STEP tourney strategy

[talkinghead]

it was a good game, fae seat 1

[rjb03]

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Just out of curiosity. Can you stop at any of these steps or do you have to go on until the end. I mean if I get to step 4 and would rather have the $ for instance?

Regards, Peter.

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Nope, you've got to play the step 5, with quite a few sharks waiting. I guess some worse players will come along when they have time to step all the way up.

[Jman28]

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Yes, the gap is HUGE. You can enter with trash, but you can't even call with monsters a lot of the time.

You certainly shouldn't be flipping many coins or taking risks for all your chips at any point in the tourney. Avoid hands like AQo early on that may be +ev, but result in you losing your stack too often. Small pocket pairs don't change much in value since you rarely lose your stack with them.

I could be wrong about some of these points, but I think I have a good feel for adjustments for satellite structures.

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Thanks for the response ZeeJustin. When you say you can enter with trash, what exactly do you mean? Are you seeing a lot of cheap flops with 76o in attempts to hit a monster?

Also, because TPTK hands are stack losing hands, how much will you PF raise with AKo early in the tourney? late in the tourney?

Thanks again.

-Jman28

[Voltron87]

These step SNGs offer an incredible overlay for the top level player. For a strong, above average SNG player (those of us who play 22s-55s) they give a good edge. The 109/215 players on here must be having a field day. For the stronger SNG players these are halfway freerolls.


On the play side, this is one step 2 (55) i played today. I played 2 hands to the river. On one, I hit a set of 4s, turned a full house, then when my foolish opponent hit his flush he gave me all his chips. Up to 2200.

Then at the final table I doubled up with a pair of 10s vs a pair of 9s (4500 now). Apart from that 5 or 6 easy steals (off weak SSs) and I coasted through to lvl 3. You really don't have to play many hands, people will self destruct, and by the time they realize they should try to be in the top 4 it is too late. The blinds are high and the are being attacked. Though I imagine this changes at the 530/ final level.

I am a little puzzled as to why the lvl 5 payout isnt a little more spread out... top 4 is not condusive to the weaker fish.

[SuitedSixes]

In this STEP structure, position is even more important then ever. I found myself between the two big stacks at the final table and couldn't do anything, even prime stealing hands had to get mucked. I did move up to the next STEP, but just because of stupid play by others.

[Twentysack]

As a little side note, I played in the 4th Step today and as it got down to the bubble, the small stacks STALLED EVERY FREAKING HAND. just a heads up. but actually i found it pretty easy to advance given how many spots actually got to go on. Hopefully i can get lucky on step five and cash in my 12 dollar investment. :P