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

For future vids I'd recommend you uncheck "show known cards".

For future vids I'd recommend you uncheck "show known cards".

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You can set the HUD to filter for the number of players as well, I feel that this is a lot more useful than filtering based on blind levels is. Obviously it still doesn't give the correct % but it's been helpful for me at
least.

At around 31 minute mark you said that by raising a bit bigger gives you even better odds to call the short stack which should be avoided. A minor thing in this spot as you would be calling even if you get slightly worse odds. Maybe I'm a bit too nitpicky =).

Great video otherwise, looking forward to the next one.

Time Link to 00:20:34

I'm interested by your comment "Even though we are not on the bubble yet, ICM still plays a part". Seeing as ICM is used to determine our current equity standing, and therefore help to make more informed decisions as to what plays we should be making, shouldn't it be a consideration throughout the entire tournament, and not just on the bubble?

Farmer,
Yes ICM should be considered for all hands of the SnG, excluding heads up (in the money) hands.
I'm sure luceboy was just implying that you shouldn't forget to consider ICM in situations like that - some players forget that and think about hands that aren't on the bubble as if it were cEV.

For future vids I'd recommend you uncheck "show known cards".

I couldnt agree more. It was my first video using the HEM replayer so i was a little unfamiliar with what i was doing, my apologies

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You can set the HUD to filter for the number of players as well, I feel that this is a lot more useful than filtering based on blind levels is. Obviously it still doesn't give the correct % but it's been helpful for me at
least.

At around 31 minute mark you said that by raising a bit bigger gives you even better odds to call the short stack which should be avoided. A minor thing in this spot as you would be calling even if you get slightly worse odds. Maybe I'm a bit too nitpicky =).

Great video otherwise, looking forward to the next one.

I understand what you're saying about setting the HUD to filter its stats based on the number of players. I can see that this would be useful if you had more than one tournament on a player but surely if you're playing with someone for the first time then it must be hard to gauge their 'personality' due to the small sample size at each stage? Im not saying that it's a bad idea, far from it - i'm always looking to make my HUD more useful, however considering the number of unkowns i meet i'd still prefer to use all the hands ive seen for the HUD stats, just because of the small sample size. Have you had any issues with your way of doing things?

You're spot on with you're second point - i'd be calling him even if i made it 450 to begin with rather than 500. And you're not being pedantic as its the consideration of the finer points in poker that make you really improve. The point i was trying to make was that you should always consider the stack sizes of your opponents and size your raise accordingly so as to make any future decisions easier. This really helps when multi-tabling. In this case the raise size wasnt so important because the SB was so short that even if i had min raised it i would still be getting 2112/1112 = 1.9:1 on a call and those are just about good enough considering my raggy ace. The raise size of 500 gives me 2212/1012 = 2.2:1 which are significantly better pot odds. If you are considering calling a repush with a raggy ace you generally need better odds than if you were considering a call with a hand like JTs, just because the raggy ace is so often going to be dominated. This is why i decided to make the initial raise a little larger.

If the SB had 10BB, then it becomes a little more difficult as to what raise size you should make. You should be asking yourself questions such as: If i raise is he going to think that he has fold equity on a repush? If thats the case then he might repush with some hands like 33 or KTo. If he is a good player he will realise that youre probably going to call him and so wont repush with anything that you're A7o is ahead of. So, if hes a good player, i would (probably) min raise with the A7 and fold to a repush from the SB. If hes a really bad player then maybe i'd make it 500 and call him (whilst still considering pot odds obviously). Putting your opponent on repushing range here also depends on their HUD stats. Theres so many factors here i could talk for hours.

I'm interested by your comment "Even though we are not on the bubble yet, ICM still plays a part". Seeing as ICM is used to determine our current equity standing, and therefore help to make more informed decisions as to what plays we should be making, shouldn't it be a consideration throughout the entire tournament, and not just on the bubble?

You're entirely correct - ICM should always influence your decisions in a SNG, no matter how many players or the level of the blinds. My main aim with this comment was to try and make clear that ICM isnt just something that you should only consider on the bubble (as some newcomers to ICM may think). Obviously the discrepancy between chip equity (cEV) and tournament equity ($EV) is greatest on the bubble hence why ICM is most important at that stage of the tournament. However you should also consider that it should also influence your decision making in situations such as:

Its 6 handed at 10-20 and you raise to 60 from UTG with AKs, a fish stacks for 1500 from 2nd position and its folded to you. In this spot i'd fold, even though i reckon to be ahead of his range (so a +cEV move) i dont neccessarily want to take a possible flip at this stage just because i consider my edge over him to be so great that i can wait for a better spot where im not risking my tournament life.

Its 4 handed, you have 2000 chips and the blinds are 100-200, but there's 2 stacks with 400 and 500 chips respectively. You should play this situation like it were the bubble.

It is, however, hard to gauge just how important ICM is at any given stage that isnt the bubble. You can only really learn through experience and using SNG wiz.

Farmer,
Yes ICM should be considered for all hands of the SnG, excluding heads up (in the money) hands.
I'm sure luceboy was just implying that you shouldn't forget to consider ICM in situations like that - some players forget that and think about hands that aren't on the bubble as if it were cEV.

Whoops, didnt see your comment - seems you got there first

I understand what you're saying about setting the HUD to filter its stats based on the number of players. I can see that this would be useful if you had more than one tournament on a player but surely if you're playing with someone for the first time then it must be hard to gauge their 'personality' due to the small sample size at each stage? Im not saying that it's a bad idea, far from it - i'm always looking to make my HUD more useful, however considering the number of unkowns i meet i'd still prefer to use all the hands ive seen for the HUD stats, just because of the small sample size. Have you had any issues with your way of doing things?

I constantly have issues with this. I don't think there's a perfect solution. It seems to me that filtering by the number of players is best of the not so good options. Most of the randoms single table so if I see them for the first time and happen get 3-handed with them or smth then I can simply double click on their stats to make HEM show their stats for the current game. Definitely far from perfect unfortunately though. This becomes problematic once I have played 2-3 STT-s with the player. A ton of stats will not be shown in that case(if I double click I only get stats for the 1 STT, if I don't double click then there often are not enough stats to go on.) After writing this I realize that your approach is probably better .

On the second point, you might have misunderstood me a bit. I'll illustrate my thoughts with a very extreme example: let's say we have 23o and for some reason we know that our opponent has AKs + we're equally stacked with 1500 chips(blinds 10/20 FWIW). We're first to act. Raising 23o to 1400 and then calling the last 100 will not be the correct course of action even though our last action(calling the 100 left behind) is correct.
What I meant to say is that arranging the stacks to make calling a shove correct, without the higher bet size playing any role on our opponents shoving range, is not optimal. I seem to remember something like this from a video I saw a long long time ago, I might be misunderstanding/misapplying something though.

I constantly have issues with this. I don't think there's a perfect solution. It seems to me that filtering by the number of players is best of the not so good options. Most of the randoms single table so if I see them for the first time and happen get 3-handed with them or smth then I can simply double click on their stats to make HEM show their stats for the current game. Definitely far from perfect unfortunately though. This becomes problematic once I have played 2-3 STT-s with the player. A ton of stats will not be shown in that case(if I double click I only get stats for the 1 STT, if I don't double click then there often are not enough stats to go on.) After writing this I realize that your approach is probably better .

On the second point, you might have misunderstood me a bit. I'll illustrate my thoughts with a very extreme example: let's say we have 23o and for some reason we know that our opponent has AKs + we're equally stacked with 1500 chips(blinds 10/20 FWIW). We're first to act. Raising 23o to 1400 and then calling the last 100 will not be the correct course of action even though our last action(calling the 100 left behind) is correct.
What I meant to say is that arranging the stacks to make calling a shove correct, without the higher bet size playing any role on our opponents shoving range, is not optimal. I seem to remember something like this from a video I saw a long long time ago, I might be misunderstanding/misapplying something though.

Ok, thats an interesting point - i can see what youre getting at now. Arranging your raise size (within limits) so that you can call an all-in is not neccessarily optimal although it does make future decisions easier - this is point that slansky makes in his NLHE theory and practice and this is what you should try to do if you are multitabling heavily. 3 handed with an ace on the button im obviously going to raise, i just have to evaluate the respective merits of each raise size (here id consider 400, 500 and all-in). Thinking about it, 400 might be best although it all depends on the repushing range of the opponent - if i think that he will interpret my 400 as a complete steal and repush wide then the call with A7o might be better than raising to 500 and calling (if he now interprets the 500 as a 'im going to call you if you repush' raise and is only shoving over the top with hands that have me crushed.

What it really boils down to is that with his stack size of 7.5BB, im calling him if he shoves with whatever i raise with although id like slightly better odds with a rag ace just because its so rubbish against his reraising range. I do not like raise-folding in this spot when getting 2:1 as you will never be able to accurately predict their reraising range.

Its when they have 10-11 BB that you get some interesting decisions. Let me know your thoughts on what ive just said, i hope i made things clear :s

Ok, thats an interesting point - i can see what youre getting at now. Arranging your raise size (within limits) so that you can call an all-in is not neccessarily optimal although it does make future decisions easier - this is point that slansky makes in his NLHE theory and practice and this is what you should try to do if you are multitabling heavily. 3 handed with an ace on the button im obviously going to raise, i just have to evaluate the respective merits of each raise size (here id consider 400, 500 and all-in). Thinking about it, 400 might be best although it all depends on the repushing range of the opponent - if i think that he will interpret my 400 as a complete steal and repush wide then the call with A7o might be better than raising to 500 and calling (if he now interprets the 500 as a 'im going to call you if you repush' raise and is only shoving over the top with hands that have me crushed.

What it really boils down to is that with his stack size of 7.5BB, im calling him if he shoves with whatever i raise with although id like slightly better odds with a rag ace just because its so rubbish against his reraising range. I do not like raise-folding in this spot when getting 2:1 as you will never be able to accurately predict their reraising range.

Its when they have 10-11 BB that you get some interesting decisions. Let me know your thoughts on what ive just said, i hope i made things clear :s

Yeah, you definitely cleared it up for me. Small difference in bet sizing definitely makes a lot of difference in how our opponent interprets our raise. It's an interesting subject. Although it's very player dependant, it'd be great if you shared your thoughts again if you happen to get a spot similar to this one in future videos.
Again, great video, can't wait for the next one!

Yeah, you definitely cleared it up for me. Small difference in bet sizing definitely makes a lot of difference in how our opponent interprets our raise. It's an interesting subject. Although it's very player dependant, it'd be great if you shared your thoughts again if you happen to get a spot similar to this one in future videos.
Again, great video, can't wait for the next one!

Im sure there'll be more spots like this one in future videos, raising light and calling with good pot odds is a favourite of mine. Its so player dependant that there's no way i could make informed decisions without my HUD, so much so that i'd rather not play than play without it.

Thank you, Luceboy (and Siq)

With regards to your hand selection, I've noticed that you employ wider ranges compared to those suggeted on other video's on the site. The video's in question pertain to micro and small stakes buyins, where as, if I heard you right at the beginning, this was aprox a $110?

With that in mind, how do you (personally) approach hand ranges in FR and 6max SNG's? Do you have different default ranges for different stakes? Do you start tight and then loosen up as you come to develop detailed reads on regulars? Is it to do with balance?

Time Link to 00:32:52

I checked in Wiz,and this shove is only profitable if opponant is only calling 8% of hands, so 66+,AJo+,ATs+. If we adjust this to 7.5% (removing 66) it becomes profitable to shove 90%, and <7% becomes any two cards.For this player, do you believe <8% to be an accurate range, or are there other,non ICM factors influencing the decision?

Time Link to 00:51:32

Looking at the edge factor, edge seems to have been preset to 0.25. Based on your diff% alone, this is a profitable shove. Do you see a use for granting yourself a .04% edge here, or would you take any edge at all due to the blind levels?

Thank you, Luceboy (and Siq)

With regards to your hand selection, I've noticed that you employ wider ranges compared to those suggeted on other video's on the site. The video's in question pertain to micro and small stakes buyins, where as, if I heard you right at the beginning, this was aprox a $110?

With that in mind, how do you (personally) approach hand ranges in FR and 6max SNG's? Do you have different default ranges for different stakes? Do you start tight and then loosen up as you come to develop detailed reads on regulars? Is it to do with balance?

My standard ranges might be slightly looser than other players simply because i'm solely a 6-max player and because i tend to play more of a semi-loose aggressive (SL/AG) strategy. I wont ever change my opening range UTG 6-handed, however with regard to stake, I definitely will play tighter if im playing a 25 or 38/39 dollar tournament in the respect that i wont try and steal as much preflop later on, and will generally be slightly less aggressive with c-betting. This is just due to the fact that you dont have the fold equity in a 25 that you might usually do in a 100 dollar game, so tightening up in general is the key to success. It really is player dependant though, and this is where the HUD is key.

I will only adjust my raising range according to who is left to act behind me. If there are two tight players in the blinds then im obviously going to be raising wide, but if theres a fish in the SB with a VPIP of 42 then i wont be able to get away with it and may even have to tighten up slightly - an enormous fishbowl will almost always be able to keep you honest. If the players in the blinds are both really loose then i might throw away rag aces but raise with some hands that play well postflop such as mid-suited hands (J9s etc).

With respect to push/fold against regulars, i will almost always default to pushing wide and only tightening up when i see some interesting calls - when they start to call you with hands like KTo for 10BB then you should evaluate your pushing range accordingly. Profitable pushing is just all about evaluating your opponents calling range and pushing optimally to match it. Most regulars call too tight so push wide unless they adjust, simples.

At the early blinds i wont really try to attack regs although might take the occasional potshot at their blinds when in position with a playable hand. Unlike cash, you dont really have to balance your range in a SNG, as you are rarely deepstacked enough for it to matter. Generally though, regs will only play tight at the early levels - i dont know of many that will attempt to balance their range. However it is sometimes fun to get involved with a hand like 97s and stack someone with aces. This will only usually come about when im last to act preflop in the BB and am getting good pot odds closing the action or if i limp on the button after two or more people. Im not really one to raise first in with 67s although, again, it depends on whos in the blinds - if its a reg in the BB then im a lot more likely to raise just because hes likely to fold and even if he calls he wont put me on it.

Playing tighter is usually best unless you're totally comfortable playing post-flop. If you're going to get involved with some pretty hands then position is usually the key to success

I checked in Wiz,and this shove is only profitable if opponant is only calling 8% of hands, so 66+,AJo+,ATs+. If we adjust this to 7.5% (removing 66) it becomes profitable to shove 90%, and <7% becomes any two cards.For this player, do you believe <8% to be an accurate range, or are there other,non ICM factors influencing the decision?

The J6o? My SNG wiz is telling me i can push 100% as long as hes calling with <29% of hands. Am i missing something?

This is really odd, I checked again and got the same results as you. However, I checked the figures before posting my last comment just to make sure my point was relevent. I was very tired last night,I must have missed something.

the hand you shoved K9o on the button you forgot to set sngwiz to 6-max structure: if you would push a 15.5% range there, the BB could actually call only QQ+. in a 9-max sng this would be an already itm situation...

aswell if you jam a 30% range there he can call only QQ+..

thanks for quality vids like that one though...keep up the excellent work!

the hand you shoved K9o on the button you forgot to set sngwiz to 6-max structure: if you would push a 15.5% range there, the BB could actually call only QQ+. in a 9-max sng this would be an already itm situation...

aswell if you jam a 30% range there he can call only QQ+..

thanks for quality vids like that one though...keep up the excellent work!

Ah yes sorry about that mistake, I obviously didn't spot it when I was editing. Good spot!