Going to the Cardinals first home playoff game ever in Arizona today, so I won't be around again until tonight.

How many tables do you play an hour doing this?

I start the full ring tubo's 25-30 tables and play in sets

Go Cards

Hi Jorj,

1) I noticed that the other players' calling ranges are dramatically wider in hyper-turbo satellites than in normal turbos, even after considering the lower M ratio. I've found that it significantly reduces the EV from stealing since there's almost no fold equity. Have you noticed this also? How does this affect your pushing range?

2) It's mathematically +EV to open push from the SB with an M <10. Everyone seems to know that nowadays, though, so you see a lot of open pushes from SB, and a very wide range of calls from BB in that situation (sometimes ATC). What is your pushing range with 10M from SB, and what's your calling range from a 10M SB push?

3) Who is your primary target for stealing in late-game satellites? I've found that both big and small stacks have either a super tight calling range, or a super wide calling range, whereas medium stacks almost always have a super tight calling range, so stealing from medium stacks is optimal. Additionally, players who JUST won a big hand are dramatically less likely to call than those who just lost a big hand. What's your experience with this?

4) Do you take notes on players? If so what do they generally say? Do you use pokertracker at all?

5) At what stakes SnGs would a player be winning if he just followed ICM exclusively?

6) What's your opinion on 3x-turbo satellites? How does the fact that the add-on is TEN TIMES as many chips as a rebuy affect your strategy?

I would guess between 30 and 40. Obviously it depends on how quickly I bust.

That was so fun! It's pretty rare to be able to root for the Cardinals in a meaningful game.

1) I think it depends on who the player is, but in general in the hyperturbos almost everyone calls way way way too loose. Loose calls can be fine sometimes in sngs but are rarely correct in the hyperturbo format.

2) It depends on a lot of things like how many people are left and who is in the big blind and what the payout structure is. There are definitely times I'd be pushing any 2 and other times when I would be pushing a lot tighter than that.

Same with calling range. The question is just way too vague to have a realistic answer.

3) I think what you say is pretty accurate although obviously it's player-dependent.

4) I take quite a bit of notes. Mostly it's when I see people do something really unusual, like some people when they make certain plays will have a big pair 100% of the time. I use pokertracker too but I rarely use it for anything other than keeping track of my wins and losses.

5) What does it mean exactly to "follow ICM exclusively"? You can only shove or fold, even at level 1? Using this strategy you could probably beat anything up to maybe around the 60s I would guess, but obviously this isn't a very good strategy.

6) The 3x turbos are like crack imo. I can't get enough of them. They are really fun to play but obviously very streaky. The addon is key only in that it's pretty terrible to play them if you don't plan on adding on. Being that usually only like 20-25% of the field makes it to the addon makes them quite profitable, as there's quite a bit of dead money. You have to be ready to rebuy as many as 30 times though, and being in 20 rebuys is pretty normal.

Oh and I'm in Bahamas now but I'll try to answer questions once a day if there are any more.

how bout a daily profit/loss on the cash games there, and a daily chip count for the event. just quickies, not a trip report.

GL!!!!

Textbook definition of a great weekend.

At various stakes, how often are you at a table in which every player makes their living from STTs? Do you make any attempt to avoid playing in games with no fish, or is it just too hard to bother playing a billion tables?

1) Hypothetical question. Stars stops offering sngs tomorrow. Whats do you do? Still going for SNE playing other games?

2) Any a-ha moments during your sng career or poker career in general?

Good luck in the Bahamas. TID!

I won't be playing any cash games (there's better things to do in Bahamas), just playing the main event, but I'll post an update today when I bust or I'll update with my progress if I'm still in.

In theory I probably should be more game selective, but I'm slightly lazy about it. Most of the time I try to be one of the first to register and then just hope that other people game-select after I'm already registered. Sometimes this isn't the case and obviously there are games sometimes where there are 9 regulars.

1) I don't know really, I'd probably try to learn to be decent at cash games as quickly as I could and go from there. Maybe I'd play more mtts too. Or maybe I'd just find another site where sngs are profitable. It's really hard to say.

2) Most of the a-ha moments probably came at the beginning of my career. You can improve your game a lot quicker when you first start playing than whey you've played for 10 years, just because there's so much more to learn at that point. Once you've played a while you may learn something new but it's pretty unlikely to improve your game all that much by itself.

i'm trying to think of some moments from my early days of playing but I'm drawing a blank. Maybe I'm getting old. I mean things like trying to think about what your opponents' hands are instead of just your own hand are important steps in your poker development.

it seems like stacking tables on top of each other would be very efficient, but I worry about sitting out of a tourney on accident and not knowing it, anyway you can tell?

If you are using Vista you can check the tables really easily. On your taskbar there should be a tab for each table. If you mouse over the table it brings up a mini version of the table. It is really easy to tell when you are sitting out because there will be a big black oval on the bottom right corner and it's easily visible even on the mini window. Once you get used to it it's fairly easy to go thru 20 tables in 2 or 3 seconds and just look for a big black oval.

Also it's not like you'll just be randomly sitting out of a table ever. The only time I ever am sitting out is when I get backed up for whatever reason and then when I catch up and have a couple seconds free time I'll scroll thru the tabs real quick just to make sure I'm not sitting out anywhere.

If you are using XP you can't do this as far as I know. I cascaded on XP and didn't switch to stacking until I bought my new laptop about a year ago.

Do you ever play in those $5600 HU sng's? Is there something that Stars can do to help the steps traffic? It's pretty daunting for a casual player to grind through the steps only to find guys like you,Stevie and Busto et al waiting to pull their heads off in step6.

It's like a playoff team always having to play the '85 Bears in the superbowl...amirite?

Easy step 6 strategy question...

Snap call for me vs Busto in Step 6 to WCOOP? Is Busto shoving ATC (or close to it) here?

1-3 WCOOP ME Seat
4-5 $1200

Poker Stars $2000+$100 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t200/t400 Blinds + t25 - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

brainwash (UTG): t9915
skalexjung (MP): t4405
jesse311 (CO): t5165
busto_soon (BTN): t3625
poker_in_pb (SB): t1955
Hero (BB): t1935

Pre Flop: (t750) Hero is BB with 9 9
3 folds, busto_soon raises to t3200, 1 fold, Hero calls t1510 all in

I made this question to Sparta in his well , but I would like to have your opinion too , if it is possible:

My primary lenguage is not english , so maybe the grammar and the way I ask is a bit confusing , sorry about that .

I have a trouble playing sng with not regs at all. Seems that loosenes of the games give me troubles. I tigh my game and try to play Push/fold poker . ( off course I play good cards at the beginning) , but basically I try to preserve my stack until 10BB came and start to work with ranges to push or fold. Pretty standard but with bad results .
When I finnish , I review with sng wiz and work with the one sngwiz tell me is wrong.
Plus i take notes about calling range and weird situations in the game.

This kind of play is very different that my play on stars.

Why Im doing this ? cause my play on stars need a lot of complicated plays , more focused , more cbet , 2 barrels , more reads , etc . With this play I can play only a few tables with a decent profit .

I want to make a good profit , so I will start to play a softer site with standard push/fold play untill my ICM mistakes become almost 0. With this play , i could play more tables , maybe 10 or more , with (i hope) a good profit .

This is why I m asking you about ICM , cause Im trying to play very math poker , but im bleeding cash .

Can you give some thoughts or advice ?

Thanks in advance

PD: My last plays doesnt work because people always see a Flop when they have 1300 and I raise 250 at 50/100. Plus the cbet , forget to steal blinds with no Allin moves.

I'm having trouble developing my game fully. I am an accomplished $60 turbo player and can't seem to move beyond into the high stakes arena. What would you recommend doing?

With opponents ranges always in-flux in SNGs how do you help yourself stay ahead of them in the adjustment war?

I need to revisit SNGs

I don't play the hu sngs except when I was flipamenting.

If they quit letting people use step 4 tix for the sunday mil it would obviously help the traffic for the steps, but it's too late to change that back now.

As for having to face mostly regulars in the step 6s, if it wasn't for us they would hardly ever go in the first place.

Yeah this is a trivially easy call vs pretty much anyone. I doubt he's shoving atc here but I'm sure he's not that far off.

Sorry about your bad beat.

Obviously you have to adjust your play against bad players. If they're calling too many hands then it's possible you should be playing even tighter and just letting them bust each other until you sneak into the money.