Re: Overbetting the Pot
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I've found myself overbetting the pot recently (see 2 sample hands below). Can someone convince me I shouldn't. My sub-conscious reasoning:
1. Fear of draws
2. If I can get up to $1200 then I can cruise to the bubble (where I'm comfortable), I really don't need to take a risk to get more chips.
3. It's PP 20+2 SnG, someone will probably call having paired the flop.
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Actually, you aren't doing much overbetting here at all. In hand #1, you made it $90 pre-flop when a pot-sized raise would have been $70. On the flop, you bet $400 into a $385 pot. In hand #2, you raised exactly the pot to $100 pre-flop. On the flop, you bet $500 into a $410 pot. While, yes, these are technically overbets of the pot, this isn't what's intended by someone saying they "overbet the pot." An overbet of the pot usually means you bet 150% of the pot or more. For example, betting $600 into a $400 pot.
As for your "sub-conscious reasoning" (it's actually your conscious reasoning...do you see why?):
1. Don't fear draws in a SNG. If you bust out because someone outdrew you, you just start a new one. Fear draws in a high buyin MTT because you don't want to get knocked out on one hand after you've invested so much time to build a chip stack and presumably are playing for a much larger prize pool than in a SNG.
2. If you think playing the bubble is comfortable with $1200 chips, you should see how comfortable it is when you have $2000+ chips because you got your AA paid maximally back in level 1. To win any tournament, you need to get ALL the chips at some point. Get as many as you can with a premium hand at any level.
3. Probably, but not necessarily. Always make sure you leave your fishy opponents plenty of room to run a bluff at you.
I would have bet about $100-$200 on the flop in hand #1. Heck, that board is so friendly to AA, I may have even checked, willing to give a free card, but primarily in the hope that my remaining 2 opponents would bet or bluff.
In hand #2, that board is scary enough that I probably would have gone all in.
--Z
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