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View Full Version : SNGs are down, personal challenge, 500 odd games, etc


Quercus
07-27-2005, 05:59 PM
I've never done one of the personal challenges that seem to be somewhat popular among a lot of posters. But, after heeming and hawing for the last six months about taking a few days off and heading to Vegas, I decided that if I could make $2k in 14 days of poker that I'd treat myself and my wife.

I've never made that much before (though probably close back when I was a 2/4 grinder) so it seemed a good challenge. I'm playing the 33s, which means I need to maintain a 8-10%ish ROI to make it (no including RB).

I crossed 500 games total yesterday and since I can't actually load any at the moment because PP is down, I thought I'd share the stats and ask a question or two.
http://www.fitcouture.com/images/sng-overview.gif

http://www.fitcouture.com/images/sng-finishes.gif

A few things I know about my game.

1. I am not good at accumulating chips before we get into bubble territory. At leat 3/4 times we get to 6 players, I'm below pay - usually well below par. I play very tight and risk averse while the blinds are small (16% VPIP, 5PFR - avoid putting a lot of chips in on draws and weak kicker type hands).

2. I am good at accumulating chips once the play starts to get shorthanded. Most players that I've run across do not seem to adjust their game as the blinds get larger and the table gets smaller.

3. My skill with a shortstack is higher than my skill with a large stack. I tend to sit on my large stack and do not appreciably loosen my starting requirements to bully more players. There are some areas where I've gotten much better (stealing more liberally when there is a very small stack near the bubble with the rest being equal sized) but its still not something I play well. I hear people talking about running the table with their big stack and I wish I knew how/what they did.

4. I don't like full tables, I love shorthanded tables down to 3, but I'm completely lost heads up. You would think that two opponents wouldn't be much different than one, but the difference seems major to me. I absolutely suck at heads-up play, and end up second far more often than I should given the number of times I make it there. (One could argue its sample size, but I feel confident in what I'm doing and why prior to heads up, so I think its actually a measure of weak play.)

The posts here deal mostly with bubble play - and I've learned a lot from reading them, but I think I'm mostly looking at marginal improvements to my game through better understanding of the bubble. For folks that have overcome mediocre big stack play and subpar heads-up play, how did you do it?

Benholio
07-27-2005, 06:09 PM
[ QUOTE ]
4. I don't like full tables, I love shorthanded tables down to 3, but I'm completely lost heads up. You would think that two opponents wouldn't be much different than one, but the difference seems major to me. I absolutely suck at heads-up play, and end up second far more often than I should given the number of times I make it there. (One could argue its sample size, but I feel confident in what I'm doing and why prior to heads up, so I think its actually a measure of weak play.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Another thing that can cause these results is the number of chips you enter the heads-up stage with. If you are usually a 5500-2500 dog going into heads-up, then your heads-up results are fine.

If you don't feel like you are getting your due HU, you probably aren't being aggressive enough. Push from the SB. Push from the BB when the SB completes. Once the blinds are 200/400 and higher, you should definately be pushing over half of your hands in these spots, and you should be calling with top 25-30% of hands. Of course, if your opponents are extra aggressive or extra passive, you can adjust, but you won't be far from optimal if you just push 50-70% of hands and call with 20-30%.

You can actually check these stats in PT by going to the Position Stats tab and selecting 'Hands With Between: 2 and 2 players'.

Quercus
07-27-2005, 09:28 PM
I'm not entirely sure what this says, other than I seem to raise a lot from the SB.

I also never just complete from the SB... that's probably my limit experience...

http://www.fitcouture.com/images/sng-headsup.gif

wmspringer
07-27-2005, 10:49 PM
I used to have the same problem - I would frequently get 2nd, but never first. It was the usual cause - not being aggressive enough. I think I'm still not as aggresive as many people here advocate, but I do raise any ace heads up now, and I've found that in the 11s and 22s (my current level) a lot of people will keep laying their hand down and let you take a nice lead.

wmspringer
07-27-2005, 10:55 PM
(Of course, I'm still not that great at poker in general, but I now actually enjoy playing heads up; a great number of people on party don't really seem to have much of an idea what they're doing there. The extra aggression really does help you take down a lot of pots)