Making Tough Laydowns

In SNGs preserving a buy in by making a tough decision at the right time can make a big difference to your long term ROI. Here is an example of a tough decision during the early stages of a SNG.

***** Hand History for Game 72971169538 ***** (Poker Stars)

Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, December 29, 03:17:16 ET 2011

Table 491643733 1 (Real Money)

Seat 5 is the button

Seat 1: kermit64 ( $2292.00 USD )

Seat 2: pasteurisi ( $1415.00 USD )

Seat 4: HERO ( $1500.00 USD )

Seat 5: yukon200 ( $2010.00 USD )

Seat 6: Nils>Schrank ( $1248.00 USD )

Seat 7: Stevedr ( $1425.00 USD )

Seat 8: Robit1981 ( $2040.00 USD )

Seat 9: nickriz ( $1570.00 USD )

Nils>Schrank posts small blind [$15.00 USD].

Stevedr posts big blind [$30.00 USD].

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to HERO [ Qd Qh ]

Robit1981 raises [$90.00 USD]

nickriz folds

kermit64 folds

pasteurisi folds

HERO raises [$300.00 USD]

yukon200 folds

Nils>Schrank folds

Stevedr folds

Robit1981 raises [$690.00 USD]

HERO folds

Robit1981 wins $480.00 USD

Robit1981 wins $645.00 USD from main pot

The villain in this hand is a tight reg playing 6/4 over a large sample 7-9 handed. Right lets break the hand down. Villains UTG range here is most probably TT+, AQs+ and i am pretty sure he knows im not 3betting light here and probably puts me on AK/QQ+ yet he 4 bets and on the small side to. His range for this 4bet is very tight and prob looks like AK/QQ+ which means i have 40% equity vs his range. Since he covers me the effective stacks are 1500 and his raise commits me and as such may as well be a shove as i cant call here ever. I would be investing 1200 to win 90+300+45+1200 or 1635, which works out as 1635/1200= 1.3625/1 or 42.33% equity needed to call. As you can see this is a fold even in a cash game, once you add in the factor the you need 60+% equity to go bust early in SNGs this comes out as a clear fold, so next time you think well i have a big hand its just a cooler if he has a bigger hand, think through his range and try to make the most profitable decision.

Thanks for reading

A Week In The Life Of A Poker Player

Its been an interesting week for me. I have worked really hard on improving my Sit and Go game using the outlets available to me.

I have been pounding my brain with ICM calculations which are very brain numbing but i know as well as anyone who plays SNGs does that end game is so important and as such i usually spend 30 Min's everyday studying ICM, although this week was probably nearer to an hour a day.

I have also been having some in depth hand analysis conversations with my coach about different preflop ranges. This week i focused mostly on what ranges to call off a 3bet with once i had opened raised when my stack was around the 11-15bb range.

Lastly this week i have been reading the book i got for my birthday, Collin Moshman's Sit And Go Advanced Strategy, its a very good book and i think it is a very good basis to be profitable at the low blind stages of any SNG $30 and below.

The games have actually been pretty good this week and over 139 SNGs i am running at 14.9% ROI. I would like to think now that my game has come on that i am probably beating the $7 SNGs at 10% ROI. The thing that i have noticed after playing a lot of games at this limit is that it is filled with quite a few tight or semi regular type players and although some of these players are no doubt beating the game i am very confident i am exploiting them more than they are exploiting me.

Lastly i feel my heads up game has come on leaps and bounds over the last 1000 SNGs and is something i would recommend working on to any SNG player. The difference between 1st and 2nd has a large impact on your winrate. If i was to give advice to anyone when they get to the heads up stage its to break down every decision and deduce the optimal play. Remember not every player you play heads up will be the same, which means you should adapt your game accordingly.

If you take anything from reading this it should be that if you work hard results will come. Remember lady luck hangs out with those who practice hardest.

Thanks for reading.