Railing SnG's

[Zee Devee]

...does it help?

I think I read in another thread bjsaust railed a taipan168 SnG, and I was wondering if railing really helps people learn.

I mean, since you cannot see the cards are you talking with the person you are railing via aim or some other way and conversing about players/hands while the SnG is in progress?

What about just watching a higher up game? Does it help seeing the plays some big players use even if you can't see what they are doing it with and you don't know their thought process?

[taipan168]

I mean, since you cannot see the cards are you talking with the person you are railing via aim or some other way and conversing about players/hands while the SnG is in progress?

I told bjs my cards when he was railing me and vice versa when I was railing him.

What about just watching a higher up game? Does it help seeing the plays some big players use even if you can't see what they are doing it with and you don't know their thought process?

IMO, no. At very high buyins there are all kinds of metagame things going on since so many of the players play each other so often. Plus if you can't see the cards you miss most of the action.

BTW I'm more than happy for anybody to rail me when I play, just PM me your MSN name and I'll add you.

[bjsaust]

Yeah, we're on MSN at the same time. If we're both playing (on diff tables) we let each other know what card we have on the hands we play. If I'm just watching Tai and not playing he lets me know all cards so I can see what he's folding as well as what he's playing. Sometimes I have two tables up watching Tai on one and playing the other, sometimes I just watch him so I can get more out of it. We've played two games together, but dont share cards when we do that, but we sometimes exchange HH after the tourneys over to see what we did.

I find it useful. I try not to let Taipan direct my play when he's railing, but if I fold a hand I was borderline on I'll ask if he would have played it. If he sees me bet differently than he would he lets me know. I have occassionally asked his advice before making a play, generally a real borderline call I'm just not sure on, especially if its my tourney at stake.

Probably the biggest advantage, is the person railing can be making their own reads. So unlike reviewing a tourney where you only see the hands hero plays and rely on the posters reads, this time the railer can pick up on reads or point out things that the player might miss, and advise on how that should affect plays.

[fdnypoker]

A few nights back I decided to rail some of the upper limit games on PS. Found JohnyBax in a $20 rebuy and a high stakes ring game.

Not seeing the cards is a minor issue. To me it seems that position played the biggest role. NEVER did he play a hand out of position unless he came in with a big raise.

I feel at the lower stakes the opps don't care about position so it's not easy to push them off hand. I guess by playing position and strong starting hands that would be to our advantage. Do you agree?

I seem to do better at the $20 and $27 S/G's than at the $5's which only confuses me.

What's the reason behind that ? Is there more variance (luck) at the lower stakes games because opps go so far with junk hands? is it easier to play "good" poker against the higher limit players?

[bjsaust]

You're probably less likely to face bad calls that suck out at higher levels, but you'll face more aggression also.

This weekend I had a shocker run of beats by silly calls (combined with bad beats by good calls), but next weekend hopefully variance will go my way instead.

[fdnypoker]

Funny. Playing against aggressive players seems easier (tighten up....occasional reraise steal) than the maniac bad call person.

But that means having a BR that allows you to play the slightly higher stakes w/o worry. Thats means I have to stop dumping cash into friends accounts and build up a legit B/R.

[FlyingSaucy]

railing is fun. I've used FTR chat to rail every hand of a sng for bjsaust in the past. It seems like a good way to play, if forces me to think about my moves and explain myself a little, so it is a good learning experience on both sides.

btw, I've always believed that in order to be successful at a particular level you need to be one level of thinking better than the average opponent at that level. So if you are over-thinking things at low level sngs it might be to your detriment. You probably should loosen a bit if everyone else is playing even looser. Remember sngs = survival is key early, fold fold fold, then thrive in late stages with well thuoght out pushes.