Poker Video: MTT/SNG by AMT (Micro/Small Stakes)

Man, this video was excellent. I never play sit 'n gos, but decided to check this out anyway just for fun while eating my din-dins. It's always nice to watch people do what they're really good at. I wish I had your cool and calm attitude to this game. I almost feel like playing a coupla SNG's myself...

I appreciate the compliments very much, thanks Glad you enjoyed, and good luck on the grind!

AMT I think he has something there. Maybe ur calm sng attitude is just u being u, but maybe for an episode u guys could get into the mental aspects in keeping sng players off tilt.

This certainly was one thing I really caught on to watching this video. Besides the obvious expert commentaries and gameplay, of course. The extreme coolness and thoroughly analytical approach to all the situations was quite impressive. It's probably one of the most important issues (if not the most important, at least sporadically) in poker. I definitely admit to having very silly tilt-issues, but fortunately I only play for fun and some tiny profit - I already know I lack the mental qualities of a good poker player, but, nevertheless, it certainly would be most enlightening experience to hear how the real pros manage it.

Oh, and by the way, the A7 suited at 19:00 on table two, when villain minbet the river with A4: it was a ubiquitous bad-player blocking bet with extremely weak holdings. He was prepared to pay that one chip and nothing more. At least that's what I immediately thought, and expected you to be good way more than the never you thought there.

31:00 minutes in on the $12 table. A5o in the HJ. You hit the slider to raise , but then folded. Was it close? or were you still just focused on the other table (because you were discussing folding in your SB) or are you just so aggressive that you're first instinct was to hit the raise button

What's the bottom of the range to play there? A8o? Maybe A5 from the CO? Since 3 stacks behind you are similar size and you'd have position on the big stack if he decided to play his hand, is that a good spot to steal with a slightly better hand?

EDIT: Now that I look again. With basically 10BB, were you really thinking of raising to 600? Did you just decide it was push or fold and it was too weak to push?

Well, if I did raise to 600 there it would've =a shove; just a different way to generate FE depending on game flow contexts possibly, but shoving is fine when you decide that it's right. Without ante's though, Axo is pretty close from that position IMO. With reasonably tight players behind, the stacks are setup such that I'd like shoving here, but a lot of randoms in these games can call pretty inappropriately widely with these stacks and Axo tends to play crappily against those ranges, so I don't mind folding here either. Also, it's very possibly I was just talking and will fold those close-ish spots when I'm talking about another spot. With ante's I'd definitely shove. With A8 I'd shove, and with A5 from the CO I'd shove. If I was suited with any ace I'd shove, and I'd shove a hand like KT. I'd shove all suited broadway cards and maybe a couple more suited hands wider. For sure shove any pair. It's pretty close but hope that helps think through it as a rough guideline.

Great video, thanks for your really well articulated thoughts on the hands that you played. Have just a few questions (hope you don't mind)


@ 20:50 mark, bottom r-h game, ur raise from BB with 66 into 2 limpers - who both have >3x stack. You say it's an easy shove into 2 limpers, just wondering if you would fold if there were say 3 limpers (in case u have 1 who will perhaps spite call / call with AK/AQ type hand) ?


@ 41:30 mark, you mention about taking notes. I know alot has been written about notes but what 'situations' do you specifically make a note on in large-ish fields?

@1:24:05 mark, btn raises 3xBB and SB shoves, what's your range to call here ?

I also noticed that your not using a HUD - what's your opinion of HUD's in the 180's ?

Thanks

pinotsniffer,

@20:50- More limpers the better Sure, someone might wake up with a hand here, but a) they just limp so much garbage that they fold/that is worse and b) the more limpers, the better the overlay for getting it in heads up vs 2 random overs. Can't complain too much about flips with overlay and short stacks IMO! But really I just think given the stacks and how much money is in the pot, combined with how we're faring vs limp/calling ranges + FE is worth taking it, and more limpers strengthen that with pairs typically.

Re: Note Taking--

Really IMO everything is important. I take lots of 'mental notes', in that I try to just pay attention to things like who is open limping/limping a lot in general, who is extremely aggro, who is donking into the pfr all the time, etc.... Any basic thing that points to weaknesses that might be of value to us.
Then, there are times where I take written notes, which are rather extensive for me given that I haven't used a HUD in some time. Even with a HUD though, I'd take notes any time I could achieve perfect information (seeing opponents hole cards) in a medium or big pot, or when he played a hand weirdly. So like if someone is betting down and jamming his whiffed FD, I'm noting that. People who open jam in level 1 and get called, I tend to note that. Even if you see them in one game later, they tend to take similar lines often and it can really help asses a range in close spots. I can't really go through every scenario of course but hopefully that synopsis helps.
I'd also take notes if we didn't get to see cards in a situation where someone is sizing their bets particularly poorly or seemingly obviously, if there was some timing tell to watch out for, etc....

1:24:05--- Honestly, I recorded this over a week before it was released, so I can't say with too much certainty as I don't have a specific enough recollection of the players ranges and game flow and stuff. Looking at the spot now, though, I'd stay pretty tight actually. Something along the lines of 77+/AJ+/KQ+? Thereabouts.

Re: HUDs- I haven't used a HUD in over a year, but mainly due to technical issues with my systems and stuff, and then I kind of just got into a habit with it. I plan on re-implementing HUD use in the near future for my tournament play. I definitely think it is helpful, especially in SNGs, where preflop stats are more helpful/help us put together a bigger piece of the puzzle since SNGs are often a "preflop game". As long as you're not using it as a crutch, and are trying to evaluate the stats with an even keal/not relying on them too much, and are also taking notes and stuff, I'd recommend HUD use. That said, the odd session without HUD + cutting tables might do a lot of people good IMO.

I can't help but wonder how much difference there would be in a nonturbo. As you stated it comes down to push/fold very early in turbos. Clearly you have mastered this strategy. Would push/fold come later on in a nonturbo or not at all? Could you possibly elaborate on this? Is this a main reason for choosing turbos? Great sweat vid btw! Thanks.

Have really enjoyed the whole series and really like the way AMT goes thru his thought process based on hand/situation/game flow etc. was wondering if you had planned for one of these for the 90 man mtt/sng's, hopefully at the low stakes. If there is better place to ask this question please let me know

Have really enjoyed the whole series and really like the way AMT goes thru his thought process based on hand/situation/game flow etc. was wondering if you had planned for one of these for the 90 man mtt/sng's, hopefully at the low stakes. If there is better place to ask this question please let me know

Thanks, we try

Are you referring to the pokerstars 90 mans? They seem to not be quite as popular at above the $12 level in terms of the rates in which they seem to fire compared to the other SNG field sizes. I've only played a handful of them for this reason, but if people want this structure covered in future videos, I will make a note of it. If 90 mans appear in this series specifically though, it'll likely be addressing the 90 man KO SNGs that full tilt offers. Either way, we'll get the content out that you all desire, and are definitely making note of these requests. If you have anything specific in the way of content questions or requests you're welcome to PM me or email me about them, but recent video threads will do just as well.

actually i am reffering to thr 90 man KO/T/SNG's on FTP acyually, sorry for not being specific. And I know this probably sounds stupid, but where do I go in the site if I wanted to PM or email you as far as content and whatnot for a equest. Thanks again AMT

emails can be sent through conventional email methods; name@deucescracked.com typically does the trick for most coaches. I am no exception. For PMing, go to your 'my DC' tab on the upper right part of the site page, and you should see an option for composing a private message. If you type in the username of the person that you're trying to send a msg to, it should pop-up for you in the drop down menu in typing out the name. Should be self explanatory as you go, but I'd hit up the general help forums if you incur any issues along the way. Gl!

Great video AMT! Loved the commentary and thought process as you played through the games.

Btw, how does this video not rate 5 stars?!? I thought it was awesome.

Thanks mudfrog, always appreciate the support/positive feedback as well as the negative (if constructive, of course).

As far as the ratings;

http://www.joewrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/haters-gonna-hate.gif

Why fold to his min reraise getting over 5to1 with both of you having good sized stacks? If you don't connect big then you still have 3 times the chips of 3rd place

Reasons that come into my mind are that we would have to play out of position, which wouldn't be great and BB may be eager shipping a lot of hands here I guess (we aren't closing the action).

That wouldn't be the reason. We raised from the button, the SB(shortstack) folded and BB min raised 3bet. I know Q7s isn't a wonderful hand but getting over 5to1 in position 3-handed while in 2nd and way above 3rd place seems like an easy call.

I don't hate calling I guess, but I don't recall getting repopped particularly lightly, and as such I think it can get really ugly with the stacks, even getting great odds preflop. The fact that we are way above 3rd is a good argument for not getting involved. If you flop a 7 and ever fold, it would be terrible, and getting it in really sucks too. The same with flopping a flush draw or bad 4 card OESDs or anything but top pair really. We're going to have to play fit or fold when we miss and he [likely] bets, and even giving up *those* huge pots completely sucks.

The 3rd stack having only 5bb has some pretty big ICM implications given how much money lies ahead. By not getting involved, we pretty much ensure that we get heads up a huge % of the time which is really what we should be going for with the stacks, vs. trying to outplay people 20bb deep in 3b pots with a short stack around when 1st and 2nd are close in chips and an elimination means a much bigger payout.

Finally, the hand doesn't end preflop, and getting great odds with very short stacks in a rapidly growing pot largely negates our positional and skill advantages with what is already a pretty crap hand. IMO.

If we were a bit deeper, maybe 30+bb, or even if we were heads up in a similar situation with no short stack around, I would definitely call the minraise in position.

We have made a note on almost nuts about min raise with K7 under the gun, and the previous hand he min raised folded to a shove against graydame. My questions is what range do you shove over his min-raise. I feel J3 is probably a little light, but as this hand developed, my gut instinct was to shove as a bluff, and pick of the dead money. Are you only pushing for value in that spot?

It's an interesting spot. We've seen him min raise light, but there are a couple important factors here:

1) We're all fairly even stacked.

2) We still need him to fold a good bit when he minraises to shove even a moderately wide range.

With just 10bb's, measuring FE is particularly tricky. I don't recall the game flow specifically here, but if he was minraising frequently, I'd definitely be widening my value range in that type of spot moreso than I would against most facing any raise for 10 bb effective stacks, where we'd have to stay fairly tight due to having basically 0 FE. I'd be happy to get it in with a hand like A7/K9s/QJ/55 against a guy similar to this, where we can actually count on a wider opening range, and more FE with such short stacks than against most opponents, but I can't imagine pushing more than 20-25% of hands at the wider end of things. Even against someone minraise/folding some % of the time with these stacks, we're going to still need that pot equity as part of a widened value range instead of hoping that he folds a very very high % of the time to the point that we can shove a hand like Jxo (or really ATC; as hypothetically speaking, if you can shove J3o profitably here you should be able to shove everything profitably). As soon as he decides to look you up with that pretty looking high suited connector, the move becomes dangerously unprofitable. I'd rather wait to try and manipulate the stack dynamic and having impetus first in to pick up some pots on subsequent hands when people generally still fold too much.

Time Link to 00:24:50

Regarding the A4s hand (which I appreciate AMT discussing at length here -- I agree that maximizing these apparently hopeless situs is still a skill worth thinking about):

Is there any merit to Moshman's suggestion here of calling off A4s precisely because someone already shoved? I don't own his SNG book but as I recall, he argues that this is a good place to call off a small stack with no future ability to generate fold equity. Sure, in this case we're likely dominated by Ax or 44+, but the dead money if the blinds fold means we really only need like 35% equity or something. The remaining seats behind us could have a monster that would really put us in bad shape, which Moshman doesn't really address.

Anyway, that's the only place I've ever seen that suggestion for playing tiny stacks so I wondered if anyone thought it might argue in favor of sticking it in with A4s and hoping for the best.

Good point. Moshman was referring to calling a shove there IIRC. That would maximize the probability of everyone behind you folding, and as you say also could suggest a slightly wider range.

Time Link to 00:54:40

What do you think of a stop and go here? Possibly call the 2k, then shove 5k into the 7k pot on the flop. Is there a concern that since he's opening for 25% of his stack he has KT beat very often? I don't play these, I play the 90 man KO's on FTP which seem to play similar to these and I just wanted to know your thoughts.