Hola.
Thought i would give the uea blog a go at last.
Got up late today as sleeping patterns are fucked from weeked that was full of poker and drinking and going to bed at 8am.Awoke and decided to play a $11 90 man SNG, was pretty standard ran cold throughtout the first 50hands remember winning one hand
with pocket 10s, then got blinded off to 10bbs pushed with aj in late position and got called by ak and didn't suck out oh well.
Recently have decided to take up the SNG grind. Was previously playing cash on full tilt poker but due to my rakeback not being set up properly and a discussion with Jeal, decided multitabling 25 and 50 nl wasn't really looking that profitable.
My SNG game/strategy wasn't as good as it use to be as haven't played them in a while. Decided to have a session of about 5 hours just playing $5 tables to try and get my feel back for the game and structure. Ran pretty bad with quite a few times losing hands when i was 70%
fav on the bubble e.g. dominated aces etc. Though overall for the session broke about even.
After getting back to the feel for SNG's stepped up to the high stakes of $10 6max SNG's. My bankroll can easily support it and only have to win 1 out of 3 for them to be profitbale. Played 2 so far first one i was pretty tierd do played very tight and it payed off as i won it.
Was actually playing agaisnt some opponents that payed attention to the table and the image i had given off, as later on in the higher blind levels my button raises and steals were getting through without any contention.
Next SNG didn go as well and contained what seemed alot more volatile players doing strange things. Few interesting spots, where i think i made
right decision. First spot was where i had AJ soooted (diamonds) utg. Raised to 3xbb (in the first level). German guy directly to my left minraises
to 5bb. Folded round to the bb who elects to call. So obv getting a tremedous price i decide to call. Flop came As Kh x, checked to pre flop raiser(mr german)
who bets pot. BB folds and is now on me to act. Now puting this guy on a range of hands here was pretty difficult. Due to being early on in the SNG (4th hand to be exact)
and first hand hes played, obv no real read on player. I don't have that much repsect for alot of these players at these limits as many of them haven't got a clue what they are
doing. Though the range of hands i decided to put him on were ak-aq, aa-99, some broadway combinations sometimes these players even do this with raggy aces and any pair.
So if that is the range i have decided i should call right. Well i decided to fold. This is where i think playing the $5 SNG's and my previous SNG history helped me.
The size of the bet on flop ment that i was playing for my whole stack, therfore my tourney life.
So i don't see pushing all in there as much of a plus EV+ play. Most of the time i get called by a better hand and i'm out of the SNG, sometimes i get called by a worse
hand that he can't release and double up. e.g. 10-qq. Sometimes He foldds and i increase my stack by about 25% and other times he calls with a worse hand and i get sucked out
and lose the hand. Overall i think avoiding marginal situations early on like this for your whole stack in a SNG is a better long term strategy.
I carried on playing riased with a suited KQ in middle position folded to bb who elected to 3bet so i had to fold. Few more rounds went and was folded to me on button
with a6 off. I open to 3bbs and bb calls. I have him covered. Flop came A q 5 rainbow. He checked to me. Deiced to check beind as its a line that will extract more value from
a hand that i am beating, also for pot control as i have top pair with no real kicker. Turn was a king of spades putting a flush draw out. BB bets half pot, i smooth called
what is pretty standard due to line i have taken. Obv J10 kq and bigger aces is beating me but i don't think i can ever fold to one bet on the turn. River was another 5, though
it did not complete any flush draws. And the BB instantly bets pot. It is majority of my stack and i will be very short stacked if i lose. The insta pot bet annoys me at these
stakes as it usually either means complete air or the nuts lol. My thinking of his range of hands in this situation was as follows. I can take Ak Aq out of equation as
pretty sure i would of been 3 bet pre. Therfore with the board i am splitting with every other ace apart from a5. And it is high possibility villain would bet ace like
this due to line i decided to take. If he had Kq for two pair then this is now counterfitted with the 5 pairing the river and he might just be trying to buy the pot. Spades
missed, and J10 has me crushed. With all this going through my mind i elected to call. He showed A5 lol, cheers then. The way the hadn was played i think i have to call
but comments woudl be appreciated.
i consider myself a pretty good short stack player so i still had a chip and a chair. Doubled up wit kq vs a8 but was still below 10 bbs. Managed to steal some blinds
when i pushed with some 67 and 78s. i prefer pushing hands like this when short rather than raggy aces etc. as when you get called you are less likely to be dominated and be in
a 40-60 race rather than a 30-70. Picked up A8 on the button and guy to my right limps in. My stack was about half of his so i decided to push figuring i had pretty good fold
equity. Obv not, and he read my soul and snap called with 10s though the 887 flop ment another double up for me. Now i have an average stack at 4handed. Blinds increased
meaning i had around 10bbs again. Though where alot of people tighten up i get more aggressive in this situation. We played another 12 hands and i reckon i was all in about 5
times and never got called. I avoided pushing on the big stack who i knew was a loose caller. But the everytime i was utg the next shortest stack was in the bb so i was pushing nearly
nearly with anytwo and the other times pushed sb vs bb, as Mr german had now started playing alot tighter. Now everthing going to plan i pick up KKs on the button.
Player utg limps (he did this with 10s earlier) and i knew that he was limpin to call my all in. I still pushed with KK as this is what the players were expecting, if i suddenly
made it 2.5bbs it would look strange and i think would't get less action. I push the bb then reriases all in and the utg calls as well! I'm facing Aq and Aj. Great there drawing
basicly to two outs. You know what the flop is; Ace high, im out in fourth place. Oh well i think i played pretty well and writing this has helped me to steam off a bit. Sorry
there was no hand histories as after that i just exited the table so i couldn't retrieve them lol. Will keep posted on how it is going, my aim is to try and double my bankroll
in a week.
Laters.
