Poker Video: MTT/SNG by Skitz0Frenik (Micro/Small Stakes)

Time Link to 00:05:12

88+, AQ+ sounds a little tight. I would actually stick it in here with your hand. Wiz says it's close if he is opening 25%, AJs has a pretty big edge.

Actually, I thought this would be a obvious fist pump snap call, initially.

I feel the main point in this hand is that you don't have a lot of equity in this SNG left, so you should be somewhat more inclined to get it in.

Time Link to 00:33:24

Strongly disagree with your points on not shoving. It is obviously way better than folding, even after you gave them ridiculous loose calling ranges. In fact the shove with A8s is +EV regardless of their calling ranges i.e. it's unexploitable. Please don't fold those.

Time Link to 00:39:14

I don't like raising with the intention to call against most. He has to 3-bet over 20% to make this good. Raise-folding against tight opponents is fine, raise calling against crazy maniacs is fine. Against opponents somewhere in between a push is good.

Time Link to 00:42:50

If they were both around 10bb it would actually be less of a shove. Here the BB can't hurt you as much.

Time Link to 01:00:38

Very good point on the power of the big stack.

Really nice video once again.

Got to ask something: I see you requesting time a lot, are you still playing too many tables?

88+, AQ+ sounds a little tight. I would actually stick it in here with your hand. Wiz says it's close if he is opening 25%, AJs has a pretty big edge.

Actually, I thought this would be a obvious fist pump snap call, initially.

I feel the main point in this hand is that you don't have a lot of equity in this SNG left, so you should be somewhat more inclined to get it in.

I agree with this. The ICM says it's okay to flip if you knew the blinds would fold & because you're getting blinded away I think it's correct to take even slightly the worse of it.

Time Link to 00:10:13

You can click on the edge link and set it to whatever you want. In this case it defaulted to -.1%, so WIZ with the average default edge thinks you should go .1% of prize pool to the negative in this spot. You can change the default edge, but it's based only on your stack size and position - not your tournament equity so it's not that great.

Another thing you can do is look at the equilibrium ranges by clicking the little calculator icon in the toolbar.

Time Link to 00:15:46

I don't think you have that much fold equity vs a random BB, not in PokerStars games anyway. He isn't risk averse against you in this spot and very good players as well as bad players play this about the same - which is to call you wide, just a little tighter than the frequency you are shoving but weighted towards show down strength.

Time Link to 00:37:05

You guys are crazy tight

I like this in this spot http://www.holdemresources.net/hr/sngs/icmcalculator.html?action=calculate&bb=160&sb=80&ante=0&structure=0.5,0.3,0.2&s1=1105&s2=4930&s3=3510&s4=2380&s5=1575&s6=&s7=&s8=&s9=

You're way behind, get some chips.

Time Link to 00:38:34

If he is exactly any pair & any ace then raise to 400 & call is a mistake. If he is smarter about his range but similar frequency it's a bigger mistake. Snap shove for me.

Time Link to 00:41:33

You have to be careful with edge. I see no reason to have one here.

[IMG]http://i51.tinypic.com/14in9xs.png[/IMG]

Also if SB is more reasonable you can go quite a bit wider - http://www.holdemresources.net/hr/sngs/icmcalculator.html?action=calculate&bb=200&sb=100&ante=0&structure=0.5,0.3,0.2&s1=3700&s2=1035&s3=2150&s4=5330&s5=1285&s6=&s7=&s8=&s9=

Time Link to 00:52:54

These are great spots, to look at them in WIZ you can take the best hands out of his limp range by moving the slider from the left. That usually changes it a lot.

Got to ask something: I see you requesting time a lot, are you still playing too many tables?

Table Ninja requests time pretty early. I'm usually not even using any of my time bank.

This is by far the best format for looking at push/fold situations. I find these more informational than the live play. What these lack are flop play and big stack play which I'm sure you are aware. I know flop play is a bit unusual in sngs but I wouldn't mind seeing the 15/30 - 25/50 level with hands like AK or 99. Higher stakes, better players, more in depth, pertinent hands in the replayer also come to mind (not necessarily all from the same tournament).

A lot of good spots. Another thing to remember about being aggressive when there are 4 players and possibly busting out vs. being too conservative and slipping into the money is to remember that a first place pays out more than twice that of a 3rd place. So, you don't have to be in the money every tournament, but when you are in the money, it's worth so much more to be finishing first. (I know cue Capt. Obvious theme song). But it helped me realize that I have a better chance finishing higher (making more money in the long run)playing more aggressively and busting vs. hoping to make the money. I still struggle with it. I'm just Nitty by Nature I guess (sorry couldn't help the reference). Good luck Brian.

88+, AQ+ sounds a little tight. I would actually stick it in here with your hand. Wiz says it's close if he is opening 25%, AJs has a pretty big edge.

Actually, I thought this would be a obvious fist pump snap call, initially.

I feel the main point in this hand is that you don't have a lot of equity in this SNG left, so you should be somewhat more inclined to get it in.

I agree with Wiz that it is closer than at first glance. The reason I prefer a fold is we have no idea if he's opening that wide (25% is a lot). That's why I mentioned the HUD is really helpful. Vs. loose players it is a snapcall. But in a vacuum I fold and preserve our stack to shove ourselves. This is why it is not perfect to review games in a replayer. We lose the dynamics of the table and key info on opponents.

We don't have a lot of equity left in the SNG, but we have enough to shove and get folds, so vs. tight/reasonable players I believe this is a correct fold.

Strongly disagree with your points on not shoving. It is obviously way better than folding, even after you gave them ridiculous loose calling ranges. In fact the shove with A8s is +EV regardless of their calling ranges i.e. it's unexploitable. Please don't fold those.

I wouldn't go as far to say as it's obviously better than folding. Shoving 13 bbs to only add 10% to our stack isn't ever great in a STT, and more importantly, vs. most players a minraise will accomplish the same thing. We'd be risking a fraction of our stack for the same gain. The problem is inviting resteals, so it depends on the opponents. A fold IS probably too tight, but I am trying to encourage stack preservation for more valuable shoves later (bigger gains than 10%).

I don't like raising with the intention to call against most. He has to 3-bet over 20% to make this good. Raise-folding against tight opponents is fine, raise calling against crazy maniacs is fine. Against opponents somewhere in between a push is good.

I did mention it is dependent on the opponent. I think raise/fold is only good vs. VERY tight opponents, as even tight regs will resteal KJ, A7s etc. in this spot. They are also reshipping lots of small/mid pairs they'd be folding a lot vs. shoves, so I agree that a shove is totally fine and probably standard.

Very good point on the power of the big stack.

Really nice video once again.

Got to ask something: I see you requesting time a lot, are you still playing too many tables?

Thanks, glad you like the format. Lol, I was going to ask about the timing out issue too since in the first video we mentioned playing too many tables being a hindrance to getting better as a player.

You can click on the edge link and set it to whatever you want. In this case it defaulted to -.1%, so WIZ with the average default edge thinks you should go .1% of prize pool to the negative in this spot. You can change the default edge, but it's based only on your stack size and position - not your tournament equity so it's not that great.

Another thing you can do is look at the equilibrium ranges by clicking the little calculator icon in the toolbar.

Good stuff, thanks!

I don't think you have that much fold equity vs a random BB, not in PokerStars games anyway. He isn't risk averse against you in this spot and very good players as well as bad players play this about the same - which is to call you wide, just a little tighter than the frequency you are shoving but weighted towards show down strength.

Agreed.

You guys are crazy tight

I like this in this spot http://www.holdemresources.net/hr/sngs/icmcalculator.html?action=calculate&bb=160&sb=80&ante=0&structure=0.5,0.3,0.2&s1=1105&s2=4930&s3=3510&s4=2380&s5=1575&s6=&s7=&s8=&s9=

You're way behind, get some chips.

First I've been called "crazy tight"

If he is exactly any pair & any ace then raise to 400 & call is a mistake. If he is smarter about his range but similar frequency it's a bigger mistake. Snap shove for me.

He would never be exactly any pair or any ace. We see resteals there from plenty of other hands. Shove is possibly best, but I wouldn't narrow his range too much unless we have a read/tight HUD numbers.

These are great spots, to look at them in WIZ you can take the best hands out of his limp range by moving the slider from the left. That usually changes it a lot.

Ah, that helps a lot, thanks!

This is by far the best format for looking at push/fold situations. I find these more informational than the live play. What these lack are flop play and big stack play which I'm sure you are aware. I know flop play is a bit unusual in sngs but I wouldn't mind seeing the 15/30 - 25/50 level with hands like AK or 99. Higher stakes, better players, more in depth, pertinent hands in the replayer also come to mind (not necessarily all from the same tournament).

Great feedback, thank you. I will keep that in mind for upcoming videos and/or a new series.

Time Link to 00:12:18

With the three limps here and the opportunity to pick up 3BB's with a shove what range would you shove here? Seems like a great spot to pick up some free chips behind the three limps.

Time Link to 00:46:04

Here you discuss mostly folding vs. calling. I acknowledge folding to be reasonable, especially if the button is tight. But why won't you reshove to isolate, as opposed to calling? You advocate calling with the intention of folding to a raise from the big stack on the BB, but can you really fold in such a scenario with so huge pot odds? You would have called off 700, the pot is 1600, and you have only 1600 left, making your pot odds roughly 2-1. If you isolate the button, it's not such a disaster if the big blind calls, because the short stack would be up against two others, fighting for his tournament life, whereas you would come 3rd if the big stack wins. If you call the button shove, and fold to a reraise, you are letting the button triple up against just one guy, and you would be the short stack if he won the hand.

With the three limps here and the opportunity to pick up 3BB's with a shove what range would you shove here? Seems like a great spot to pick up some free chips behind the three limps.

This would be a great spot if we were a little deeper. The problem with shoving a range including 56s is we are almost never getting three folds with our stack. Two of the limpers are relatively deep and we'll be getting called by all types of crap. To answer your question, I'd shove 55+, 9Ts+, Axs, etc. We need to be somewhat tighter because of our short stack and the deeper stacks already in the hand.

Here you discuss mostly folding vs. calling. I acknowledge folding to be reasonable, especially if the button is tight. But why won't you reshove to isolate, as opposed to calling? You advocate calling with the intention of folding to a raise from the big stack on the BB, but can you really fold in such a scenario with so huge pot odds? You would have called off 700, the pot is 1600, and you have only 1600 left, making your pot odds roughly 2-1. If you isolate the button, it's not such a disaster if the big blind calls, because the short stack would be up against two others, fighting for his tournament life, whereas you would come 3rd if the big stack wins. If you call the button shove, and fold to a reraise, you are letting the button triple up against just one guy, and you would be the short stack if he won the hand.

Just looked over this hand and you are right on the money. If we were deeper a call/fold to BB shove is fine, but with our stack size mathematically it'd be pretty bad to call/fold. The decision does come down to an iso-shove or a fold here. In this case, without antes and with a very tight button, a straight-up fold seems to be the best play as we're really not ahead of a tight shover's range by much if at all on the bubble. More importantly, our stack is such that if we do get it in and lose, our FE is crippled, and our FE is our main concern at this point (racing with another shortstack is not).
Good catch and very nice post.