Placing first?

[Tapped]

A couple of weeks ago I posted the results of my first 50 10+1 sngs on party, 45% in the money and 36% ROI. (no one took those numbers seriously, though, since I mentioned I just started playing poker a week before that).

Now that I've put in another 100 sngs, the results are more credible but a trend is starting to emerge. After 150 I'm still at 45% ITM but down to 27% ROI. Placements are 17/22/29. Definitely seems like I'm having trouble getting first, even though I'm trying to be as aggressive as possible after I make top 3.

In general, what are some of your strategies when it's 3-handed? What do you actually do to 'gamble for 1st settle for 3rd'? I pretty much raise all in with any a/k/high-q/pair, and I avoid the low suited connectors completely.

Thanks.

[tolbiny]

make sure you notice who is tight, and who is loose in thier blinds- when you get some tighties then just raise almost any 2 and dump to a reraise (unless its small putting them all in, ect.) you will end up dominating them in late stages and by the time they get a hand good enough to double through they will be below 1000 chips and you can keep on going.
if you run into blinds who like to come back at you alot, i occasionally limp and then push allin agains their raise (if i think they are capable of folding).

[Phil Van Sexton]

With blinds so high, it's difficult to really outplay your opponents. Also, you may have pegged certain players as "tight", but be aware that many players change their strategy completely once they reach the final 3.

You don't need to steal every blind to win...and your oppponents won't let you do that anyway. The winner is often the player who knocks out the 3rd place finisher, so you are going to need win a showdown to win.

The key is to steal enough blinds to maintain a decent stack or grow it slowly. If you are moving all-in with any K-high, you are probably doing it too often and you will be caught.

By stealing less, you will be playing better hands and therefore have a better chance when you are finally called. I'd probably push with A6+, any 2 cards 10 or higher, and any pair. Of course, it depends (stack size,opponents, whether you are button or SB).

The other real key is when to call. Pushing all-in is easy, but calling an all-in correctly is equally important. I think a lot of players use your push requirements (a/k/high-q/pair), so calling with A9+, KQ, or 66+ will often be successful.

If you steal enough to maintain your stack, you will hopefully buy yourself enough time to catch people raising with A3 when you get AJ.

If you can't steal enough to maintain your stack because of constant raises, I'd consider calling with more hands and take your chances on a showdown. If they are raising constantly, they're doing it with almost any hand, so hands like QT or K9 start looking very playable for you.

If you are getting raised almost every hand, do not change your own requirements for raising to keep up...loosen your requirements for calling to bust them.

[GuidoSarducci]

Might want to get away from the "All-In or nothing" approach. No need to break out the bazooka when a hand grenade will do. Once you push all in you're done playing poker, you're now playing slots.

A lot depends on your chip position. If you can survive a few rounds of blinds, there's no real urgency to gamb000l it up with K-rag. Wait for a real hand, and play it hard. Don't just shove with anything remotely playable.

Obviously, if you're the baby stack, and the blinds threaten to kill you, you'll need to resort to the "shove and pray" tactic.

[codewarrior]

Your strategy is that of the type of player I destroy when it is three-way or, more importantly, heads-up. My advice is this: steal enough to maintain your stack, and keep this phrase in the back of your head when you catch a hand... "one well placed check-raise" Then, when you get it down to two players, repeat the above. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif