Beating the Party 10+1, Part 2

[keikiwai]

I don't think you should worry about giving too much information away by only betting half the pot after a flop. Everyone's stack is down and it's logical for you to bet half the pot whether you have a good hand or not.

1) If you have a good hand, others can reason, you wouldn't bet the whole pot because it would get everyone to fold due to the size of the pot compare to their stacks. So, if you flopped a monster you would not bet huge to intice others to call.

2) If you have a so-so hand or are bluffing, half the pot is good to do this with, others could reason, since you're testing the waters without risking it all. However, if you're making a pure bluff half a pot is not good, since it could intice others to beat your bluff with not very strong hands.

Anyway, the others could think about it many ways, but what it comes down to is, a smaller bet is not necessarily a sign of weakness, since others can see or even raise you, while this is not true if you go all in.

Basically it works out well for you, you don't have to risk a giant pot sized bet to steal the blinds after the flop, and the others cannot necessarily read your hand.

The downside: if you srewed up others are given the chance to raise on you, which they would be less likely to do with a pot sized bet due to stack sizes.

Not sure, if this makes sense, but don't worry too much about giving away your hand in these situations is what I think.

Peter.

[Trainwreck]

Great stuff, I personally play a bit different.

Early on, I am willing to limp with a huge range of hands in LP in order to snap someone off.

Once I 2x-3x up early, I am basically not heard from until 5 people are left, except with group 1/2 hands.

This method for me at least, and I played 5/10 SNGs on other sites, worked well.
I quit playing them entirely though. I only 1 table and it just wasn't enough $.
1 tabling gives me full focus on the table which does help ME a lot with my method.
During the middle LULL, once I've 2x+'d up, I was making book on other players...

Sweetest one for me, was when I knocked out ALL 9 players.
Wish I had the history on it, was a year and a half ago, I love to reflect!

Important observation at that level:
People love to call AIs when they have TP any kicker on flop!
YMMV

>TW<

[EasilyFound]

This is for the folks who gripe about playing tight during early rounds, watching other players pick up early leads, and entering level 4 with something like 600 chips.

How many of you save your hand history and review it after you play? I play one or two or a handful of tourneys at day. I take the time to review the hand history of each one to review my play, see where my leaks are.

Next time you do that, take a look at the chip stacks of the three people who finished ITM when you started play at level 4. I bet you be surprised how often the people with lower stacks finish ITM. I know I was.

Here's an example from a tourney I just finished playing. Somewhere during level 4, these were the chips counts:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (8 handed) converter

Seat 1: (t860)
Seat 2: (t920)
Seat 3: (t585)
Seat 4: (t1670)
Seat 5: (t670)
Seat 8: (t1555)
Seat 9: (t1380)
Seat 10t360)

Seat #4 had accumulated about 2400 chips after the first three hands, hitting sets on the first two hands that turned into boats.

Seat #10 placed 1st. Seat #2 placed 2nd. And Seat #5 placed 3rd.

Seat #5 doubled up on a preflop push w/KK. Seat #10 tripled up when his preflop push later on ended up as the nut flush. And seat #2 was relentlessly aggressive, especially shorthanded.

Now you can say, "Well, they got good cards." But the point is that they were around to take advantage of the good cards when they came, and they had chips when they needed them. They made smart decisions during the later rounds. Good judgment alone, of course, won't win a tourney. You still need to catch cards. But you don't have to have a mountain of chips entering level 4 to finish ITM.

If you've read my other posts, you know I'm no poker wiz. But one thing I have learned, I don't worry about playing too few hands during rounds 1-3 and not accumulating chips.

The old addage is true: you can't win a tourney during the early rounds. But you sure can lose it in the early going.

[PokerAmateur4]

Thanks so much for this post. I play Empire 10+1 and a a little bit of 2 table of the same flavor. I've always done alright. Changing from the calling/raising many hands especially early for the aformentioned strategies I am playing far tighter, folding aqo from utg etc. level one. Sample size is quite small, a dozen or so, but already I believe I see a large diffrence, certainly in results, I've immedietly gone to 4 tabling. I'll keep everyone posted with anything insightful I come upon.

[PokerAmateur4]

levels 4-6 why not raise ajo but raise 10j, doesn't that have enough definition against being dominated and have a greater chance of winning then 10js?

[treeofwisdom7]

BUMP!

[ilya]

Is this the most popular thread in the history of 2+2?

[astarck]

I guess so. I didn't know this thread existed and was suprised to see it's at 4 pages.

Ridiculous.

[ilya]

[ QUOTE ]
I guess so. I didn't know this thread existed and was suprised to see it's at 4 pages.

Ridiculous.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I'm almost certain it's not the most popular if you go by # of replies.
But I think it may be if you go by # of views.
Then again, all those quasi-philosophical debate threads that DS likes starting do tend to be insanely popular.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I guess so. I didn't know this thread existed and was suprised to see it's at 4 pages.

Ridiculous.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I'm almost certain it's not the most popular if you go by # of replies.
But I think it may be if you go by # of views.
Then again, all those quasi-philosophical debate threads that DS likes starting do tend to be insanely popular.

[/ QUOTE ]

Embarrassingly, I think the "Nude pix of Shauna Hiatt" thread had the most views...

(You think I'm kidding but I'm not)