Shorthanded Sit 'n Go

[eMarkM]

I've been playing a lot of Paradise sit-n-go tourneys with a good deal of success. Only started playing two months ago in the $10 up to $30 tables. With 60 events under my belt, I have a very satisfactory 34% ROI being in the money 43% of the time. I'm very pleased with this, but I think I could be doing even better. Lately I've had trouble when I get to the final 3. In my last 8 tourneys I've had the following finishes: 2,2,2,5,2,3,2,3. Clearly doing well with money 7 out of 8, but didn't take first once.

My initial game plan I feel is sound and I covered this in a recent post (http://www.twoplustwo.com/forums/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=tourn&Number=238686&pa ge=&view=&sb=&o=). I basically just play real tight, perhaps even weak-tight, get into few confrontations in the early going without big hands and just watch morons bust out after calling all-in raises with middle pair while the blinds are still 10/20.

It's when it gets shorthanded I start having trouble. I think maybe my weak-tightedness that gets me in the money might cause me opportunities to take 1st. I'm also often the short stack by the time I get this far, so perhaps I should just be happy to get in the money with a "roll of the dice" to take first. Anyway, here are a couple of hands from my recent 2nd/3rd place finishes that illustrate the trouble I have at this point.

Hand 1: 3 handed, I'm on button with T3030 and AQ /forums/images/icons/spade.gif . Blinds are 150/300. I raise to 800. SB has T3350 and calls. BB (T3620) folds. Flop comes J /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif 8 /forums/images/icons/spade.gif 7 /forums/images/icons/heart.gif . SB bets out 600. Now what? Just fold? I have trouble with these situations where all I have is A high. I know A-hi will often win 3 handed. Should I have just gone all in to begin with so I don't have to make these choices? I didn't think the blinds were big enough at the time to risk this.

Hand 2: Another typical situation I find myself in: HU, blinds 1000/500. I have T3160, opponenet T6840. He raises 1500 and I fold 98o. I end up folding my SB or folding to his raise in 4 of the next 5 hands to the point that I'm down to felt. I had 84o, 52o, 64o in those hands and I'm finally forced to make a stand with Q8o and lose to his A7o. Not sure how to handle these situations where I'm the short stack against someone constantly raising and I can't even get T high.

Hand 3: blinds 250/500, I have T1161 and need to make a move. I get 75s in the SB. Button (T2701) folds and I raise 750. BB (T6138) calls. Flop comes Qh6hJs and I check and fold to a 500 bet. My steal attempt against the big stack didn't work so I just bailed. Should I have even attempted it in the first place?

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Once you get down to 3 it becomes more about aggression than cards. In hand one, I would have raised 1200. Now, when all he does is call, what does it mean? (stop playing your cards here and start playing his) It means there's a small chance he has a big pair and he's trapping. More, likely is, he doesn't have big cards (A or K). If he did, he'd raise. Now the flop comes and he bets out (in this case, he could have a piece of this with any drawing hand, but let's ignore that for now). Why is he betting out? He either has a piece of it or he's defending his money. He could have 7 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif 6 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif . If I think that, I'm tempted to come over the top all-in. After all, I raised pre-flop, I could have a J. Besides, I have 6 outs to a higher pair and both back door flush and str8 potential. Put *him* on a tough decision.

In hand 2, HU I'm hard pressed to not see the flop with 98o.

In hand 3, with that chip position, I fold or go all-in. One-Gap suited cards that are probably both live if I'm called by a non-pair. Fine.

I play tight in the early stages, too. But shorthanded it's time to be (dare I say) a warrior.

[cferejohn]

I more or less second what Kurnson said. Generally, people need a stronger hand to call then they do to raise, and if he is betting into a pre-flop raiser, he probably has something. My guess is he has second pair or a J with a poor kicker (i.e. he thinks he might be able to win it right now, but he doesn't want to have to call a bet, and he doesn't feel his hand in strong enough to check raise). If you go all-in here, you stand a good chance of winning right now, but otoh, you are putting in all your money as a probable underdog, which is something I personally hate doing. If I have a smaller stack, but still enough to stick around for a while, I often fold. I usually pull this move (betting into a pre-flop raise) on my opponents a couple times when it is short handed, so I figure that even if I throw away the best hand here, I'll get it back by making him fold the best hand somewhere down the line. Generally heads up, if I don't have a hand, I will let someone take the pot from me if they show aggression (especially if I have already given them reason to think I have a big hand). However, I will often show aggression with nothing or close to it, and that usually wins me more than enough to make up for it.

Hand 2 - I'd be prone to call with 98o as well. That aside, when you are heads up, you need to steal raise with nothing sometimes. If you've folded several hands in a row, the raise will look even stronger. When I'm playing heads up, I probably raise when I am first to act at least 60% of the time (much more if the opponent seems to fold too often). If I fold pre-flop when I am first to act, its as much an image thing as anything else (so the opponent doesn't just think "oh, he's raising with anything"). I've certainly had times when I've folded (say) 75o then raised with 72o on the next hand.

Hand 3 - I absolutely agree. Fold or go all-in.

[sam h]

Hand #1

I would go all-in here. You only have 10X the big blind and making a normal steal raise will make you almost potstuck. You will take this down uncontested most of the time and get called by hands you dominate (AJ, AT, KQ, etc) enough to offset the unlikely chance of running into something better.

Hand #2

This is basically a crapshoot with only 10BBs on the table. I would probably call and then bet out my last 1100 or so on any flop (except when you flop huge, in which case its probably better to check). The alternative is folding and raising all in with any two cards on the next hand. If you think the other player will fold enough - wrongly - to this raise, then go with this plan.

Hand #3

I'm assuming you have T1161 after posting the blind here. I think its close between raising all-in and folding. It really depends how likely the BB is to fold hands like 95o for 900 more. He probably should call with any two cards. I don't think raising the minimum is a very good idea.