I'm not calling enough (long, 55s, looking for insight)

[axeshigh]

I see people that I automatically label donks call all-ins with any ace, most kings, some queens, JT, any pair all the time. However, I usually need JJ+, AK to call pushes, which means I am routinely folding A9s, AJ, 66-TT, etc.(ITM I will call with good aces and smaller pairs, I am talking 4-7 handed here level 3 and above). I am fairly sure that the pushing aspect of my game is well honed, and my postflop and early level play is better than that of the great majority of my opponents from what I have observed.

Given that over the last 2000 55s, after starting on a 800 SnG 20% ROI heater with tons of firsts, my overall ROI is around 12% (still good) but my third places outweigh my second and firsts by a lot (I have more fifths and thirds than anything else). I'm fairly sure that I am neither too agressive or not aggressive enough, so I'm thinking that I may not be calling enough.

Some of my 3rds happen when a fish donks up a 7000 chip stack by sucking out 5x in a row and I just sit there ITM with 800 chips at level 5 and there's not much I can do. I notice that the majority of my games where I do not double up with a premium hand just have me busting with J8 vs KT when I push from the small blind. It is very rare that I manage to make 5-6 steals in a row to get a decent (2000) stack that will give me a good position on the bubble and make me able to shoot for first.

I doubt with my current style of play I will ever be a losing player at the 55s if they stay this way, but I am having some trouble at the 109s when I try them. It may be normal for winning players to have a sort of bell curve finish distribution with a high amount of 3-6 finishes and something like 12% firsts, 14% seconds, and 0-10% 7-10ths, but I thought it would be more profitable to find a way to get more firsts. Which brings me back to my original question: Am I just not calling enough, or should I look for other leaks?

[axeshigh]

Anyone? Or if anyone who plays 55s or 109s and wants to discuss on MSN or AIM PM me.

[Slim Pickens]

Well, I have a thought about the finish distribution. It probably caused by a player having excellent preflop skills, especially at high blind levels, and less highly-developed postflop skills. The player isn't able to fully exploit the early levels enough to keep up with the LAG's who get lucky early on, and thus hits the later levels with a chip disadvantage more often than not. The high-blind pushbotting may not give enough of an edge to make up for that, even if played perfectly. I have the same finish trends, so I'm interested in what causes it.

SlimP

[axeshigh]

Thanks for your input Slim /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[The Don]

If you have a stack > 4k with 4 or more players remaining in the 55s then you have a great chance at first. To this you have to give people (especially noted pushbots) way less credit for hands and make a few more calls. I play way differently at the 55s than the 22s, I simply make less marginal calls in th 22s because there is more EV to be gained elsewhere.

[Irieguy]

[ QUOTE ]
I am routinely folding A9s, AJ, 66-TT, etc.(ITM I will call with good aces and smaller pairs, I am talking 4-7 handed here level 3 and above).

[/ QUOTE ]

Based on your finish distributions, your ROI, and this comment... I would say that you are making some bad folds against pushes.

Also, if you are folding pairs and aces ITM you are going to get a lot of thirds.

It sounds like you are a typical 2+2, too-tight, pushbot. If you want to improve your ROI, you will need to pick up more chips early and learn to make +EV calls when you don't really want to.

Irieguy

[AA suited]

as always, it depends:

- how shortstacked am i?
- villians stack size
- # of players left and their stack sizes
- am i the BB?
- my read of villian

AKs is auto-fold or insta-call depending on the above

[axeshigh]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I am routinely folding A9s, AJ, 66-TT, etc.(ITM I will call with good aces and smaller pairs, I am talking 4-7 handed here level 3 and above).

[/ QUOTE ]

Based on your finish distributions, your ROI, and this comment... I would say that you are making some bad folds against pushes.

Also, if you are folding pairs and aces ITM you are going to get a lot of thirds.

It sounds like you are a typical 2+2, too-tight, pushbot. If you want to improve your ROI, you will need to pick up more chips early and learn to make +EV calls when you don't really want to.

Irieguy

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the comment. I guess that I need to get it out of my poker mentality that every time I call an all-in before ITM I must be certain to be a favorite. Trying to work on ways to get chips early but it's not easy since I'm fairly new to poker (been playing since june) and it's hard to find info on that.

[suited_ace]

Buy this (http://sitngo-analyzer.com/). There's no better way of learning which calling range you should have.

[Slim Pickens]

Here's the problem with using SNGPT. It's often difficult to put your opponent on the correct pushing/calling range to make your calling/pushing decisions. A large fraction of the hands I analyze in SNGPT (ones where I'm really not sure if I made the right choice) come down to the hand range for my opponent, and don't yield any better answer than "it depends." The only way to confirm you're playing correctly is to put your opponent on a range of hands, then see how often you are shown a hand in that range. That takes a long time and a lot of paying attention. As a check, you can confirm in SNGPT that your correct range of hands leads to a correct push/fold decision, but pretty soon I think you'll find the mathematical information way less useful than the subjective "what is he playing?"