I have recently come back from a 3 month break from playing poker. I play a lot of SNG's and have a goal of attending at least 3 EPT events this year. Today I got to round three twice and noticed that my strategy and position play isn't good enough once I get past round 3.

My strat:

If you aren't familiar with the Stars Steps the top two players finish first. My strategy so far has been to sit as long as possible on my starting stack until I can find a person or two to pick on. I am somewhat disregarding the cards and playing mostly off a persons' habit and my position. I play about the top 30% of hands from MP to SB. Take whatever cheap BB I can get. And Play top 20% of hands from EP.

For the most part the beginning steps are pretty easy. I had to make one adjustment at level 3 because I noticed there are many bad players who aren't using ICM at the table or keeping in mind that top two finish. I almost lost at Step 3 when the other two remaining players started spewing the stacks away to each other. I had rougly 7k and the other (roughly) 6k went back and forth between the two players for a few orbits. There was very little pressure on the small blind from the other player which gave the small stack a chance to double up twice and gave them almost 50% each for 2nd place. I couldn't make a comfortable move on either one because of their very loose and unpredictable play.

Anyway, the problem arrives at step 4. For some reason the percentage of hands I can play (top 20-30%) isn't good enough to move beyond step 4. I'm not seeing the same poor play and the same number of people playing above their normal buy in like the other levels. The level of play seems to jump from steps 3 and 4. Does anyone know what I can do to make up for the probably difference in skill and make it through to the final step. My strategy seems to fall apart here and I'm trying to find a new set of hands to play from various positions.

Thanks,
Mikhutt

what is the optimal staregy for playing steps SNG's?
i played the last days alot on those steps and i found that the strategy is diffrent then a normal sng since players will be more scared from not getting in the first 2 places

Try the search feature, I have seen this thread done very well somewhere.

I played some of the WSOP steps and made it to the last step before the WSOP(step 6, 2100, i think)a few times but getting nothing on an awful beat in the last step gets costly. If I recall I played a little loose in the beginning, sometimes I got played back at and lost chips but a lot of the time I picked up some pots and you pick up a hand at the right time and find someone who wants to go broke you have huge stack and can cruise for a while. Also people tighten up even more on a bubble esp if it is a big one. Everyones line of thinking is, if I could just retry this step I'll be ok and wait.

i aggree with the last post i think you may need to try to open up more and blind steal when the blinds get worth stealing. I won the mini stepp tourney on party before the us players were kicked off because i was willing to open raise more than my opponents. I think stack sizes and what happens to the next person knocked out might be more important than trying to play to a person's tendancies on a sng. If you are at 5 players left with bb of 200 and you have 2100 and sb and bb have 2k to 2500 i would be raising with 10 8 s on the button. Also if you have played tighter at the beginning of the tourney they have to have a hand to call you. if you can afford to raise and fold (having 1500 with 200 bb would quailify to me) and the blinds can afford to fold you can afford to try stealing with decent hands and 10 8s would qualify to me. You can not win these steps without being aggressive on the end.

i disagree on the last post. you can never win it without aggression, specially in the higher steps. and basically when you try to steal a lot people will start playing back and shove it with atc, and thats what you have to do when you see a steal.
the strategy is different then a normal high stakes SnG i think. where people play at their normal level, but here people play higher then their normal level, and the stronger players exploit that.

umm stealing is being aggressive and if your table is calling raises a lot you have to raise for value but as the prize gets closer things usually tighten up.
yes people are playing higher than there comfort zone and they will be extra careful and you can steal a lot of blind and if you can afford to fold to a reraise then you can open up with a lot more hands and you will make more than you lose in the long run. with this it is very important to pay attention to stack sizes. if you are the button with 10 8 and the bb has 3k to 1200 and the blinds are 100/200 my action would be different. the 1200 is getting close to desperate and you have to have a hand your willing to go all in with. when people are out of their comfort zone they tighten up. If you are 6 handed you probably dont want to steal 3 out of 4 times but if you steal one and half times a round you gain chips.
if you raise pot commits you to a reraise you need to have a decent hand not 10 8, for a short stack A 8 might be strong enough.
this can get awfully complicated with the thinking processes here but to some it up very simple when the game approaches a point where things tighten up my opponents look for a reason not to put money in the pot, i look for reasons to get in the pot and try to balance that out with your exact tournament dynamics.

As with all forms of poker just look at what the majority of players at the table are doing and do the opposite!

i made it from step 1 to step 6 of wsop and came 2nd after being outdrawn when i had opponent all in and covered. i was gutted!!

the steps 4-6 are definitely harder than 1-3 so u have to adjust your game somewhat. step 6 plays comletely differently as its not a turbo structure.

thanks for all your input guys. I'll check the past thread on strategy. Will let you know when I get my seat.