Operation Sit 'n Go Shenanigans!

So with 100 buy ins for the super micro $1.10's 45man on Stars im working to go up one level at a time. Ive read HOH 1 and half way through HOH 2 and have been applying the concepts with varying success. Ive started this operation so i can focus on achieving a goal of moving up to the next level.

I will endevour to post hands i struggled with along the way to hopefully get some help with leakes and, well to be ohnest, lets just say downright donkey plays!! So here we go.....

BR: $100

TARGET: $200

GAMES PLAYED: 0

ROI: 0

Not such a great start.

Game 1
placed 31st
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

SB (t1690)
BB (t3350)
UTG (t1180)
UTG+1 (t740)
MP1 (t5930)
MP2 (t565)
MP3 (t3165)
CO (t1465)
Hero (t1455)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, K.
UTG calls t30, UTG+1 raises to t740, 2 folds, MP3 calls t740, 1 fold, Hero raises to t1455, 2 folds, UTG calls t1150 (All-In), MP3 calls t715.

Flop: (t4875) 6, 9, 5 (4 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t4875) K (4 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t4875) 2 (4 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t4875

Results in white below:
UTG has 8c Ks (one pair, kings).
UTG+1 has 3h Qd (high card, king).
MP3 has Jd Td (flush, king high).
Hero has Ah Kc (one pair, kings).
Outcome: MP3 wins t4875.

Game 2
placed 25th

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

BB (t4765)
UTG (t2525)
UTG+1 (t1585)
MP1 (t2745)
MP2 (t7565)
CO (t1775)
Hero (t1560)
SB (t5200)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, 3.
5 folds, Hero raises to t300, SB calls t250, BB calls t200.

Flop: (t900) 3, 3, J (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t400, SB folds, BB raises to t1400, Hero calls t860 (All-In).

Turn: (t3560) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t3560) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t3420

Results in white below:
BB has 6c Jc (full house, jacks full of threes).
Hero has Qh 3s (full house, threes full of jacks).
Outcome: BB wins t3560.

Game 3
placed 28

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

Hero (t1485)
SB (t1080)
BB (t7840)
UTG (t1055)
UTG+1 (t5255)
MP1 (t560)
MP2 (t4540)
CO (t3405)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 8, Q.
5 folds, Hero raises to t400, 1 fold, BB calls t300.

Flop: (t850) 4, Q, 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

Turn: (t850) T (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t600, BB calls t600.

River: (t2050) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

Final Pot: t2050

Results in white below:
BB has 6h 7c (flush, queen high).
Hero has 8s Qh (two pair, queens and eights).
Outcome: BB wins t2050.

WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Hotfrog

Not such a great start.


WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO!!!!!!!!!

Hand #1- It happens, maybe don't be so quick to put your whole tourney on the line when someone raises that strong pre and there is a caller in front.

Hand # 2- cooler, it happens

Hand # 3- Fold Pre, as played bet the shit out of flop. Don't slow play hands looking for the giant score. All you are doing is losing value and letting people draw out on you.

Hang in there man.

FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!!!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (6 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

UTG (t1460)
Hero (t1875)
CO (t2700)
Button (t3315)
SB (t5985)
BB (t11825)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 4, 4.
1 fold, Hero calls t400, 2 folds, \SB calls t200, BB checks.

Flop: (t1350) 8, 4, 9 (3 players)
\SB checks, BB bets t400, Hero raises to t1450, SB folds, BB calls t1050.

Turn: (t4250) K (2 players)

River: (t4250) J (2 players)

Final Pot: t4250

Results in white below:
Hero has 4c 4h (three of a kind, fours).
BB has Qs Tc (straight, king high).
Outcome: BB wins t4250.
PS......

Board: 8h 4d 9h Kd
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hero: 90.909% 90.91% 00.00% 40 0.00 { 4c4h }
Villain: 09.091% 09.09% 00.00% 4 0.00 { QsTc }

Games played: 7

Bankroll: $92.30

ROI: -100 !!!!!!!!

Played a total of 8 so far and considering the bad beats ive suffered im still quietly confident.

Games played: 8

Bankroll: $97.44

ROI: -43.18

The last one i played i finished in 4th for a $5 payday.

I have picked up on one thing though, i have allways read and been told that its best to stay real tigh in early stages of a tourney. Ive found that when ive done this for this operation, by the time half the field is out i dont have anywhere near enough chips to challenge the leaders, thus ive taken to open my range up a little mor to give me oppurtunity to pick up chips early on. This also helps me with my discipline as im folding post flop a lot more and not chasing draws on the Turn and River.

Thoughts?
Feedback?

You need to improve a lot man...

AKo is a fold pre man. You should be crushed by the ranges here.

Q3o is a bad beat, although if opps are that loose you should probably fold preflop.

Q8o is your own fault for not betting flop. Never slowplay 2P is a good rule of thumb.

44 is a terrible limp PF. You just put over 20% of your stack into a pot with about 12% chance of hitting, IF someone doesnt just push over the top PF. With your stack this is a push I think, but if not its a fold. Those are your only options.

Start by reading all the stickies in both the STT and MTT forums, and then start asking for advice on hands.

Fold AK pre flop???

I liek the AK hand remember these are $1.1s bjs and it's an MTT not a STT so we have to be prepared to gamble.

totally agree about the 44 hand tho, just shove pre.

Easy fold. The fact you seem so flabbergasted suggests you need to spend some time working on ranges and using pokerstove.

UTG+1 raises to t740, 2 folds, MP3 calls t740

What exactly do you think those two have when this happens?

UTG+1 = TT+/AQ+, sometimes random air as seen
MP3 = pretty similar, tho his call is a little scary as it makes AA/KK more likely.

I think you are overestimating the opposition. Also if UTG+1 just lost a pot for example this becomes ridic easy shove.

If I make UTG+1 TT+,AQ+ and MP3 QQ+,AK+ then we're 22% (if it was 3-way, for some reason it ends up 4-way) here and we have no fold equity at all. Even if I make MP3 the same range as UTG+1 we're still only 28% meaning we still dont have odds to do this.

AKo is not a monster in this situation, and whilst we need to gamble more in an MTT, that doesnt mean putting all our chips into the middle as a dog.

The point about it being a 1.10 has some merit, but its not good to get into bad habits if we're hoping to improve our game, and if we're going to assume that our opps are gambooling fools and play likewise we might as well go play roulette or something.

This is about the nittiest range I can do

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

25,265,737,728 games 39.640 secs 637,379,861 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 35.810% 30.72% 05.09% 7762633272 1285040390.00 { TT+, AQs+, AQo+ }
Hand 1: 35.810% 30.72% 05.09% 7762633272 1285040390.00 { TT+, AQs+, AQo+ }
Hand 2: 28.380% 20.62% 07.76% 5210406912 1959983492.00 { AKo }


Just needs a little bit of air in there for this to be ok and seeing as all 3 callers had fk all I'd say that it's going to happen frequently enough for a shove to be best.

Either way it's not horrible. The 44 hand is a waaaayyyyy bigger leak.

Agreed. I definately think AKo is a laydown, but its nowhere near as bad as the 44 one.

Thanks for the tutelage.

Folding AKo after a raise and a call I can begin to understand. The reason i started opening up my range is that as i said before, I played a few tourneys sticking to a fairly tight range, that is to say Harringtons positional guide and found by the time i got in a position to play the hands even if I entered the pot i got no action and the blinds started to eat into my stack. Maybe I should stop playing turbos to give me more of a chance to see the hands?

44 was a fairly loose call ill admit, but this is an area i am finding difficult. I was set hunting but deciding what hands to shove ill admit I have very little to no knowledge.

When i get to the point where i need to shove I just dont know what to shove with. Do i wait for any pain rag combo, high suited? any pair? need help!

Originally Posted by Hotfrog

Maybe I should stop playing turbos to give me more of a chance to see the hands?

I think that is a very good idea. Turbo's require you to have a very firm grasp of pre-flop play. And turbo's are often played to maximize $$ won per hour esp. when multi-tabling. Start playing some regular games and give yourself a chance to play a tight smart game and see what happens.Also if you are palying MTT's give some SST's a try . MTT games again require a different style of play that may not be the best way to learn when first starting out.

There is $$$ to be made in STT's so give yourself a chance there. Might be good for your psyche as well as it is alot easier to cash in an STT as opposed to an MTT.

These are turbo MTTs?

Man, steer clear of them. They're basically crap-shoots. The only edge you really have is good push/fold decisions, and you say thats your weak point. Play normal speeds and work on your game.

With that in mind, I'd play the AKo hand the same. Even in the $12 180 man turbos I'd push over, people playing those things are just pushing with stupid crap.

Ok, ive dropped the turbo's.

Tight smart game? hows this...

2nd hand of STT...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

MP3 (t1500)
CO (t1480)
Button (t1550)
SB (t1300)
Hero (t1670)
UTG (t1500)
UTG+1 (t1500)
MP1 (t1500)
MP2 (t1500)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, Q.
4 folds, MP3 raises to t160, 4 folds.

Final Pot: t50

In an STT...I would fold this. No need to mess around this early.

Well i have to say thanks to both you guys, as the direction you have allready given has helped me massively. I am very well aware that ive got a looooong way to go but i took your advice and stopped playing Turbo's and stuck to STT's to get more experience.

It really got me thinking BJsAust (not about the time when i lived in "The Rat") when you said you would definately fold AKo in that situation and this was the result.....

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

BB (t1395)
UTG (t1785)
UTG+1 (t650)
MP1 (t3510)
MP2 (t1475)
CO (t1210)
Button (t1865)
Hero (t1610)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, J.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t30, 3 folds, Button raises to t120, 1 fold, BB raises to t300, UTG+1 calls t270, Button raises to t1865, BB calls t1095 (All-In), UTG+1 calls t350 (All-In).

Flop: (t3925) 5, K, 8 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t3925) 4 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t3925) 8 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: t3455

Results in white below:
BB has Kd Kc (full house, kings full of eights).
UTG+1 has Ah 7h (one pair, eights).
Button has Ac Qd (one pair, eights).
Outcome: BB wins t3455.
Was it a good fold? (realising had i not folded i would have shoved and lost)

I went on to win this one and the next 2!!..

GAMES PLAYED:12

BANKROLL: $102.94

ROI: +22.79

Yeah, very easy fold. KJo is a hand you dont want to play much at all early in an STT for the simple reason that its easily dominated. Facing a limp and a raise its an insta-fold for me.

Originally Posted by Hotfrog

Well i have to say thanks to both you guys, as the direction you have allready given has helped me massively. I am very well aware that ive got a looooong way to go but i took your advice and stopped playing Turbo's and stuck to STT's to get more experience.

Not sure if I was one of the guys you were thanking but if I was your welcome. MTT's are alluring because of the bigger pay out's but alot of times you can go A LONG time without getting ITM. SST's are a nice way to gain some confidence and not kill a small bank-roll. Just remember on the small stakes SST's there are ALOT of idiots. Don't risk your stack with a small advantage. When you get a strong hand play it that way because they will pay you off, marginal hands and coin flips should be avoided especially early. You will get strong hands so don't try to make a so-so hand more then it is. Play good TAG poker and you will see the results at these stakes.

Good luck man!!!!