What do you push with ITM?

As you may notice I'm new here. I played ~150 $22 SNG's a few weeks ago at Party, and I started very well, but later my ROI dropped to 10-15. I started playing $33's yesterday, not because I believe I can beat the $22's, but because I think that with my bankroll I can easily play there (>150 buy-ins).

I've now played 32 $33's, my ITM is 41% and my ROI is -20%. This is partly bad luck, but it's still horrible. I think I could really improve my play in the money.

So, assume we're in a typical $33 SNG, 3 guys left, blinds are 200/400 and you have about 5-6 BB.

What do you push with now? Do you ever not push but call/min raise? If you are on the buton, what would you do with these hands? QJo, KJo, pocket pairs (which will you play?), JTs, A8o, A4s, Q9s, etc. Are these good enough? What's the worst hand you'll push with?

And how does it change when you are chip leader, or the low stack?

[Frills]

Drop down to $5-10 buy-in till you get the hang of it.

There are no set hands to push on, it all depends on reads, and table experience.

[lorinda]

There is no magic formula.

You push as often as you think you can get away with, and maybe a little more on top. No more than that though.

If you think this is vague.... read the first line again.

Lori

Thanks for the replies. I'm not dropping down yet, because I promised myself I'd drop down if I lose 15 buy-ins, which I haven't. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Things seem to turn around. I played 4 more, and I was 3rd, 1st, 4th, 2nd. In the one where I placed 4th I had a nice stack, and reraised all-in with AKs after the SB raised me, he called with 54s and won, which crippled me. 2nd because it was an all-in fest and I lost the coinflip. :P

[rvg72]

As blinds get higher in relation to your bank roll you obviously push with lower and lower cards - frequently when ITM with high blinds it makes sense to push with any 2.

Search for Sklansky Karlson charts within this forum - this will give you a rough idea but like others have mentioned, the answer is always "it depends".

Also, consider purchasing sit'n'go analyzer from Eastbay

http://sitngo-analyzer.com/

It will let you look at your plays after a game (or setup hypothetical situations) and indicates whether or not you push or fold based on a bunch of factors. This of course requires that you understand your opponents call range but you get better at figuring that out over time.

rvg

[theredbaron]

[ QUOTE ]
As you may notice I'm new here. I played ~150 $22 SNG's a few weeks ago at Party, and I started very well, but later my ROI dropped to 10-15. I started playing $33's yesterday, not because I believe I can beat the $22's, but because I think that with my bankroll I can easily play there (>150 buy-ins).

I've now played 32 $33's, my ITM is 41% and my ROI is -20%. This is partly bad luck, but it's still horrible. I think I could really improve my play in the money.

So, assume we're in a typical $33 SNG, 3 guys left, blinds are 200/400 and you have about 5-6 BB.

What do you push with now? Do you ever not push but call/min raise? If you are on the buton, what would you do with these hands? QJo, KJo, pocket pairs (which will you play?), JTs, A8o, A4s, Q9s, etc. Are these good enough? What's the worst hand you'll push with?

And how does it change when you are chip leader, or the low stack?

[/ QUOTE ]

I am very aggro when three handed. If I have _more_ than 13 blinds and I _am not_ the chip leader I am a little less so.

If less than 10BB are at risk: IE, I am short stack or I am pushing into short stacks:

Typically, I will open-push any "good" jack (J8+), any pair, Any ace, etc. If I am beating up a tiny stack, I will set him all in with _any two_.

Has worked well when my opponents are aggressive. When they are more passive, IE, I get a free BB now and then, I become a bit more selective, but not much.

Hope this helps.