SNG Update

I've played in a few sit and go's over the past couple of days. I've cashed in about 70% of them. Not too bad. Especially since I was playing on the weekend. Weekends tend to be filled with loose aggressive, weak players. It might sound counterintuitive, but it is a little harder winning against these kinds of players than against good, solid players. Against weak players, or LAG's, you have to show down a hand most of the time. You can bluff them from time to time and make moves at them from time to time. But you don't want to risk too much trying to push them over. Against LAG's, you want to let them hang themselves, and make a lot more value bets than bluff attempts.

This is a graph of my success so far. It has a nice trend to it. A big part of poker is variance, which is definetely illustrated by all of the dips in my graph. I'm sure I made some mistakes during those periods, or tried to run over a weak player and got called, and of course there's some bad beats in there. But the overall trend of the graph shows that I am on an upward rise. So that is very encouraging. Just have to keep playing well, and observing my opponents. I don't like to take overly complicated notes on players. Usually, I just note their tendencies. I try to make note of whether they are loose or tight, passive or aggressive, and make brief notes about any specific tell I might pick up or how they played a specific hand.

So I was up against one of the most aggressive players I have ever seen. Now, I'm all for playing aggressive poker. But this guy took it to the extreme. He raised a lot of hands, most of which were from early or middle position. If it weren't for some rather weak players, he would have been out of the tourney in the second or third level. He did make some good plays, like using the squeeze play from the button when players limped. So I was trying to get into a hand with him. There were a couple of problems early on though. Most of the time, when he raised, he would get re-raised by a short stack, or I would have total air. So I was playing patiently, and just waiting to pick him off.

There were a couple of hands that come to mind. I only had about 1500, and the blinds were 50/100. He raised, AGAIN, and I had AJ off on the button. I knew he was weak, and only had the blinds to go through. He raised to 300, so I pushed for 1500. The small blind called off his last 1000, and he folded. The small blind had 22, I turned an ace and we were down to 6. Later, I got AK, and the same kind of situation came up, I re-raised and he folded again. Long story short, the two short stacks went out and we were in the money. I was sitting second in chips to the LAG, and it was time to go to war.

He took the short stack out, and we were heads up. He had me outchipped almost 2:1. When we got heads up, he didn't slow down one bit. Which I don't mind. I don't play tentative, but at the same time, I like to play flops against players that overvalue marginal hands. One thing you have to remember, is that when you have an unpaired hand, you will only flop a pair or better about 30-40% of the time. Most of the time, you will miss the flop. So, the blinds are 100/200 and he has the button. He raised to 600, and I called with 9-10. Not a great hand, but it is a hand that you want to see a flop with. The flop came Q-6-7. I have a gutshot draw, and I'm pretty sure the queen didn't help him, but I can't be certain. I check it to him and he bets 400. Now there's 1600 in the pot, so I'm getting 4:1. For a gutshot, I'm not getting the right odds. However, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a queen. So if I have 10 live outs, then I'm only a 60:40 dog. In that case, I'm getting the right odds. So I call, and sure enough, I hit a 9 on the turn. Now I have second pair, which I figure will probably be good. I was thinking about leading out on the turn, but decided to wait for the river, let him hang himself until then. Sure enough, he bets 600. You see how I knew he didn't have a queen? A 2 hit the river, but it was a flush card, now I wish I didn't play the hand so passively. But I knew the kind of player he was, and if I tried to get rid of him and he had a flush draw, he would have called. SO now I plan on just check-calling the river. He bets 1000, and I call, he had KJ.....lol. The true definition of a LAG. Willing to fire three bullets with king high.

So that gave me the chip lead, and there was no way I was gonna let him off the hook now. I knew I had him rattled, and now I could put a little more pressure on him. It's tough to pressure a LAG when they can eliminate you from a tournament. You just have to wait for an opportunity to double through them. Later, I check-called him on the flop with second pair. Then lead out on fourth and fifth with second pair. It was a defensive bet, one I knew he wouldn't raise, and I knew I would be able to show down. Same thing, I win, he has bottom pair.

I made a couple of moves at him. One hand I had an open end straight draw with a flush draw on the turn. I check-raised the flop with a flush draw, and pushed in with the combo draw, as well as two overs to the board. SO I pretty much knew that if he had a small pair, I had 21 outs. The final hand was pretty standard. He min raised, I called OOP with Q9. The flop brought a queen with two clubs. I knew he would bet almost any flop, so I checked to him again. He bet 240, I raised to 1200. He pushed in for 2160 total, and I called with top pair. He had K8 of clubs. He had 12 outs, so he was about 45% to win. Not horrible, but a dog. The turn and river bricked and I won the tourney.

One tip when playing against LAG's. Don't let them control the table. From time to time, you have to push back. You don't want to let them steal you blind, then eliminate you with the money they stole from you. Against a LAG, I will open up my re-raising standards to AJ+ and 88+. Most of the time, I try to keep myself out of this position, by playing position against these players, and try to trap them when I flop a monster or a huge draw. Against a LAG, if I have 15 outs or more, the money is going to get into the middle. So stay observant, and fight back against players that try to run you over. Once you push back, they will usually look for weaker targets and leave you alone for the most part. Some just don't learn, and you have to whack them a couple of times before they get the hint that they can't steal from you.