I'm not sure if you've read Dan Harrington's 2nd volume on No Limit tournament play. I highly recommend it for improving your late game.
Here's what I generally do late game... first, my table image is of a tight player. Before the blinds were up to 50/100, I was playing almost no hands. With the blinds increasing, I start stealing from middle - late position more often. Just do a standard 3x BB raise. If you get called and the flop comes uncoordinated (cards under ten, spread out in ranking and with 2 or less suited cards), take a stab at the pot. Bet around 80%-100% of the pot and more often than not you'll take it down right there. This is called a "continuation bet" if you're unfamiliar with Dan Harrington's 1st volume of No Limit tournament play. However, let's say you raise from late position with 75s hoping to steal the blinds and the flop comes AT9 with two suited cards. This is a terrible flop for you! I'd just check/fold here.
Stealing the blinds and winning many of those pots where you are called will slowly accumulate more chips. You should be around the average stack size by the last three players. If you have a cold run of cards and you're shortstacked, you're going to HAVE to make some moves. Let's say the blinds are 100-200, it's down to three players, you have 1400 chips (7x the BB) and the rest of the players have more than 2000. If you make any standard raise now (3 or 4x BB), you're pot-committed, so push all-in. I usually push with Axs, K7+ (King with a higher kicker than 7), Q7+, J7+, T8+, 97+ and ANY pocket pair. I sometimes will push with middle suited connectors 56s or higher, although it's riskier. If I'm really desperate for chips, I have to push with ANY two cards.
To get to first, you're going to have to double up a few times. That either means you have to win some coin-flip situations or simply have the better hand and have your opponent call you. It's a thing of beauty when you're short-stacked, push all-in with JJ and get called by someone holding 77 or JT.
I hope this helped somewhat. I rarely ever place in 2nd. When down to the last three players, I place in 1st or 3rd almost every time, with much more 1st places than 3rds.
Post some hand histories which show your late game play when you were unsure what to do and we can help you more.Statistics: Posted by EscapePlan9 — Wed Jul 06, 2005 3:28 pm
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