Sprayed

Light Bulb Just Went On

While it's still fresh in my mind, I wanted to type-up some of the middle game play that sheets talked about. Basically, you are looking for steal opportunities regardless of cards and position. The idea is to find spots where the bb has 15-10 bbs. They can't call. All they can do is shove or fold. The other time to steal is when you yourself is around 15bbs or 10M. This is when the total blinds can add 10% to your stack. The middle game starts when you have 15bbs/10M or the majority of the table is around 15bbs/10M. Resteals are very important when trying to chip-up. You want to look for players that are around 15bbs making standard raises. If you have 67s in the bb and CO with 15bbs standard raises, you can come over the top for a steal. Ideally, you want to have a bigger stack than the CO. The other thing to look for is when you standard raise in LP and one of the blinds reraises but leaves some chips behind (not pot committed) so that he can get away and fold his hand if you push all in. This is a resteal. Push all in on these guys. The other thing to remember is that when you are around 10bbs, you need to push any two when folded to on the BU and SB. You need chips and it's a high % that they won't call considering they first have a hand and second you are only going through 1 or 2 people. When you hit 5bbs or the blinds will take you below 5bbs, you must push any two when UTG, because you have no FE when < 5bbs. Just opposite, when folded to you on the BU or SB with a stack > 10bbs, and the players to your left have around 10bbs, push any two. Their range is narrow here and they can't call without a very good hand. Sit tight in the early round of play and stay out of the way. Play big aces, pps, and scs in position. Stay away from trap hands like KJ and AT unless you have position. Once the middle game starts, this is the time to open up your game. No more limping when the antes kick-in.

Middle game - Blind Stealing

Some good stuff from sheets: Steal blinds when they are worth something. Have a plan if called. If you are a known player, your opponents may have a read of you from past play and therefore, your current playing style might not matter. If you know how you are perceived, then you know how players will play at you. If a player leaves chips behind so that they can fold, then they are probably on a resteal. Middle game is usually determined by the amount of players left and stack sizes in relation to the blinds. When the majority of your opponents at your table has 10M. You can steal now. When antes come into play, no more limping. When you can add 10% to your stack you can steal. If you are in the blinds with a 10M and a late position raiser has 10M, you can raise with a wide range for a resteal. Players in the blinds with 15-10bbs are good targets to steal from. Even in any position that you might be in. Ex. bb has an 11bb stack and you are in mp with 53s. Blinds are 200/400 ante. You can raise here safely. Resteal against stacks that are smaller than yours.

More Cash Notes

More from Rizen: If you flop TPTK and someone leads out and the board is scary, you can call and then lead the turn. If they reraise then you can fold. Check calling isn't that profitable. With big hands like AQ you don't mind multiway pots when suited, but unsuited you want to be HU.

More SNG Strategy

More from sheets: Play extremely tight early. Conserve your chips for later in the tourney. Play only pairs and nice Aces. Ultimately stay out of the way. With an over pair to the board just play it safe because you don't know where you are at and you don't want to bust. SNGs are not a game of post flop play up to the $500 levels. You can play a little stronger when the blinds are 50/100. If opponents have 10bbs push all in on them because you would be calling anyways if you standard raise and they push. The other reason is if you standard raise they can play back at you. If you have a good stack, you can see flops in position when they limp.

Misc. MTT Stuff

Some comments from Bel0wAb0ve. When around 15 bbs in ep or mp, you can limp small pps instead of raise because you can't afford to raise and be reraised. When you see people around 7-5 bbs, they are pushing with a wide range and you can call with Ax or big broadway because your range is better than theirs normally. You can do this normally when it's around 20% of you stack.

Cash

These are notes I took from Rizen and Aba20. When oop and with a big hand raise fairly big if another deep stack is in the hand as well. You don't want to give them a chance to draw to their hand because of the implied odds. Hands that are not suited they play better HU not multiway. Like KQo vs. KQs. You can limp KQs after limpers but the offsuit you want to throw away. With a hand in lp like KQs it is great multi and HU so if there are limpers just sweeten the pot with just a 3x raise instead of a higher because of the limpers. You want them to call so that if you hit you get more chips Hands like mid pps you want to be in a pot with several players. HU you want to reraise to isolate if you have a read on the player. Other wise just dump it. When in the bb and you have a terrible hand and the sb limps raise upto 5xbb because you want to take it down preflop. You don't want to play the hand. Also, there is no rake if you win preflop. If they call you have to try and out play them or just give-up. When in the blinds with a pp and facing a position raiser, you want to reraise to take it down preflop because it's hard to play post flop. If there were other people in then calling would be ok for set value. Only call raises that are 5% of your stack with scs and pps. T is the second most dangerous card to an Ace on the flop. It hits a lot of hands. Your stats should be 25/20. If a person has a high cold calling range, they are calling with very marginal hands. You can 3 barrel them if need be. You are responsible for your own results. Vary reraises based on stack sizes. You don't want to give them the implied odds to call. When you reraise and you are oop, you must reraise more than the pot. If you are in position you can reraise around pot sized or little below. If you identify a player that plays his good hands strong and his moderate hands passively then you can play accordingly. If someone will call down with second pair kno ..

SNG Strat (Turbo)

These are notes taken from various decent SNG players. Fold a lot early. Patience and discipline. Don't play too many pots. Less than 15%. Necessity, ask yourself is this a move that I have to do. Do I have to make this play. Most MTTers don't play well in SNGs because of doing too many moves. Look for patterns in people. Use while your playing resources like the hand history. Play very conservative early in SNGs. There's about 10 decisions per game that you have to make. Just play it tight and safe early until the bubble and then use proper push/fold strat.

HU Play With Deapstacks

These are notes I took from Rizen. A quick way to adjust to HU play is look at the board and substitute the highest card with a 2. Ex. Q76 = 276 If you have the Q you have the best hand. If you have the 7 normally this is top pair. Look for betting patterns. Never give up the button. When in the bb almost always call a min raise because of the odds. Any K or A is good preflop.

Calling Ranges for SNGs

These notes come from sheets. If you don't know, sheets is an SNG expert. It's all about risk vs. reward. What are you risking if you win compared to what you could lose? The closer you are to bubbling your calling range decreases which means you can call with more hands. The opposite is true if you are farther away from bubbling the tighter your calling range must be. In other words you can't call with that many hands. Calling ranges of opponents will change due to their stack size. For example, if your stack can't bust your opponent then he has a wider range to call. If you can not risk all your chips and they could bust if they call then a push is ok. Most of the time this will be when your opponents have less than 10bbs. You can safely push any two cards from the button and small blind.

Pot Odds

Here are somethings to remember about pot odds that I learned from chardrian. 2-1 means you need a 33% chance so there are a lot of times when "normally" you shouldn't. 3-1 means you need a 25% chance - there is rarely going to be a time when you think you have much less than a 25% chance (it could happen though I guess) so at 3-1 I think it is going to be much more "normal" to call. 4-1 for me means insta-call almost everytime. KK vs AA is still getting basically the right odds at 4-1.