Hello,

I've recently started trying to play the $1 90 Player SnG's on Full Tilt, and I seem to be having a lot of trouble.

In a cash game, the more bad players the better, but in these tournaments the players are so bad I constantly struggle.

Every time I raise a hand, I get at least 4 or 5 callers (I even started raising to 5x the bb in the early stages, and still I get the same amount of callers).

When people are playing like this, I just get blinded away. If I pick up a hand such as AK or AQ and raise with it, a lot of the time I miss the flop, and because so many others are in the pot I have to just check fold.

An example of this is about 5 minutes ago, I raised to 5x the bb UTG with AA. The flop came A25. I raised and UTG+ 1 shoved. I happily get my money in with top set, and UTG+1 had 34o, and the board doesn't pair.

Can anyone offer any suggestions on how I should play to be successful in these tournaments?

Shove or fold.

I'm really tempted to start doing that. Just open shoving any hand I want to raise with.

change your raise sizes.

check folding is fine in multi way pots and don't worry about it.

just be aggressive- chances are you will get plenty of people that draw out on you even if you don't give them the right price because they don't know any better. means you'll have more early double ups and more early bust outs too.

or you can just sit there playing super tight and let the slaughter commence all around you- only calling behind with suited connectors in late pos, set mining and waiting for big pocket pairs to double up with. it depends how bad the players are and how good you think your chances are of getting some of that dead money slushing about in the early stages.

I don't like the idea of open shv...although I may make that play with A-A...I play on FT in $1/9P and $2/180P...with decent results. IMO...I think it is better to play your style of poker...and play it well. If you're ahead put chips in the middle...if you're behind fold...unless you think a bluff will work...but rarely will anyone fold top pr...especially Ace or King high

Standtall

a big key is isolating players with certain hands and getting a lot of people in with others. your odds are much higher against one player if you hold a big pair, so you want to bet big enough that only one or two hands will call you. if you want to try to draw to a flush or a straight, you want a lot of people in the pot, because those hands will beat a much higher percentage if you get your cards, and they're harder to detect, and pot odds dictate that you don't want to bet them big preflop, anyway.

if you see play slowing down or it seems like people aren't paying attention, steal blinds.

try to make your real bets look like bluffs and your bluffs look like real bets, at least some of the time. also, keep your bluffs small and bluff only when you have high confidence levels, especially if everyone's calling all the time.

going all in early can be a good bet with good cards. if you get a few callers, it leaves you big stacked and you can cherry pick desperate players pretty much to the money if you keep your head on straight. you have to be willing to play super aggressive if circumstances call for it.

people will tend to play against your reputation, so pay attention to what you look like to other players. if you just won a big showdown or two, people will be more wary to call you, and you can often bluff people with ridiculous bets. on the other hand, if you just got two bluffs called, you are much much more likely to be called when you catch a hand and bet it huge.

chip bully. but not beyond the reach of your reputation, and only as long as it's paying off overall. don't get sloppy when you're big stacked.

if you're short stacked, do not panic. the great thing about nlhe is it's easy to double, triple, quadruple, etc your stack in just a few hands, but if you lose big and then panic or act hopeless and go all in with t8 or k2 because "f--- it", you're going to lose and it's going to bring your long term winnings down. you'd be surprised how often you can get to the money by just hanging on by the skin of your teeth.

pay close attention to chip stacks. stack size is the most important aspect of the game as the tourney progresses.

finally, do not go all in defensively, or as retaliation, or to punish someone, ever. you want to be the one in control of your bets at all time. be willing to let go of big hands if you don't like the betting.

Shove or fold is wrong. Aggressively value betting your good hands is right.

Playing against bad players is good for you no matter what format, cash, mtt, etc.

Here's the thing. When players always call to the river, you need a real hand to win. So if you don't get any real hands, you lose. Too bad, but it's never likely that you'll do well with rotten cards anyway. But with loose callers everywhere, your "real hands" don't have be be monsters to collect big pots, and you'll pretty much always get more value for your good and great hands than what they're really worth. Therefore, you've got very positive expectation, and all you have to do is stop whining when the cards don't go your way for a little while. Keep at it, and it'll swing your way.

let it go and play HU

It happens a lot, all you can do is laugh at how bad everyone is. They will knock each other out eventually. Play super tight till the blinds are worth stealing and steal steal steal. I don't have 1000 tourneys under my belt yet, but I would think if you look at those players who call any raise with ATC rarely cash.

I've spent some time on the pokerstars $1 45 and 90 turbos.

I don't, in any form, claim to be an expert but here is what i have picked up.

1) Do not, at all, attempt to steal blinds before it becomes 50/100, you might be able to, but it's not worth it. It usually doesn't become viable until 75/150, the amount of callstations before this time is amazing. Eventually tables will tighten up (Although I have been at tables where 3 people are playing 50%+ hands and I couldn't steal to save my life, at the bubble no less) and you can start stealing.

2) When you have a monster, try to not allow 3 or 4 limpers, you can either shove, hope for a call or do a solid 3-4x raise and see who decides to stick around and then play for as many chips as you can get.

3) The hardest thing for me to realize and the most important advice ever given to me is: "Stop playing these people like they are good." I would try fancy plays and bluffs and whatnot and get caught so much it hurt inside. Later in tournaments when most of the donks are out, go ahead with steals and semi-bluffs, but early, dont bother. Play your hand.

4) Expect bad beats. Sounds funny, but you will get in with the best hand more often than not if you read and study and learn. But, Ak still is only roughly a 60-40 over 27o, which means 2 out of 5 times, they suck out. And even if you have a higher pair, they have a 20% chance to suck out. And as much as you want to storm around the house because of the outrage, the best thing to do is laugh, hope that guy is at your table in the future and plays the same way.

It however is a decent way to learn tournament play and prepare for the 180's. Especially the 90 turbo's they allow you to practice push-folding enough to become competent at it over time.