AK and SNG's, I have alot of questions and no answers.

My question evolves around the problem of playing AK in 5$ SNG's, when the blinds are low. Last night I played in about 10 SNG's and was dealt big slick or two high cards e.g. .AQ AJ s , several times when the blinds were low, generally levels 1 through 4. I would raise preflop , about 3 or 4 BB ( might I add cautiously with AQ and very cautiously with AJ) Anyway I think I the flop missed me almost every time. It would generally be an uncoordinated flop such as 7 4 9 rainbow. When only 1 or 2 people called my initial preflop raise, I threw in about a half pot bet. To see where I stand. Nearly every time this situation occurred one or both players would call or raise my bet on the flop! Leaving me completely befuddled as what to do on the turn. It seems as though the players at these 5$ will almost refuse to lay down any hand on the flop!I don’t know what to do in order to combat this! One of my theories is that if I miss the flop, when the blinds are low, I should just check/fold. I think that it is ill advised to put a lot of chips in the pot when the blinds are low and I only have over cards, not to mention I correctly executed exactly two bluffs last night.

So my questions are as follows, remember I am only playing in 5$ buy in SNGs

1. When the blinds are low and I miss the flop with 2 big overs, after I made preflop raise, should I just check /fold?

2. It seems like these guys call my bets on the flop no matter what! Should I stop my continuation betting?

3. Is it always ill advised to try and muscle out pots, when the blinds are low?

4. What do you guys do when you miss the flop with 2 overs?

5. I have discovered and now assume(at least so far) that coming over the top is not effective against these players at all. Every time I come over the top they make me fend for my whole stack, have you guys found similar patterns and are these assumptions correct?


Any help would be much appreciated
Thanks a lot,
Al

The major thing to keep in mind is that you have to play against your opponents. These lower buyin games can be pretty loose. I usually see a couple of all-ins in the first level or two. Stay away from all that. Just play the cards given to you early on. You'll need every chip later when you get to the bubble. When your opponents are loose, play tight, when they are tight, play aggressive.

1. Against more than 1 opponent in the early levels. Absolutely.
2. If you notice this is happening, stop the cont. bets. Try to get a read on who is a maniac or not. Early on, players could have anything. They play a lot of crap, and a crap flop might hit them.
3. I personally like to stay away from making moves early on. There's no need to get fancy.
4. If there is more than one player, check/fold, unless you have a better read. These guys will call all-ins with draws, so be careful. Save your playing for the bubble.
5. These players are fairly loose and call a lot of draws. I have more success coming over the top on the river if they haven't shown a lot of strength.

Keep in mind you are talking about just a few situations, but in general early on in the low limits, players are very loose. You'll need to stay pretty tight to beat them. I don't bet a lot early on without a monster hand. The basic strategy is to stay tight and try to double up as the favorite on the bubble.

Thanks for the reply. I needed the help. Anyone have anymore suggestions?

[nova]

I know a few friends that depending on the texture of the flop as well as the number of opponents that they'd check the flop from early position, even though they were the PF raiser. I like to mix it up, I understand the frustration of why they didn't toss away their hand to a cont. bet. "how could this flop have hit them" sometimes is answered in a strange way.

One thought would be that if you miss it, that you check from early position to see what they do. This keeps the pot smaller and doesn't open yourself up to a reraise. Where at higher levels you could be looking at a set, you could just be looking at a trash hand or an inside straight draw (or a made hand). To succeed at these tourneys you have to win with AK as well as beat AK. If they are wild, avoid firing one more barrel if you have a read. If not, keeping the pot smaller will tell more about their hands depending on their actions.

[valenzuela]

1)yes.
2)yes.
3)yes.( that means dont do fancy plays!)
4)fold.
5)ure not making someone fold his crap that happens to beat urs.

[Uppercut]

Stop playing AQo and AJo in the first couple of levels. (Unless your first in from late position.)

Thanks to all your replies guys. They will all help me out a bunch. I needed to hear all this stuff.

Thanks again,
Al

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Stop playing AQo and AJo in the first couple of levels. (Unless your first in from late position.)

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Would you really recommend that? Isn't it possilbe that this could be a slight -ev?

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Stop playing AQo and AJo in the first couple of levels. (Unless your first in from late position.)

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Would you really recommend that? Isn't it possilbe that this could be a slight -ev?

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I also wanted to know does this include limping in with low pocket pairs and A-x suited (when blinds are small)What should I do if I have KQ OTB or in the CO and it is folded to me?

[tewall]

I play at Party. I don't know how this would work at Stars, but here's what I've tried, and it's worked very well.

If I'm out of position with AK, I'll raise about 10xBB. I'll usually get 0 or 1 callers. The big raise will often take it down, but I'm fine with that as AK is a difficult hand to play OOP, especially if you have more than 1 caller, as you're finding out.

If I get only 1 or 2 callers, I'll fire a continuation bet of 1/2 pot. My experience has been that this will take the pot much more than 1 out of 3 times. The key is to find a pre-flop raise that's large enough to get, on the average, one caller. That should get a lot of value for your hand.

I don't play AQ or AJ from EP. From late position I would play it the same way; make a big raise, hoping to get exactly one caller, and then follow up with a cb if the flop misses and it gets checked to me.

I'll take one shot at the pot after the flop, and then I'm done if that fails.

This has worked very well for me, but the lowest blinds at Party are 10/15, so a raise of 150 is a significant portion of the 800 you get. Another thing the large raise does, BTW, is price people off of drawing to get sets.

At any rate, my experience has been that you can get people to fold to the continuation bet, with the larger pre-flop raise.