by theFormula » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:28 am
I will go on EscapePlan... the OP wants to have enough chips to cruise thru the bubble and you only offer ICM at the bubble.
Quit focusing on cards, they shouldn't matter.
In ST SNGs, the overall theory is to make the money. Correct? Play tight until it get's down to 4-5 and then start an aggressive strategy. Who's getting all the chips if tight players are folding? They are going to someone, right? My bet is on the player playing opposite of what everyone else is doing. I do advocate Fischman's squeaky tight theory in Online Ace for new players. Seasoned SNGr's follow the table dynamics.
Most of these table have 6 minute blinds and you have 1500 chips starting at 15/30, I would venture to guess. 50BBs to start with. This is not the time to play tight, it's the time to play POSITION. You have chips to call standard raises from LP and actually play poker. You don't get big cards often enough in 6 minute blind levels to accumulate chips. You have to put your chips in play, and there is no better way... than to appear tight.
Without giving my game away, try this for 10 games. Online, cover your hole cards on your screen and play. What do you think the focus of your game will be? What is your natural response when it folds to you on the button? Raise with any two? It should be. Try that for one game only.
Then in the next game, call any standard raise from the button and raise with any two if it folds to you. Are you winning pots? I bet you are and your cards don't matter do they?
Next game move to the cutoff. If it folds to you, raise to buy the button. Now you have two positions to play from. If you're successfull at playing well from these two positions, you're going to raise from Raising Position, the 3rd LP seat IF IT FOLDS TO YOU. If you're called by the button, of course you must keep the pots small and pay attention to the texture of the board. Play some poker.
Your standard raises are 3xBB. No more, no less. You are doing everything to avoid a showdown. You must c-bet to keep control of the hand, if you meet resistance, then you must shut down. You don't want to show these blatant bluffs at a showdown. You are not trying to win these games, you're trying to win pots with no cards.
Yes, you're folding every hand until Raising Position, Cut-off and the Button. Now that's squeaky-tight play. Remember, to raise from these three seats, if must fold to you. You can call a standard raise from the button, only. Post-flop it's situational, so your reads matter.
Once you get the feel of doing this blind, it will become part of your game when you can actually SEE YOUR CARDS. You need to accumulate chips with your good cards and no cards. These plays will be +EV. I cashed in 6 of the 10 games when I did this... and I was folding a lot near the bubble, but I had enough chips to weather the bubble. Feel free to look at your cards after you've made the money and try to win it.
Note: This type of play is not optimal for MTTs with long blind structures and deep stacks, but works great for any (ST or MTTs) 10 min/1500 structure games.
Last edited by
theFormula on Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:40 am, edited 1 time in total.