Some questions on late game play

I've been struggling with late game play recently. I usually play a very tight early game which often leaves me with around 675-625 by the time BB is 100. Once here I feel that I either play too tight, and end up having to go all in when I have 315 chips and pay a BB of 150, or I play too loose, earning some chips from pushing but then busting out because I got called by a better hand. The following are some situations I often run into. What would you do and why? Thanks!

1) There are 6 ppl left. You are BB with 650 chips before paying BB of 100. You get dealt Q6o and it is folded to SB who has 1250 chips before paying SB. SB raises to 300. What do you do? What if you had K9o?

2) Same situation as above, except you are now SB and the 1250 stack is BB. You have Q9o what do you do?

3) You have 615 chips and in the SB. BB is 100. There are 5 people left. You have AJo. CO raises all-in.

Thanks for you comments.

Anyone?

[Indiana]

yummy,

I used to have this problem too. Basically, if you are going to play tight, then play REALLY tight till the end. If you do this you should not be down to 650 at this level (not on stars anyway). However, to be really good at SNGs you will have to look for opportunities to earn chips along the way by doing things like pushing from BB when limped to. You will also have to push to steal blinds near the end. Another thing that can help is using your position to steal pots when checked to on the end or when u feel weakness.

Indy

[downtown]

1) I fold. With K9 I also fold. Try to be first in the pot with a raise all in to build your stack back up.

2) I push. You have plenty of FE here, and even if you get called Q9o is not in terrible shape except against 99+.

3) I would need to see other stack sizes. Similarly, it would help to see stack sizes for the rest of the table in the other examples as well. Post some hands you played for more feedback.

[junkmail3]

[ QUOTE ]

1) There are 6 ppl left. You are BB with 650 chips before paying BB of 100. You get dealt Q6o and it is folded to SB who has 1250 chips before paying SB. SB raises to 300. What do you do? What if you had K9o?

2) Same situation as above, except you are now SB and the 1250 stack is BB. You have Q9o what do you do?

3) You have 615 chips and in the SB. BB is 100. There are 5 people left. You have AJo. CO raises all-in.



[/ QUOTE ]

1. Fold. Fold. (Gap concept at least. You need a much better hand to call, than you need to raise. Also, both of these hands suck in this situation.)

2. Push. He has to have a pretty good hand here to call you, as you could seriously cripple his stack if he calls and loses. If you push and he has AA/KK or some crap, bad luck.

3. Fold. Though I hate this situation, AJo isn't great against a range, and I'd rather be first all in on the button during the next hand with almost anything.

[wulfheir]

I'm a break even player after 350 $11 SNGs.

[ QUOTE ]
1) There are 6 ppl left. You are BB with 650 chips before paying BB of 100. You get dealt Q6o and it is folded to SB who has 1250 chips before paying SB. SB raises to 300. What do you do? What if you had K9o?

[/ QUOTE ]

If he's been mercilessly doing this, I may push back with marginal holdings. I would say K9o is good enough if he's been doing it every orbit. I prefer to take blinds from the left of me though.

[ QUOTE ]
2) Same situation as above, except you are now SB and the 1250 stack is BB. You have Q9o what do you do?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's good enough for me to push.

[ QUOTE ]
3) You have 615 chips and in the SB. BB is 100. There are 5 people left. You have AJo. CO raises all-in.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have no FE left until I get more chips. I'm content with a coinflip holding AJo. I might even dominate if I'm against Ax.

Thanks for all the comments guys. Here is a hand history for an early hand. Is this too weak? I figure he could have AQ -AK and I could easily be at a coinflip and there were better situations to put my chips in.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (10 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

MP1 (t960)
MP2 (t725)
MP3 (t1095)
CO (t680)
Button (t615)
SB (t785)
BB (t800)
UTG (t740)
Hero (t800)
UTG+2 (t800)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with J/images/graemlins/spade.gif, J/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero calls t15, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, MP2 calls t15, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, Button calls t15, <font color="#CC3333">SB raises to t100</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero folds, MP2 folds, Button folds.

Final Pot: t160