Dealing with a pattern ... and not a good one.

[DeanCarl]

I play low stakes sng's almost exclusivily. I used to do fairly well, but lately (the last couple of months) my ITM has sunk to some pretty morbid levels. After going over some hand histories and thinking about it quite a bit I've noticed a very obvious pattern (actually 2) to my losses.

The first is that, when I loose, it's always during the middle part of the tourny (5 to 7 players left with the blinds at level 3 or 4). If I somehow manage to get through that part I usually do quite well. So .... I do well with a full table and do VERY well short handed and HU (probably the best part of my game). It's that middle part that is, for now, the bane of my poker existance.

The second pattern is I seem to almost always get busted out or crippled when I have the same hand: High two pair with a high kicker. Seems to get busted a LOT by three of kind or a streight.

I think the two problems are related and, just thinking about it as I type, I "think" what's happening is I'm not paying enough attention to the board.

My normal sng stratagy is to hide in the closet for the first part of the game. During the short handed part I try to take advantage of what I've learned about each player that's still around. It's that durn middle part that has me confused on how to go about my business.

I'll try to get some histories to post later today, but, for now, any thoughts?

Dean

[DavSimon]

Are you getting chipped out (slowly over several losing hands), are you pushing pre-flop and getting beat or are you slow playing big hands to keep someone in and getting out drawn when all the chips go in at the turn or river.
The problem could be a variety of things...limping too many hands when the blinds are higher 25/50 or 50/100, not playing you hands aggressively enough or there may not be a problem at all - it may just be natural variance as you develop your game.

[DeanCarl]

Whoops... forgot to mentiion: I usually catch a couple of hands early on and have at least a "middle of the road" stack when I hit the middle part of the tourny so the blinds aren't a big problem at all.

When I go, I go all at once. I VERY rarely slow play. I don't like letting other people play for free or on the cheap. When I decide to go I usually bet more than the pot pre-flop (size of bet depends on stack sizes, position and reads) AND commit myself to at least a pot sized bet post flop ... whether I hit or not (lots of tight/weak players at the levels I play).

Could be variance, but the fact that it happens at the same general time in the tourny has me thinking there's a hole in my game there somewhere that I'm just not seeing.

Gonna go play one right now so I'll grab some hand histories to post.

Dean

[Sed]

When I decide to go I usually bet more than the pot pre-flop (size of bet depends on stack sizes, position and reads) AND commit myself to at least a pot sized bet post flop ... whether I hit or not (lots of tight/weak players at the levels I play).

Try to keep your bets at levels you can get away from when you do not hit or get played back at hard. A continuation bet isn't bad if you have position or think the opp missed. Try shrinking your bets when you miss to equal or a bit more than your pre flop raise. Usually that is enough to push someone off a hand without a strong draw. You also will have to mix up your bets when you hit so that they don't catch on...

I think you may be falling in love with hands. Try to assess where you really are in the hand a little more post-flop and don't bet so that you commit yourself. A 3xBB raise is fine once you hit the 50/100 blind levels keep them even so you don't expose the strength of your hand. Be wary of a paired board, bet the flop when you hit and if called, be careful.

Are you stealing when the opportunity is there or just waiting for cards and putting all your eggs in one basket?

- sed

[DeanCarl]

sed,

Excelent points all. I especially like the idea of backing off a bit on the continuation bet. It's a stratagy that has worked well for me with about an 80% success rate, but with such a large second bet I get pot commited and clobberd when I am called or raised. I tried your idea yesterday and it worked fine. Still got about the same fold rate and when they didn't fold I was able to get out with a large part of my stack still intact.

Also, the "married to the hand" was right on. Especially the high two pair top kicker hand that has caused me so much trouble. I backed off quicker and was much more willing to get out if somebody showed a lot of strength and the board was scary.

Both those ideas, along with the others, alowed me to stop getting pot commited so much and I finished ITM in both the sng's I played yesterday (a first and a second) AND got me a lot further along in the two MTT's I played.

Sorry for not posting histories like I said I would. I'm still learning to use the UB history grabber I got and I screwed up. I think I know what I did wrong and will give it a try again today. Too bad you can't request a whole set of histories from UB like you can from other sites.

Once again, thanks go to you and DavSimon. Both replies have had an immediate positive impact on my game. Can't ask for much more than that!