Hi guys,

Quick few questions I would like to ask the community and see if people have similar problems. Now I may sound crazy when I say that I would prefer to play mid week than Friday/Saturday/Sunday but I believe I have more success for a few reasons.

So in an STT as we all know doubling your chip stack doesn't double your $ equity. So i occasionally find spots at weekends where I am about 25-35BB deep and i pick up a good hand in these spots JJ+/AK and I obviously raise these hands normally. Now when an aggressive/fishy player behind 3 bets me I am obviously raising with the intention of getting it in but is this correct? I deem myself to have an edge over the majority of the field that plays these tournies. So when I get JJ/QQ/AK in I could be up against hands that obvious crush me such as AA/KK or have about 65%. However this means that lets say 30% of the time I am busting in these positions when a double up doesn't necessarily mean I definitely cash. So first off, are your ranges at this depth level tighter such as QQ+.

Second, when we get down to about 5 players I am obviously making my shoving range tighter as there will be more loose callers however if I shove an ace in late position or a pair I am usually crushed or 55% favourite which means even more of the time I am risking flips without too much fold equity. So my question here is do I play very tight and wait for a premium hand to gain the chips I lose to the blinds by winning when I get a hand in dominating.

Lastly, as you all probably know as well you don't get many open shove spots or I don't anyway until we get down to about 5 players. How loose should we be re-shoving as every flip you take in an STT is basically -$ev unless you are really short or are flipping with somebody of similar chip stack.


Let me know what you think and I appreciate any feedback. I tend to play more fifty50's at the weekends now as I believe more money can be made in these structures and allows me to multi-table more.

PS: The reason I have a lot of success in mid-week is mainly because my shoves have enough fold equity to be profitable as I believe regs don't call wide enough so one double up through a fish allows me to punish the table. For reference I will link my sharkscope:

sharkscope link

That is actually something I struggled with myself.

Unfortunately its a huge leak. It means you stick to your strategie to much and arent able to adjust.

Just look at what your saying, you say your opponents are far more likely to go allin. Now while that seems like a problem for your perspective, it isnt. Yes you might gain less equity through your own moves. But that also means that your worse opponents go way more all-in against each other too. Each time giving you equity for free, you would never get on a regular day.

If your opponents are calling wider then you do need to tighten up your shoving ranges, plain and simple. But it also means you can get more value from your good hands that you would against stronger players. So against the fishies you can get away with larger value raises/bets with good hands.

I just recently returned to STTs after several years of playing other stuff. My approach is super tight and cautious in the first few levels (while looking for spots to see cheap flops with speculative hands), and then I slowly start to open up with each level after that. As you've said yourself, the early double doesn't have a proportional impact on your equity so the mid-game is where STTs are won or lost.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

I think a lot of the answers you are looking for can be answered purely by looking at your opponents on the table. You obviously wont have hand histories on every player, but knowing when you can exploit short handed is a huge part of late stage STT. Knowing that your opponents shoving range early is QQ+, or if it's AJo+ is a huge difference.

Yes, generally you tighten up when your opponents are calling wider, but this shouldn't stop you from aggressively playing the top 20% of your hands in late position. If they are calling wider you can be more confident in the top of your range.

As mentioned above, an early double up isn't going to be as important in the long run, but having a big stack early in a STT makes the game SO MUCH easier. It allows you to open up even wider in late position and gives you the opportunity to play against weaker players in spots you usually wouldn't be able to.

I like to be able to play enough post flop in the early stages of the tournament to give me padding when it comes time for the shove/fold stages of the blinds. If you get blinded down too early and can't find hands later, you're shoving with a small stack and a tight range, which is a recipe for disaster. I've lost a lot of STT by simply refusing to get into the mix in the early stages, and been left shoving medium pocket pairs in the hopes of winning what is usually a flip.

These are all fair questions for a beginner but they'r also far too general to answer well. There is so many variables in play in each of the questions. For example, in relation to shoving ranges this depends on the opponents you are shoving into. A hand can be an easy shove against one opponent and an insta fold against another with the same stack sizes in each case. My advice is to post specific hands that represent each of the situations you are describing. You'l get plenty of good feedback/advice then.

You are losing at microstakes without that one "big" bink in there over a middlish total sample that is way too tiny to allow any conclusions from further filtering by day or sth like that.

So move up to where they respect your raises?

Srsly you're best of buying coaching, staking with coaching or some studying material, it's basically impossible to be losing at microstakes with minimal study effort and somewhat following the most basic advice / ppl that help you into the right direction.
GL

Op should have a strategy that is less dependent on weekday regs vs weekend recs.

Such a strategy would just profit more on the weekends.

I am certainly not losing at the stakes I am currently playing at btw. I had a really bad downswing at the $3.50's so moved back down to the $1.50's. However over the past few months I have consistently placed in the top 10 of the SNG leaderboards for 9 man $1.50's. My ROI just seemed to be lower at weekends and was wondering how mainly because weekends are softer. Thanks for the advice everybody. I am going to play a few sessions today and see how I do.

So after tonight and the weekend I have found my problem. I run like complete ass. All the high equity situations where I have 60%+ which would guarantee me a win I lose over and over. HU I am losing a lot of 60% pots and am genuinely running so much under ev it isn't even funny. I shove wide I get called by idiots basically having 60% favourite. I shove tight and lose blinds and get called by some moron anyway who sucks out yet again. Shove AJo lose to QTo for example. Have more than 70% on bubble and I lose. When I am nervous calling off two shoves ahead of me with KK then I know something is wrong. I'm gonna ditch SNG's for the time being. Far too much variance and is destroying my bankroll. Donks can call off 20bb with QTo and beat my AK. Also I was a winning player at these stakes and crushed them for a good while. But now I can't even win a meaningful hand I am going to play cash where I don't have to worry about $ev and can play normal less variance poker. When first place is only 4x your buyin and you have to evade all the silly donks punting off their stacks and always getting lucky then I will play something else and not waste my time. Also before anybody talks about variance, I have heard it all before and the bad runs last much longer than the good ones. Call me a fish all you like but if your hands never hold no matter how much equity you have then there is nothing you can do.

Good day everyone and good luck.

I have not given up these SNG's as I believe I can win at these. Last night I played another 30 of these games and now know my real problem. In the high equity spots (big pots/bubble situation against similar stack size) I am running real bad. For example all in heads up I was getting it in with about 55-60% equity or getting coolered hard post flop. TPGK > TPBK / OP > TP or my semi bluff draws not getting there. On the bubble I have been shoving tighter as a short/medium stack as I believe my opponents will call too loose or shove too wide. When I do shove on the bubble and get called I usually am crushing my opponent dominating or crushed myself dominated.

Another question I have is me playing the bubble well by tightening my shoving and calling ranges I seem to be cashing more in 3rd place as I have a tiny stack after the bubble has burst. Should I be shoving looser and risk bubbling or play for third place if for example if the chip distributions are about 20bb/10bb/10bb/10bb.

I seem to get my hand in as favourite so often but my first place finishes recently has been shocking. Is it that I am taking too many flips increasing variance and I should fold more hands and let other people go out before.

In those 30 games yesterday I took part in about 65 flips but I will check again when I get back from work tonight.

Maybe, just maybe, shoving with medium stack on the bubble with 60 percent equity is a mistake?

I suggest you check out the tool called ICMizer it will give you an approximation of what you should be shoving and should be calling.

The Turbo structure quickly devolves into optimal ICM shoving and that is pretty much the key to victory, imo.

Sounds like you have put in enough volume such that “running like ass” is no longer a valid interpretation of results.

So for example shoving an ace bvb against similar stack size for 10bb is a mistake. I get called by plenty of KQ/KJ/QJ and don't hold these important flips. I shove with these hands, I don't call.

Also I was going to invest in ICMIZER once my bankroll was a bit larger as I believe that for how much it costs I should be playing higher stakes.

Just played an 8 game session:

Won 1
Didn't cash 7


Now honestly guys, I know you all say I don't understand ICM but how far does it really go??

I took part in 13 all ins and noted these down during this session. My hands are on the left alongside my % of winning the hand.

5+ players
Hand 1 AKs vs A5s Lost 15bb 75%
Hand 2 AKo vs KK Lost 20bb 30%
Hand 3 77 vs TT 85% Lost 30bb flopped set, he hit runner runner flush
Hand 4 22 vs QTo 48% Lost 10bb SB v BB
Hand 5 66 vs JTs 50% Lost 10bb SB v BB
Hand 6 QQ vs A9s 65% Won 10bb
Hand 7 A9o vs KK 35% Lost 8bb D vs SB
Hand 8 AKo vs AKs 48% Lost 15bb D v CO
Hand 9 QJs vs KTo 45% Lost 8bb CO vs BB
Hand 10 JJ vs 88 83% Lost 13bb HJ vs SB

4 players
Hand 11 KQo vs A4o 40% Won 8bb BB vs D

3 players
Hand 12 AJo vs 99 46% Won 12bb D vs SB Had a read on SB that he was loose crazy so raise called this hand.

2 players
Hand 13 AJs vs KTo 65% Won 8bb D vs SB This won me the one tournament I played

So altogether as I have experienced for what seems like ages now.


Avg. AIE = 54.4% (Most of these hands also includes shoving or calling with nutted hands eg. 77 set)
AI's won = 23%

I know it is a very small sample and most of you still won't believe how I run but this is how I have been running for a while now honestly.

It is completely standard to have stretches without cashing going far beyond 7 games. I think my best is something like 40 games no cash in a row. I remember someone on here having something 100ish.

Luck is a though ***** and there is a reason why people tell you that you need thousands of games to have it (somewhat) converge. And why pro players grind thousands of games each month.

Thanks for the comment Ronny. I have just played another 8 game session and made a very nice profit. Staked $12 and made $15.34 profit.

1st - 3
2nd - 2
3rd - 1
Didn't cash - 2

Number of all ins = 32
Avg. AIE = 52.7%
AI's won = 47%
AI's chopped = 3%

This was a great session. Back to winning ways. Feel like I ran well in good spots. I was only all in 3 times on the bubble in that session which helped me cash more. I was shoving wider blind vs blind against opponents with similar chip stacks so if he called and I was a dog then at least me winning would benefit me a cash. I have also started to min raise fold more when short handed and not automatically shoving my 12/13bb as I believe most people aren't reshoving wide enough for me to get exploited except for the crazy donks which has also saved me from being knocked out.

Thanks OP, very much enjoyed reading! I could feel the tilt from here! Honestly, most people really don’t realise how small their edge is. 5% is crushing the games, largely because of 500 game stretches like you just explained above. Run bad can go on longer than you can imagine, and then suddenly everything rights itself again.

Thanks Colin. I would say the highest ROI at the low stakes over the long run is about maybe 10% mainly because of the fish that throw their equity away but at higher stakes yeah. 5% is about the most. Honestly I think I ran bad in high equity spots (bubbles and HU) which affected my ROI a lot. I think I was playing less optimal in some parts as I was combining my 10bb MTT shoving ranges with my 10bb SNG shoving ranges where I believe you should be tighter in an SNG as antes are smaller and the field is obviously tremendously less.

This could be an indicator of a bigger problem in your game. MTTs and STTs are completely different animals that require different strategies from beginning to end. If you let any MTT thinking infect your STT play, you will lose.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

Luck balances out in the long run so ignore that and work on your game.

There is a similar package to ICMIZER called Holdem Resources Calculator. It has (or had a year ago) a free trial as well as the possibility to pay for 2 months at a time.

You can learn a lot from Nash Calculator which is on their website and free.
http://www.holdemresources.net/nashicm

I think you playing more dyn’s at weekends is deffo a factor. Also, blaming luck isnt the right way to put things right either. No disrespect but, like the guy said above, you’re garph says your a losing player in sngs, so, to be brutally honest, I’d forget about blaming your results on bad luck and downswings and spend more time learning.