[Cactus Jack]

Thanks for posting this question.

This is a real leak in my end game. I do this far too often. Leaks like this keep me at the 11s and one-tabling, because at this point, I'm still working on my game more than trying to make a lot of money.

I think much of this giving away chips comes from a common human misperception: Everybody thinks like I think.

We expect our opponents late in the game to be doing the correct thing, i.e. loosening their hand requirements. Very often they are not doing the correct thing and we run into better hands that we thought they'd be playing. Players improve once they learn (either taught or are lucky enough to realize it on their own) that the secret to winning is tightening up the hands they play. They start doing better, naturally. Until they learn to loosen up, and when, they win some, sometimes often since they aren't playing us much of the time-- [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]--and this reinforces their keeping a tight rein on their hands, not as often as we win, but often enough for them. (I think this is why we are seeing more and more 7-8-9 players at the higher blind levels.) We start getting aggressive, which is correct, and we win more than they win. That's how we end up busting out in 4th, being shortstacked in 3rd, and not winning even more often than we are. Perhaps herein lies our Achilles' Heel? We're giving them a far higher range of starting hands than they are actually playing!

When we load up SNG-PT, we're giving them more credit than they deserve. The lower end of the range is not the hands they would play. This throws off the entire model? (I'm not sure, because I don't have enough experience with it, and sure as hell don't have the math skills many (ok, MOST) here do. I could be totally off in my thinking.

What I need to do is really study those bubble hands they are playing, seeing how often I'm calling with worse hands in situations where I'm trying to put them out. I think I'm simply giving them too much credit for playing correctly.

I am giving away too much of my advantage here. As I said, this is a leak that's not always so apparent. I'm anxious to hear more experienced players give me more feedback here.

Good post.

CJ