Today, the light bulb clicked on while I was reading riggstads post in which 6-man SNGs are briefly discussed. Before I get to the bulb, I would like to point out a misquote of my reaction to Fischman's advice on the 6-man turbos. I was not "surprised to see his advice on being super aggressive". Indeed, I think it makes perfect sense. What I wrote to riggstad was, "apparently I usually play them right. What amazes me is that this (his tip) is probably news to some people."
Of course this was only true up to a point. The light bulb came on regarding my shortcomings after reading riggs' clarification:
EUREKA!! I can easily state that much of my misery (when it occurs) pertains to having premium hands losing to really crappy holdings. It was not a matter of not raising pre-flop. It was really a matter of not raising enough pre-flop.He does however advocate overbetting pre with a premium hand as to make sure you get less calls with marginal hands. So yes, that would be aggressive. It's just making sure that the holdings advised to make those plays with are premium hands.
Last night for example I had aces cracked by J9 suited. A couple limpers in front (25-50) and I pot a raise which made it 250. A raise to 400 or 500 might have been the way to go. There will always be the clowns who will call with their ace-rag or suited one-gaps anyway, but it will eliminate more of the fence riders, and perhaps the J9 folds to a bigger raise.
On premium hands I really need to steer away from the 'standard raise' mentality. This would be true with position raises too. Considering it is a 6 man turbo, I need not worry about people catching on to betting patterns; it's a sprint, not a marathon.
After my aces were cracked, I said to riggs that the next time I get AA, I'm shoving. Sure enough, the next game I got in to, I was dealt AA fairly early. I shoved, everybody folded (including early limper). I'll take it. Shoving in that situation over exaggerates the point and I will tone that down, but the lesson is finally learned. Aggressive means AGGRESSIVE!
Here is hoping it brings a little more consistency to my 6-man results.
3 comments:
I play a lot of 6-max sngs, and frankly I am surprised to see this advice. I would not want to over-raise with my premium hands. A big part of my profits in these things comes from getting paid big on my big hands. The last thing I would want to do would be to chase out the AJ and KQ type of hands when I am on AA or KK.
Specifically, if I could get into a heads-up pot with AA against J9s by raising from 50 to 250, when I knew that a raise to 400 would win me the 75 chips in blinds uncontested, I would literally jump out of my chair to raise to 250 and not 400. I would really love to understand your whole argument here a little better.
Great blog, glad I found it and looking forward to reading more.
True, in the case I cited, I'll take that heads up match. The problem is my 'normal' raises usually begets 2 or 3 callers. Thems odds I don't cotten to. Bigger raises will get me more heads up hands when I'm strong. And that is preferable to having to play against multiple players, holding God knows what.
By overbetting I mean pot, not just 3x (or standard)... Pot being 4 or 5 times the blinds.
This will induce the call from the idiot holding Q 10 in some respects, but will not necessarily "price in" the bozo in the sb holding K 3s...
I Don't advocate a 1/3 of your stack open raise with AA, or any other premium hand for that matter, at any time. If you're putting in that much it may as well be all of it anyway...
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