No hands to play pre flop

[Molson]

Ok this may seem a little broad but im sure we have all been in this situation. Now i have read a lot of books and started win now and then. And in these books i always read something along the lines of 78s now you want to limp in and see a cheap folp from late postion. Or milk an over agressive player when you hold AA, KK, QQ and flop trips. Im sure you get the jist, But what when you get none of these cards and the blinds start to rise you start to become short stacked. how is it best to play these situations with a drought of cards i mean any playable cards not just top ten starting hands. Do you just write it off as a loss or can you play some kind of statergy.

[taipan168]

It is frustrating when you pick up no hands, but don't ever write it off as a loss! Basically once you stack reaches <10x BB you need to find spots to shove all-in when it's folded to you. Never let yourself get blinded out, this is a cardinal sin in tournaments! It's much better to go out having pushed and lost rather than being blinded out.

My general rules (which may be wrong in specific situations) are:
- If you have <10x BB shoving any two cards folded to you in the SB is +EV
- If you have <5x BB shoving any two cards folded to you on the button is +EV
- If you have <3x BB shoving any two cards folded to you in any position is +EV.

Hand values change dramatically as the blinds increase in a tournament, hands which are an instafold early in the tournament can become instashoves depending upon stack sizes, blinds, position and reads.

It's much easier to post a hand (or even a complete trimmed tourney), it is much easier to demonstrate pushing strategy rather than describe it in general terms.

Also, if you're playing SNGs, don't be afraid to post in the SNG forum, we don't bite!

[midas06]

This topic + your sig = does not compute