Coinflips

This may seem like a bizarre post, but I've been thinking about my SnG game, and I frequently find myself in a position to be pursuing or calling likely coinflip situations.

My question is, what are the conditions under which you pursue coinflips (small PP against likely overcards, etc)?

Only when short-stacked? Against short stacks? Different times of the game? Against different types of opponents?

Really could go anywhere with this.

As always, thanks in advance for any comments.

Hope all is well!
Anthony

[Bigwig]

Your question is simply too difficult to answer in a single post. You could write 10,000 words on this subject. Easily. The simplest thing I could say is that I'm always more willing to gamble with a shorter stack, or a larger stack vs. a small stack (something that will not harm me strongly).

[Femto]

My initial thought would be to never "call" for a coinflip, unless way short or overstacked. Presumably you are better than your opponents, so there are bigger edges to be gained elsewhere. If you have some chips to work with, and the pot is big enough, pushing in a potential coinflip situation becomes profitable if you think villain can fold, or there is a ton of dead money.

[Nicholasp27]

well, def not with an even stack when 4-handed and u both have 2000 and there is a shorty with 300 and the blinds are 150/300


some situations u do it:

you are much bigger than the other player and there is lots of dead money in the pot
if u win the coinflip you will be in good position to bully and get lots of +ev situations, but if u lose, u'll still be in 'decent' shape
u are shorty and there is dead money in the pot...don't have much equity to lose and about to be blinded out, but if u win u get a decent amount of equity and get FE to steal your way back into the running

Definitely a fair point about the complexity and absurd vagueness of my question.

But I guess I meant it more like this:

Let's assume that you DO pursue coinflips in the following situations:

- +EV situations, which would arise commonly with lots of dead money in the pot

- situations in which the implications of the size call do not have a demonstrable effect on your stack, and would have the potential to knock someone else out

- situations where you are very short-stacked and have limited fold equity, and this might be the best chance you can get.

Are there others that I'm missing here that are occasions for pursuing coinflips?

Do you ever pursue coinflips relatively early in a STT with hopes to double up and be able to play more aggressively? I've seen folks try this, but I'm not sure I feel so positively about it.

Other thoughts?

[snapfc01]

i dont' like to have coin flips early on for one reason. Losing the coinflip means losing your buy in.... however winning the coinflip does not mean winning your buy in.

[Nicholasp27]

i think there is merit to the idea of taking the coinflip to double up even if it'll knock u out so long as u are a much better big stack player than normal stack player and so u can make a lot of it back up with big stack play and the time saved when u bust could allow u to get more $/hr while having slightly less $/tourney

however, doubling up in the first 1-3 levels doesn't help too much as u can't really use that big stack to ur +ev advantage too much since the blinds are such a little percentage of everyone's stack

[ QUOTE ]
i dont' like to have coin flips early on for one reason. Losing the coinflip means losing your buy in.... however winning the coinflip does not mean winning your buy in.

[/ QUOTE ]

That just set off a huge lightbulb about my game. Thanks.

[Femto]

I think doubling up early is probably much more useful in a big MTT, but not so much in an STT for the stated reason.