 3rd (£20 entry). Of course these are exceptional results but the important thing for me is that I didnt get into a situation where I was risking a large amount of my chips in any of the early rounds. Thanks.