Discussion Thread: SNG Postflop Strategy

This is with regard to the KJ test hand posted on the news page and 'linked' to this forum.
It might have helped had we seen the betting history.

The principles - SNGs, at most PS members' levels, are no place for subtlety. Hero has two top pairs. Assuming he raised and was flat-called preflop, he is in immediate trouble only against 99 and Q 10. I don't see most callers fighting with Q 10. I think JJ might have called, but is more likely to have re-raised with these stack sizes and on this table.

There is potential trouble against someone who called with two sensible hearts, and not a lot else that I can see. You have less than a minute to make your decision, and your other tables are lighting up and demanding attention.

I really think you have to stick it all in.

Hey Glopslart, many thanks for your post!

Originally posted by Glopslart
Assuming he raised and was flat-called preflop, he is in immediate trouble only against 99 and Q 10.

Originally posted by Glopslart
There is potential trouble against someone who called with two sensible hearts, and not a lot else that I can see.

Imo that's exactly why we shouldn't:

Originally posted by Glopslart
I really think you have to stick it all in.

We don't need to protect that much, what we do want, however, is to get value from weaker made hands and draws. By overpushing here we don't let our opponent to make a mistake, whilst making a smallish cbet can induce action from weaker hands and/or pure spews ;). Here is what the lesson suggests regarding that spot:

For example, assume that the pot on the flop is 2000, and the remaining effective stack is 6000. If the board is wet, you would normally like to bet 1200 (60%), but this leaves you with an awkward stack of 4800 to a pot of 4400 on the turn. In such a scenario, you are better off either making your bet bigger on the flop, e.g. 1600 (80%) leaving 4400 behind to a pot of 5200 (85%) – or making it smaller, e.g. 950 (47.5%) on the flop, making the pot 3900 by the turn with stacks of 5050. You can then bet 1600 (41%) on the turn making the pot 7100 by the river and leaving 3450 (49%) with which to go all-in.

Gaaish:

TY for the commentary - very illuminating.

Can we sum up in this way: the intelligent play is NOT to do what I suggested, but to try and drag more chips out of the opponent, in the knowledge that most draw attempts will not come off?

Hi, guys!

Can you please link the hand you are talking about, so I can share my opinion as well?

Kurrkabin:

The hand in question has been archived in the news pages somewhere and I couldn't find it. From memory, it was a short table, upper-middle blind levels. One opponent in the hand. Hero has KJ. The flop was KJ9, including two hearts.
Perhaps to avoid this frustration in the future, PS should auto-post the test hand in the forum, as the first item.

I assume opponent is an unknown player and we are relatively short around 20bb or so.

I also assume we raise, he flats. It makes lil difference whether we bet 45% or 60% in terms of how his range changes imo. If he plays draws aggresively, he prolly will c/shove to a 60% pot size anyway. If he has a Jx, he's not folding to one bet. If he's playing draws passively, he's not folding regardless of whether it's 40 or 60% pot size. Villain prolly will be a fish, so he's never folding draws, pairs on 1 bet. That's for sure. So I want to make my life easier to extract more value.

On the turn, say, we chose to bet bigger-we have 2 options-either to shove and make a slight overbet(which is totally fine) or bet smaller(say 1/2 pot) and never fold on any river. At least those will be my preferred moves

Guys - here is the link :).