Adam's Poker Adventure

That KQ BvB is an easy shove.

First of all if he is playing anywhere close to Nash then we are shoving v wide.

From my understanding of ICM, you are not that risk averse vs BB. There are still other stacks close to your size, most people still have shoving stacks that they can play with, and there is a big stack. You are 2 away from bubble and you still want to get to the higher prizes.

My estimate of your risk premium vs BB based on my knowledge of ICM is somewhere around 10% equity AT MOST. Then you have the dead money giving you even more free equity (around 5%). Basically ICM doesn't have a big effect in this situation.

Shove shove shove until you know BB is calling v wide. Which he won't be as we are final table, out of the money and at the micro stakes.

Also Tino, if BB stacks off light, KQ will go down in value. Even if you are making more from cEV, ICM tax when you are all in is coming into effect more often and it will hurt you more than if he was calling tighter.

Also Tino, if BB stacks off light, KQ will go down in value. Even if you are making more from cEV, ICM tax when you are all in is coming into effect more often and it will hurt you more than if he was calling tighter.

You are completely correct

At least we agree it's an easy shove.

My point here is loosely ICM. With stack sizes for 2nd to 5th so close , I judge my equity to be 2nd place. I have too much too lose in a BvB. BB should be expecting bluff/shove here so will call very wide. KQo is a pretty ordinary hand too be caught with in this situation.

The advantage with steal/fold is, if you raise 2.2-3x, he is more likely to fold here possibly smelling a trap. If he flats, then it is unlikely he has pocket pair. Hero is still OOP but a postflop CBet will still win most flops (68% chance villain will miss flop and still not have pair). If he re-raises preflop it's easy to get away from because I'm almost always behind.

Just my humble opinion.

I don't think ICM is something we can loosely adhere to. It is something that exists and is very good at describing tournament equity, so unless we have a better alternative I am happy to stick as closely to ICM as possible.

You judge our equity to be 2nd place, but we still have 7 other people to lose all their chips before we reach 2nd place. That means we have to gain a LOT of chips before we realise our current equity. We have such good tournament equity because we are in a position to accumulate chips. Open SB shoves are a very good way to accumulate chips. I am happy to risk it all with KQ here. It's how we win tournaments. Also remember we are still 1 away from the bubble.

2.2x steal is not a bad option (especially pre antes), but I think your assumptions about the villain are all wrong. This is a $1 buy in!!! An unknown is not smelling a trap from a small raise BvB with 13bb effective. An unknown is also not calling our shoves wide. An unknown at these stakes is playing passively a whole lot. Which is why I like shove with the antes.

Well maybe I'm using personal bias. I generally have an edge against players SH /HU in 45 manner micros. Players don't tend to adjust there hand ranges quickly enough and I am able to take full advantage.

I am generally happy to try to get headsup from here with as much as a 5-1 deficit because I will generally outplay people HU. This strategy of course applies specifically to micro 45/ 90 manners and even I would agree with your view in a large MTT or STT.

Feel like my game has been good over the past 5 days or so but i've not really had the rewards and not ran too good but today it paid off with a nice +$26 in less than 90 minutes playing turbos BR now $188.60

[converted_hand][hand_history]Poker Stars, $0.45 Buy-in (150/300 blinds, 25 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 7 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BTN: 3,800 (12.7 bb)
SB: 3,215 (10.7 bb)
Hero (BB): 2,638 (8.8 bb)
MP1: 2,211 (7.4 bb)
MP2: 3,343 (11.1 bb)
MP3: 3,091 (10.3 bb)
CO: 4,101 (13.7 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K♠ 9♠
5 folds, SB raises to 3,190 and is all-in, Hero calls 2,313 and is all-in

Flop: (5,401) Q♦ 5♣ 2♣ (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: (5,401) K♥ (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (5,401) T♠ (2 players, 2 are all-in)

[/hand_history][/converted_hand]

[converted_hand][hand_history]Poker Stars, $0.45 Buy-in (500/1,000 blinds, 60 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

MP: 16,818 (16.8 bb)
CO: 10,572 (10.6 bb)
BTN: 19,806 (19.8 bb)
SB: 5,534 (5.5 bb)
Hero (BB): 9,360 (9.4 bb)
UTG: 5,410 (5.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T♣ Q♠
UTG calls 1,000, 4 folds, Hero checks

Flop: (2,860) K♣ T♦ Q♦ (2 players)
Hero bets 1,000, UTG raises to 4,350 and is all-in, Hero calls 3,350

Turn: (11,560) 3♠ (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: (11,560) 4♣ (2 players, 1 is all-in)

[/hand_history][/converted_hand]

I played again later and felt i was on my A game, building 7 or 8 nice stacks but got bad beat again and again when i was ahead

[converted_hand][hand_history]Poker Stars, $0.45 Buy-in (300/600 blinds, 50 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (SB): 1,695 (2.8 bb)
BB: 11,115 (18.5 bb)
UTG: 8,290 (13.8 bb)
MP: 8,235 (13.7 bb)
CO: 1,815 (3 bb)
BTN: 2,185 (3.6 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A♦ A♥
2 folds, CO raises to 1,765 and is all-in, BTN folds, Hero calls 1,345 and is all-in, BB folds

Flop: (4,190) 5♠ 8♦ 8♠ (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: (4,190) 8♥ (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (4,190) J♠ (2 players, 2 are all-in)

[/hand_history][/converted_hand]

How are you finding the turbos, Adam? I have never played them myself and was wondering do you play looser during early levels, or tight, but shove/fold later on, like in the normal structure?

well, I used to hate them but i've been finding them alright. It's mostly about having good push/fold game as far as i can tell. I think it's better playing turbos because it takes much less time to play a game, probably over an hour less

Maybe slightly tighter at the start but just try to find a nice range , i try to play strong though, not too much messing around limping. It gets to push/fold pretty quickly though so that's most important in these games.

-$5 ish tonight. It started pretty well but nothing held up, managed to scrape a few itm towards the end to stop it being a -$10 session so not all negative. I felt my game was ok it just didn't work out.

Your starting to scare me Adam. You are becoming a SNG Superstar ♠_cool:

Haha i wish i could get a nice run going and be profitable daily.

Today started horribly, i was over -$10 and everything was going against me, losing with AA,ak, when i was ahead. But then I started to load more and keep grinding and it paid off finishing +$20ish bringing my br to $199

going to have a rest, go for a walk and then load some more

Originally posted by Lazza61
Your starting to scare me Adam. You are becoming a SNG Superstar ♠_cool:

If he does become a superstar he better remember the people who helped him to become one. ♦

$200 bankroll.....nice going.

i'm about to head back down to just above $180 i hate this game

well, I got to $200 last night, for the first time
Tonight i'm back down to $180. I'm experiencing some insane swings at the moment ♠ I think i'm playing badly aswell in some spots plus i'm now getting tired which is making it worse. It's pretty unsettling losing $20 in a couple of hours and i just can't seem to claw my way back.

[converted_hand][hand_history]Poker Stars, $1.36 Buy-in (75/150 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 8 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (UTG+2): 1,955 (13 bb)
MP1: 3,066 (20.4 bb)
MP2: 1,380 (9.2 bb)
MP3: 1,645 (11 bb)
CO: 2,912 (19.4 bb)
BTN: 1,280 (8.5 bb)
SB: 1,610 (10.7 bb)
BB: 2,122 (14.1 bb)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+2 with Q♣ A♥
Hero raises to 1,955 and is all-in, 5 folds, SB calls 1,535 and is all-in, BB folds

Flop: (3,370) 4♠ 7♠ 7♣ (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: (3,370) 8♠ (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (3,370) K♦ (2 players, 2 are all-in)

[/hand_history][/converted_hand]

I HATEEEEEEEE FISH, WTF DID HE CALL?. Any pair i shoved tonight vs ax ax won every time and when i shove ax it doesnt hit this is insane.

I'm sure you don't really hate the fish ♦.

I've recently started playing the 45s. Seen you around them a fair bit, what sort of roi are you obtaining on these, and how many games you play?

True, i just hate it when they make bad plays and bad beat me lol

well over 1341 games around 25% roi according to pokerprolabs.

I play 9 games at a time. I'm trying out turbos at the moment even though i made most of my BR from non turbos i like the fact that they are much quicker and there is much more ICM play, although the swings are perhaps worse?.

Originally posted by adamrothwell
True, i just hate it when they make bad plays and bad beat me lol

well over 1341 games around 25% roi according to pokerprolabs.

I play 9 games at a time. I'm trying out turbos at the moment even though i made most of my BR from non turbos i like the fact that they are much quicker and there is much more ICM play, although the swings are perhaps worse?.

A lot worse!!!! Be prepared for swings!! Sometimes huge swings Like over 100 buy-ins or more down. Maybe not at the 0.50 turbos but certainly for higher buy-ins.

I am at 35% roi after 2,000 games. ♦ But that is from mainly single tabling, whereas you play nine tables every sitting. My roi from multi-tabling is similar to yours at the 25% mark. So it goes to show how much of an edge you lose by multi-tabling.

Originally posted by adamrothwell

I'm trying out turbos at the moment even though i made most of my BR from non turbos i like the fact that they are much quicker and there is much more ICM play, although the swings are perhaps worse?.

I made a point in an earlier post about the difference between turbo and non turbo micro 45 manners. The non turbos have a higher % of BR builders, The turbos have a higher % of gamblers, recreational players and guys with low attention spans. (Don't know about the $1.50 as I think I've only ever played one).

If you want to continue playing the .55c turbos, I would suggest you mark the fish and not use ICM or nash against them. Come in with a standard raise and try and outplay them postflop. You are the better player (YOU HAVE THE ADVANTAGE HERE). By getting the money in pre, you give up your skill advantage.

My FT play in 45 manners improved (non turbos), when I realised most other FTablers will play ICM / Nash and I basically stopped and just started using my reads. As a consequence I can read them and they can't read me.

Using ICM / Nash makes you a better mathematician, making good solid reads makes you a better poker player.

Whereas ICM / Nash has it's place, it should be used in conjunction with making solid reads and fold to 3bet%.

If you asked a fish what ICM was, he would probably answer nuclear missile. I know I will probably cop abuse for posting this, so save yourselves the trouble. I will abuse myself

Originally posted by Wohmfg

You are 2 away from bubble and you still want to get to the higher prizes.

What actually surprises me here is that nobody picked up on the fact that it wasn't a 45 manner. There's only 67.5k chips in play in a 45 manner.

In this the big stack has 41k, 3 guys have between 15 and 18k, so it is clearly a 90 manner which means 4 guys have been paid.

This is an even easier call for BB as 70%+ of the time an open shove from SB in this spot is only a steal.

I don't think i would not use nash, when your stacks the right size it's best to but obviously you can deviate if you have reads on them and know they are gonna call super wide /super tight etc.

3betting pre is pretty good to isolate fish and then be aggressive postflop and they are folding a lot in these games.