Rambling thoughts and questions regarding small stakes sng (Party)

[tewall]

1)The most common mistake I see are unnormal bet sizes. If one consides a bet of between 1/2 pot and the pot to be normal, virtually every hand one sees bets outside of this range. A betting sequence I often see is 1/20th of the pot on the flop and turn, followed by all-in on the river.

I've actually learned something from these bets. For example, I'll see a pot of 150, and someone will bet 15, and everyone will fold. So I think that's got to be worth trying.

Another use for the itsi-bitty bet I've seen use for is as a blocking bet. It seems that often when one bets 15 (into a pot ten times the size or more), it often gets called all the way around. So that's led me to wonder if it might make sense to limp in with say Ax suited, trying for a flush. If one hits the flush draw, one could lead out with the tiny blocking bet. I'm thinking that might be +EV, but I've not tried it. Does anyone do this?

Another thing I've learned is to make the big overbet all-in in the first round with QQ through AA if several people have already limped in the pot, and then wait for mister 33 to call me.

A question that comes up with the big bets is where one draws the line. That is, what's good enough to call with? I've been drawing the line at TPTK (or sometimes just TP). I'm talking about the early levels here, and assuming I've brought it in with a raise. If I've limped in, I'm more cautious. I find that it's better than 50/50 my TPTK will be good, although of course sometimes it's not.

2)Players make rediculous calls. Things like calling with nothing but overcards or a gut-shot or third pair. The way to take advantage of this is of course to make big bets and take advantage of their desire to call.

One time I went all-in PF with QQ where my all-in was maybe 1.5 times the size the pot after 4 or so had limped in, and this guy wrote, "I want to call!" (but he folded). It was humurous in its honesty. I felt like apologizing for making him fold.

I think an area of my game that could improve would be making larger bets. I tend to bet around 50-75% of the pot, which works fine, but I wonder if betting more might be even better.

3)I used to think bluffing was profitable in a number of circumstances, but now am not so sure. For example, if several players limp in, and you're in the big blind, you could go all-in. The problem I see with this is that people will limp in with hands like KK and AK, and then call your all-in. So I've reduced my bluffs to the following:

a)If I'm in the SB, on the button or CO and first to act, I make a standard raise, and follow it up with a 1/2 pot bet (assuming I'm checked to).

b)If I'm in the big blind and it's folded to the small blind completes, I min-raise. Surprisingly often the small blind will fold right there. If not, I follow it up with a 1/2 pot bet (assuming I'm checked to).

c)If I'm the first one in the pot, and there it's heads-up or three way, I'll usually bet 1/2 pot (depending on the flop texture and pre-flop action).

Those are the only bluffs (not including bubble pushes) that come to me that I'm currently doing. Does this sound right? Any others worth running? Obviously since one of the banes of this level are rediculously bad calls, bluffing strategies are limited.

Oh, one for sure I should add, is if I have a chip lead, or it's 2 or 3 handed, I'm looking to steal a lot.

4)Bubble play. This is the part I'm most at sea about. I notice that players push too infrequently and make just awful calls, with things like K9 and A3 when the blinds are still quite high. So I'm wondering for those who use SNGPT, what settings do you use? I've been thinking "Lose" and "Maniac" may be the best to use. Maybe a mixture, assuming a mix of players would be best.

My strategy has been to be quite aggressive pushing, too much so I think, but very conservative calling. I've been pulling back recently on the pushing ranges, and trying to tighten up in general. It's difficult to know where to draw the line here. Any suggestions appreciated.