Life in the low limits

Lately I have begun to revert back to grinding 8-10 sit and goes at a time, which is the way that I originally built a bankroll.  Sometimes it can be a bit mechanical and I feel somewhat like a robot because of constantly monitoring blinds, stack sizes, and figuring out my shoving range from each spot, but it is a solid way to grind out consistent money.

The key to making money playing single table sngs is playing enough volume to counter the variance.  Obviously, it’s impossible to win every one that you play, so your average profit for each tournament will be rather small, so the more you are able to play at a time will increase your hourly rate. I find that I can only play sngs for two hours or so before I have to stop because of a combination of boredom and having my brain somewhat shot.  When playing a cash game you can take mental breaks and even sit out if you need a quick break of some sort, but you are unable to do that when playing a sng.  You lose too much equity by missing hands and missing chances to accumulate chips.

My recent decision to switch back to sngs has led to some small live tournament success at the local card room.  Every Friday there is a small two or three table tournament which I have played in a couple times and recently I won one of them for $1200 and yesterday I took a three-way chop for $800 a piece.  My sng play has definitely helped me revive my somewhat dormant tournament game.  Here are some key hands from last night’s tournament since they are fresh in my head.

With about 13 people left and the blinds at 2/400 with no ante a somewhat loose aggressive player opened the pot from the cutoff to 800.  I had 6500 in chips and looked down to find TT in the small blind.  My initial thought was to 3bet preflop as two tens seems to be miles ahead of his opening range.  But at the same time I thought that he was going to fold out all worse than TT and he is going to continuation-bet the flop close to 100% of the time, so I figured I would get more value out of a flop check raise than a 3bet preflop.

I smooth called and the big blind folded and we take a heads up flop of K 6 3 rainbow.  I check and he bets 800 again.  I thought that his flop bet was very weak and he was trying to pick up the pot on a cheap bluff.  I decided to stray away from my preflop strategy of check raising the flop because this is the kind of flop where he can play perfectly to a check raise.  He will fold out mostly everything but a king, which has me beat.  The only way I can see a check raise as a profitable play on that flop was if he had JJ or QQ and I turn my hand into a bluff, and based on my preflop read, I did not think his hand was that strong, so I decided to flat call for value.  The turn brought an ace and put two spades on the board and it went check check.

At this point in the hand, I know he doesn’t have an ace because although betting ace high is well within his range on the flop, he is not the kind of player that is going to slow play the turn if he gets there.  So my entire decision is based on whether or not I think he had a king, which he definitely would check back the turn with.

The river was a complete brick and he bet 800 again after I checked.  At this point, i have to call 800 to possibly win 4800 and being laid 6:1 on the call, it is a no brainer.  I toss in my 800 and he tables a pair of 7s and i take in a nice pot to get me up to about 20 big blinds, which is a good comfort zone considering my online background.  I can not stress how atrocious his river bet is.  Pocket 7s has some semblance of showdown value and he can not think that betting 800 on the end is going to get anything to fold.  So he basically turned his pocket pair into a bluff on the river and did not bet any amount that could get anything better to fold.

The other key hand that sticks out in my mind has to do with the same concept of bluffing the river.  At this point in the tournament we are down to 5 people with the blinds at 1500/3k with a 200 ante.   It folds to me in the small blind and I look down at 8 2 off suit and with my 35000 stack i completed the blind, which I think was a horrible play on my part as I really see that spot as a raise or fold type situation with just over 11 big blinds, but that is another discussion.  The big blind knuckles the table and we take a flop of 7 6 2 with a couple spades.

You could make a case for leading out in this spot but I figured that he could call me with so many hands on this flop from the big blind that checking was the better option.  I checked and he min bet 3k and I decided that my hand was ahead of his range as he could be betting any of the straight or flush draws that were out there as well as complete air.  I decided to call and an off suit king fell on the turn.  I checked and he bet 3k again, and I called again as I still wasn’t entirely sold that he had a hand.  I thought a 6 would check back the turn, and the K didn’t complete any of the straight draws.  So the only hands I thought he could have that would beat me on the turn is the 7 or a Kx of spades type hand.  I call and the river is the off suit ace.  All of the draws missed and I checked again and he min bet 3k again.

For the first time in the hand, I actually thought I might have been beat but just like in the last hand, I was being laid monster pot odds to call this bet.  There was about 20k in the pot and I only had to call 3k to win 20k, which is laying me almost 7:1.  After I say aloud that I can’t beat anything he says “then how do you call, and turns up Q 4 for no pair no draw and I increase my stack by about 50%.

On the river in this spot, if I think that there is any chance that he could be bluffing, it is an absolutely atrocious play for me to fold.  To only have to call one small bet to increase my stack by 50% or so, I have to be absolutely certain that he has me beat in order to fold.  If I call the river and am wrong, I have about the same stack size but if I call and am right I gain very valuable chips at a key stage in the tournament.

I’ll continue multi tabling sngs online in the coming weeks and hopefully that will improve my tournament game.  I also plan on heading out to Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods in the next couple days, hopefully I’ll have some interesting hands to post and talk about when I get back from there.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS