A Question on M

for anyone who has read harrington's book when he talks about M, your stack / blinds + antes. He says that you have to be willing to gamble more the lower your M gets etc... He talks about the red zone really well and describes how to play it. However, he doesn't really talk about the adjustments for the yellow and orange zones except you have to loosen up more and play more aggressively. Maybe someone can help me here by what he means such as if I have a low yellow zone M and am in early position what new hands should i consider playing? Or if i'm in the orange zone and someone raises the pot and i have AJ should i reraise all in and start gambling at this point or should I wait for a better spot even though time is running out cuz i'm on the short stack etc?

[nath]

In the yellow zone I think it is tantamount to take down the pot preflop as much as possible. With that knowledge in mind, I'm looking for situations, not specific cards. There's no more limping; whether or not I raise depends on a combination of my cards, opponents' behavior and stack sizes, and spot in the tournament. Just remember something people forget: Even if you are lowering your standards for early position raises, many people in a similar spot as you will still respect an EP raiser. If you have desperate short stacks or giant stacks at your table this may not apply as much, but your FE tends to be high when you open early.

The second situation you describe, as so many are, requires more specific information. It depends on everything-- raiser's stack size, position and range I would expect from him, chance he will fold, etc.

There are never hard and fast rules because each situation is unique. In general, though, as you drift through the zones you need to be more active in attempting to win pots than you were before.

(I can't really tell you my hand standards, because each situation is specific. I will consider pairs, aces, paint, suited connectors... maybe even pure garbage if I feel the table will fold.)

The one thing I DO want to avoid is a situation where I raise with a very mediocre hand and a small stack goes all-in. In these cases you're usually getting the correct odds to call, but showing down a trashy raising hand will affect your ability to make future steals-- and since you will probably lose the hand and drop to the Red zone as a result, your ability to steal is critical. Unless your opponents aren't paying attention or have already figured it out, they'll be willing to expand your calling ranges against you, which you don't want.

I hope this helps as general advice.

Ok... say you get called and flop a top pair medium/bad kicker or some other marginal holding. such as an ace on flop w/ A8-AT or a pocket pair on a non threatening board and your in the orange zone. Do you have to play the hand for all your money due to your small stack size. If yes, would the same hold true for a low yellow zone.

[burningyen]

I agree this is a confusing part of the book. I don't have it in front of me, but this is what I remember: He talks about the need to gamble it up more in the yellow and orange zones. This presumably means that you should be widening your range of starting hands. And yet he also says small pairs and suited connectors become less playable without explaining what starting hands become more playable. I believe the inference is that he expects to play more marginal hands containing an A, K or Q.

As for your other questions, I think the answers will depend mostly on how your table has been playing.

[nath]

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Ok... say you get called and flop a top pair medium/bad kicker or some other marginal holding. such as an ace on flop w/ A8-AT or a pocket pair on a non threatening board and your in the orange zone. Do you have to play the hand for all your money due to your small stack size.

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Yes.

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If yes, would the same hold true for a low yellow zone.

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Maybe-- it depends on exact stack sizes vs. the size of the pot-- but probably.

Any hand examples you want to discuss?

For the most case I won't call a raise w/ an AJ or KQ and most of the time AQ but when you get short stacked I don't know if i'll ever see the premium hands ever again. How big does my stack size have to be to make these calls for all my chips. An example problem would be a hand like AJ,88,77,AT some hand like that you have about 13 bbs and someone raises from say middle position. Would it be profitable to go over the top all in. This is a stage in the tournament where blind stealing becomes important and he has made opening raises from middle/late position. So, do i make a move w/ the 88,AJ,AQ,AT,77,66 or do i fold and wait to do an opening raise. And should i do it with these hands with a smaller stack size where I have virtually no FE such as 6-7x the big blind where he's pot committed. Thanks for responding.

[nath]

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An example problem would be a hand like AJ,88,77,AT some hand like that you have about 13 bbs and someone raises from say middle position. Would it be profitable to go over the top all in. This is a stage in the tournament where blind stealing becomes important and he has made opening raises from middle/late position. So, do i make a move w/ the 88,AJ,AQ,AT,77,66 or do i fold and wait to do an opening raise. And should i do it with these hands with a smaller stack size where I have virtually no FE such as 6-7x the big blind where he's pot committed. Thanks for responding.

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I'd probably make those moves (at least with the AJ and pairs; AT I'm a little more wary of). If he knows the value of stealing, you probably have the best hand, and you're no longer at the point where you can avoid races. Maybe he folds or maybe he calls-- and you might be in trouble-- but you no longer have the luxury of waiting.
If my stack was shorter and I had no FE (I try never to let this be the case BTW) I'd probably still do it figuring that I had to take a shot at doubling up.

It's always better to be first in, though.

Thanks for your help in your posts, I think they've helped me out. I just think I need more tournament experience. What did you mean by never letting that happen to you (the NO FE). Because in the online tournaments I play it seems like after levels 1 2 and 3 whcih lasts i'd say 45 minutes at most your almost forced into that position. What do you do to avoid these situations??? Becuase I find myself in them quite often or at least playing in the low yellow zones. And I don't know if the reason I keep getting into these situations is because I'm not taking enough risks in general basically folding myself into an orange zone OR is this typical for my tournament structure. For example: starting chips are 1500, blinds go up every 12 minutes with the levels of 10 20, 15 30, 25 50, 50 100, 150 300?