Crushing MTT's and SNG's (180man+)

Poker Stars $3.19+$0.31 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t300/t600 Blinds + t50 - 4 players

BB: t13147 M = 11.95
CO: t3400 M = 3.09
Hero (BTN): t3875 M = 3.52
SB: t10680 M = 9.71

Pre Flop: (t1100) Hero is BTN with J K
1 fold, Hero raises to t3825 all in, 2 folds

This looks like a no brainer, but what is my range on the button here? It's the final table 'bubble' and I think cEV range model is too loose.

The SB is a random player, and bb is a multitabling decent reg.

SNG Wiz says shove any two in cEV

Nash says 42.7%, 22+ Ax+ K2s+ K4o+ Q5s+ Q9o+ J7s+ J9o+ T7s+ T9o 97s+ 87s 76s

I'm using an adjusted ICM model for the last 18places, it tells me 30%

22+,A2+,K9+,K6s+,QT+,Q9s+,J9s+,T9s,98s

is it much too tight? Given that the remaining players are also not as good as us on average, shoving hands like T9o, and 87s don't seem as +$EV to me as making the FT.

I see regs shoving any two here, which I think is a mistake, maybe because SNG wiz tells us so in default cEV mode and ranges?

It was another good day today, poor volume, but long average length. Some real unlucky suckouts on the final tables today otherwise would have been one of my best. I ended up going semi deep in one minbuyin MTT, but only cashed for $10 in the end with a QQ cooler.

50 tourneys played ITM 24%, ROI 27% +~$80 including some PLO zoom.

Since it's slow late I'm taking advantage of the traffic on zoom, and maybe regular tables too. Zoom $0.02/0.05 is worse than I am, and if I can become patient waiting for decent hands, and mucking all the shitty ones I want to call, I will do well.

My ICM structure for the final 2 tables is a work in progress, hopefully will work well for me. Mainly it's a 9 man structure with first 4 players paying off, each with half of the amount of the first 4 places in the final table. It seems to give decent results for 18-10man, I might refine it a bit. SNG wiz agrees more with Nash than before using only cEV.

Here's the structure I'm using:

15.5 10.25 8.25 6.25 0 0 0 0 0

thanks again for reading, good fortune.

Cool blog! I like to switch between SNGs cash too. I have no idea how you 10 table though. 4 gets me overwhelmed. I can't imagine 10.

Originally posted by Chowchow12
Cool blog! I like to switch between SNGs cash too. I have no idea how you 10 table though. 4 gets me overwhelmed. I can't imagine 10.

Thanks! I'm glad someone is reading and enjoying it.. not too boring, I hope.

I started out 4 and then 6 tabling, got used to it, then to 9, then one by one got to 12. 15 is the most I can handle ATM, but 13 or 14 seems ok, it can get hairy when you want to take notes etc.. thankfully there are breaks every hour.

I still play loose-ish early on, there's way too many chips to be made from all the worse players. I mark the regs, and make adjustments based on them. the HUD is also helpful.

I like PLO because it's very different than sng mtt's, and I think is a good stretch for the NL mind. . It also helps make me more aware in NL hands for some reason.

Wow, it was a really good day today. Friday's are great. This one I ran 49% ROI in 66 $3.50 45man tourneys. ITM was 21.2%

I made a few mistakes, but not many. Suckouts were about even both ways, but I saw most improvement in heads up. I won 5 tourneys and came second only once. I also didn't bubble at all, not 8th or 9th.

I'm itching to move up, but notice also I can play regular speed games, now that I can handle more tables. If I can 15 table this week I think I'll play $6 regular speed games, and maybe mix in a few $7 turbos if things are going well.

I'm ok with giving up one cashout to move up stakes. My swings are about $200 anyway, so I would be able to weather a 30BI downswing in a set of $7's.

Downswings seem to be 30-50BI at my current ROI, but I think I've plugged some leaks. My bb/100 shows much improvement lately, and I think it's more than luck and timing. I think giving myself opportunity to go further in tourneys is an edge. At least at this limit, and I don't see why not at $7. with so many players unwilling to take on the recreational players early on.

I love mixing it up until down to even 500 chips. I take coming back from the small stack as an extra challenge, and it's rewarding when you do come back from 1BB almost bubbling to win, and do it often.

No graph today, but soon monthly totals. I want to play 400-700 more tourneys this month, 700 would be ideal. That's 100 a day, and a long day, better get some sleep.

Good fortune, thanks for reading.

Saturday sucked. Lost a good 20BI or so, and bricked every MTT. One of those days where nothing holds, and coolers are everywhere you have to shove.

It gets me into a 'fear tilt' where I'm afraid to make shoves when necessary. I took a look at the spots I'm missing, and figured that fear is self fulfilling. In the long run the percentages should swing in my favor, and I see with ICM approach it's more swingy, but much more profitable than playing exploitably.

Yesterday only played 40 tourneys or so, but went deep-ish in one MTT. 13th out of 3000.. I shoved AKo 7 eff BB from ep on the 2nd final table and was called by 88, and lost. Still felt good about surviving that far. Final table would have been nice, but I didn't want to sit back and wait for people to bust out.

I ended up a good plus for the day, even though volume wasn't great. I hope to make up for it with a long session tonight.

Just an evil day. Great volume, crazy swings. I ended up a tiny amount, but really got so screwed in the important flips.

On the plus side, I'm winning most of my heads up after changing tactics a bit. Instead of push shove, I'm playing small ball all the way to the money. I should start playing more HU tourneys, last one I entered (also the first one) I finished 2nd place for 70BI.

Anyway, I'm not discouraged. I'm in a 100BI upswing and overall 250 BI since I started playing MTTSNG's again.

Overall my ROI is around 12% for 45mans, but I feel I'm getting really bad luck, more than suckouts. I think I'm playing well though, and I'm not afraid to shove/call when necessary. I'm still a bit tighter last 2-3 tables than cEV, and I think it's correct. There are slight bubble factors involved, but I still want to find that sweet spot.

Paying much more attention to who I'm shoving into or calling and chip stacks, but maybe not enough. Also, I'm running deeper in MTT's regularly and cashing often, but not dominating. I think I'm still too hesitant when I get 30-50k chips.

Here's my overall graph for 45mans since I turned down Collin's staking offer. I mock your breakeven and downswings. I will return to the heater!

not a great deal of money, but definitely a winning player. I'm looking to improve some more and wouldn't mind a sweat session or two, I'll cut down the number of tables if so.

Until next day. only a few days left in may. Good fortune at the tables.

Ran 90.5% in the 45man MTT's today. With the other MTT's, was a 56 buyin upswing day. One of my best.

Started to feel it after 6 hours, so I eased up and stopped regging. It's nice to end on such an upnote.

My first dozen tourneys were a bit tilty, I wasn't really focused, but I listened to some Schnitzelfish, and did the guided meditation, and my results took off.

I'm really happy with how I didn't tilt, losing lots of flips, and stayed very focused on most of the action, even with HEM freezing my computer several times and having to turn it off. I've gotta look into that. Don't know why it's being such a bitch.

I've been killing the final tables, really going for it, and winning more heads up than not.

Today was 5 wins, 1 second and 2 thirds. Beat a couple of regs in some epic heads ups too, I'm really encouraged by the results that my hard work is paying off.

I'll review the tourneys tomorrrow before I play, hopefully that will help with my slow starts.

Good to see you are running well ♦, and from the sounds of it your tilt management is on fire.

Not bad day, low volume, but 24% ITM can do that with MTT's. I also played one tabling for a while as I was eating, and had a beer until I busted shortly after the bubble shoving 22.

Overall 45% ROI at the $3.50 45 mans. I am rolled to move up, and now might be a good time, with the weekend coming. I'm going to register to more MTT's, I'm doing well and I think a big score might not be far away if I keep at it. I have a decent stack most tourneys, and can expect to win a few key flips in a row sometime soon.

One tourney I got quads twice on the same table and played them pretty much the same.

Poker Stars, $3.19 Buy-in (10/20 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

MP3: 1,500 (75 bb)
CO: 1,490 (74.5 bb)
BTN: 1,400 (70 bb)
SB: 1,510 (75.5 bb)
BB: 1,500 (75 bb)
UTG+1: 1,500 (75 bb)
UTG+2: 1,480 (74 bb)
MP1: 1,620 (81 bb)
Hero (MP2): 1,500 (75 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 4 4
UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 raises to 40, MP1 calls 40, Hero calls 40, MP3 folds, CO calls 40, BTN calls 40, SB calls 30, BB calls 20

Flop: (280) 4 4 9 (7 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets 20, CO calls 20, BTN calls 20, SB calls 20, BB folds, UTG+2 calls 20, MP1 folds

Turn: (380) T (5 players)
SB checks, UTG+2 checks, Hero checks, CO bets 140, BTN calls 140, SB folds, UTG+2 calls 140, Hero calls 140

River: (940) 6 (4 players)
UTG+2 checks, Hero checks, CO bets 320, BTN folds, UTG+2 calls 320, Hero raises to 1,300 and is all-in, CO calls 970 and is all-in, UTG+2 folds

Results:

and then this several hands after on the same table

Poker Stars, $3.19 Buy-in (15/30 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 8 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 510 (17 bb)
BB: 1,400 (46.7 bb)
UTG+2: 1,200 (40 bb)
MP1: 2,390 (79.7 bb)
MP2: 1,450 (48.3 bb)
MP3: 2,245 (74.8 bb)
CO: 1,870 (62.3 bb)
Hero (BTN): 3,835 (127.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with J J
UTG+2 raises to 120, 2 folds, MP3 calls 120, CO folds, Hero calls 120, 2 folds

Flop: (405) J K J (3 players)
UTG+2 checks, MP3 checks, Hero bets 30, UTG+2 calls 30, MP3 calls 30

Turn: (495) 7 (3 players)
UTG+2 checks, MP3 bets 198, Hero calls 198, UTG+2 folds

River: (891) 9 (2 players)
MP3 bets 356, Hero raises to 3,487 and is all-in, MP3 calls 1,541 and is all-in

Results:

I came second in that tourney, would have been awful to bust it. Still doing well at FT's, especially coming back short stacked. Must work on my big stack play, I think I'm slightly spewy in spots... we'll see when I post some hands.

It started out a horrible month, then got really good, and then crap again (70BI downswing WTF?) and then really good right at the end.

I played about half of my maximum volume IMO, while I studied slightly less than an equal amount.

Still, I managed a good 1600 odd 45mans, and a few dozen MTT's (more lately)

Today I mixed in a few $7.00's as my plan, I busted two of them but in the third one came back from shortstack twice at both bubbles (FT and cashing) avoiding any bad luck, and took down the $90 - which is still a big deal to me - like 25BI at $3.50!

The last three days, I'm running an impossible 95.7% ROI. The main reasons are IMO:

- getting involved early, so much value in the non-regs to be had
- judicious play with 3 and 2 tables left, there is a slight ICM effect to consider
- studying ranges, watching videos and coachings, posting hands
- applying ranges and adapting to players
- patience with short stacks, especially avoiding the bubble
- refocus and awareness of impending tilt, mindfullness
- heads up play improved a hell of a lot.
- getting it in good and holding, avoiding some -EV and neutral EV plays

Here's the graph of May for the 45 mans, all $3.50 except for 3 $7.00's.

ROI = 13.3% overall
ITM = 18.8%
46 first, 44 second, 43 third, 33 8th, 33 9th etc..

I think 13.3% is killing it, but I know there's room for more profits. Maybe 20% is realistically attainable, but if it is possible, it will only come with more hard work and discipline.

I'm comfortable 12 tabling atm, and getting up to 15 is doable for next month, mixing $3.50's and $7.00s will allow me to up my volume during off peak hours - which I'm preferring lately.

Goals for June:

Mindful play, tilt awareness, balance.
Volume increase by >25% to >2000 tourneys
Buy in average increase by >33% (1 in 3 tourneys a $7)
Tables increase to >14
Million Dollar Hand Promotion
Sunday MTT madness
VIP's on Hyper Turbos (practice HT' 6max)
HU practice
Study, coachings hand histories.

Visualizing June Result:

It's the end of June, looking back one of the most rewarding solid months of 'work' in years. I'm a top grinder at both of my limits, and already thinking about moving up to the $15's, but to be safe I'll give it a month or two with the $7's, and build a nicer roll first.

I've smashed my stated goals and will make good use of the rewards to travel to Europe, to visit family, and make my way East until I end up in Australia to hang out with my Bro.

Good fortune at the tables. Thanks again for following.

some questions from Schnitzelfish regarding motivation. from his video:

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/29271/

1. .Why do I play poker

I have natural talent, good with maths and psychology. I play poker to earn a living, and build a foundation for a future living. It allows me the freedom to earn as much and hard as I work, self rewarding. I am my own boss, I don't commute, can work from almost anywhere, and keep my own hours. I don't have to pay income tax on my winnings.

I continue to play more because as good as I've gotten there's still a long way to go and constant learning and improvement are still possible.

As I succeed in poker, I can help to achieve many other non poker related goals, and have the time to enjoy them.

2. Which non-monetary aspects of poker do you enjoy

The feeling of accomplishment, when making good plays, winning tough battles, discovering more about your game, learning from and with others, interacting with other players, keeping stats, following my progress and improvement. reviewing games and finding places to improve, or confirming my 'guesses' interesting and wild hands and spots, comfortable playing environment, ability to succeed consistently, challenge of higher limits and better competition, chance to luckbox a huge win in a big MTT. Watching and participating in coachings and hand reviews. Talking about poker, teaching poker, and looking at my graph too much.

3. What do you want to achieve in poker long term

Steady moderate income and savings with few hours working as possible, ability to travel at will and be comfortable playing moderate volume at mid stakes and binking ever larger tournaments. Want to win that one time life changer, even though it took many hours, to end up at that final table and being such a huge chip leader, not even consider a deal.

4. What kind of poker player do you want to be?

I want to have an ever increasing profit line long term, be a well rounded, wise player, with great hand reading, multitabling and reasoning skills.. being able to out level the levellers, and make the fish cry - both live and online. To tame the maniacs, and confuse the regs. To adapt with the game, and stay a step ahead (or two behind) the competition as my career evolves.

Hey, have you considered making the switch to the 180s? Looking at the sharkscope leaderboards the 45 mans are really capped in terms of earning potential. Most good 45ers end up playing the 180s so it shouldn't be a tough transition.

Decent graph, where u study these mtsng?

Originally posted by Andyuk18
Hey, have you considered making the switch to the 180s? Looking at the sharkscope leaderboards the 45 mans are really capped in terms of earning potential. Most good 45ers end up playing the 180s so it shouldn't be a tough transition.

I had a shot at the 180's, played the $2.50 ones, but had a negative experience. The level of play is that much worse, it was like a minefield. I think I used a wrong strategy and lost like 100 of them before I won one.

Psychologically the possibility of 2-300BI swings is scary for me. I think I'd need a 400BI roll for them.. which I do have now.

Thanks for the idea, I think I might give another shot now that I've got a lot more experience at the midgame, and doing well getting 30-50k chips in large MTT's.

As far as capped in earning potential, I can see a decent wage if I'm playing 2000 $7's and $3's each month even at modest 10% ROI. I also play some cash games for variety.

I see regs earning about $2k/month at $3.50's and $7.00's mixed. Also I think a lot of ROI comes from HU play, which I would get into more often vs poor players in 45's.

And if the good regs are moving to 180's, isn't that good?

I guess in the end it's a matter of psychological comfort with variance, ability to beat the games I'm already playing, and more short handed play/FT's.

Having said that, I will mix in a few 180's and see how it goes. Just the thought of losing 80 in a row again really makes me sad though.

Originally posted by martinstids
Decent graph, where u study these mtsng?

thanks, a bit swingy, but it's a work in progress. I'm still finding my game I think.

I study my games using SNG wizard, and holdem resources. I watched about every video I could (when I played on tracked site) and I am sure to check out every Twitch recording of SNG's.. even the STT's, every format has something.

There's some good videos on these, Katie Dozier has made some good ones, if at higher stakes, and I think I watched many Jonathan Little videos.

I credit Unam (live coachings) most of all, his explanations of ICM and Nash ranges and detailed discussions are great. Also like his humour.

Tiltberger helps a lot with the hand evaluations, I could use this more. He was nice enough to do a live coaching with one of my HH's once too.

I think if I had the cash, I'd pay for private coaching. I might make a video, but probably would only be valuable to analyze for mistakes LOL. I make a lot of them, and I still tilt.. my table chat is horrendous!

Anyway, they are fun, and starting at $1.50 with 10% rake isn't bad. There is lots of volume so you can get lots of practice. If you want you can sweat me playing sometime.. I'll cut down on tables. I'm sure it will help me too.

Originally posted by Andyuk18
Hey, have you considered making the switch to the 180s? Looking at the sharkscope leaderboards the 45 mans are really capped in terms of earning potential. Most good 45ers end up playing the 180s so it shouldn't be a tough transition.

Thank you for motivating me to try some $2.50 180's again. It had been a while, I even forgot how many chips you would have for final table.

Anyway, I went for it, first set of 10, just one mincash, thinking, here we go again...

Took a break, checked the games in Wiz and Nash and played another set of 6. They load up every minute at peak hours.

I cashed in 5 of them, for total 440% ROI overall. Placed 1,2,5 and some smaller cashes. Final tables popping up more frequent than 45's! That's 71BI in 16 tourneys. Very rewarding.

So.. epic day. Thanks again. Wow. Heads up are much deeper too. Good practice, one went for dozens of hands back and forth until I finally won. Final tables are still fairly poor play overall. Worse than 45's IMO

Don't think I wasted my time at 45's, especially as my late game is much stronger than before.

session notes. been up for 20 hours or so, had minimal nicotine and lots of salmon. salmon is ++EV. Had exercised yesterday - bike riding. Lots of protein.

Last hand of the day.

Poker Stars, $2.28 Buy-in (5,000/10,000 blinds, 1,000 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 2 Players

Hero (BB): 187,816 (18.8 bb)
SB: 82,184 (8.2 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6 K
SB raises to 81,184 and is all-in, Hero calls 71,184

Flop: (164,368) 5 9 7 (2 players, 1 is all-in)
Turn: (164,368) J (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: (164,368) 4 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

Good fortune.

I've started mixing in $2.50 180 mans regularly with $3.50 45 mans and it's going well. A few bumps and some terrible beats, which are even harder to take in 180's.

As I thought, the swings are 80BI or so, and that's psychologically daunting.

Still over 3 days I've managed to win two of them and come second once. The latest was a comeback from <1.5BB at 125/250 and a really wild final table that saw three way action going back and forth, mostly forth from me as I came back from near death to win it in the end, shoving KK. I didn't even get to see the hand or know about the comeback until after the session, I'm 12-15 tabling and there's overlaps.

after 95 180's I'm 16.8% ITM, 69.2% ROI. A the same time I ran hot in the 45 mans, 58.3% ROI and 33% ITM in 54 games. Low volume but good return. After winning a 180 man I've been stopping registering and reviewing. I like to end a session on an upswing if I can.

I went through a 55BI down already on the 180's, but that's to be expected. Swings on 45mans are about 20BI so with 4 times the field, it could be higher. Of course it looks like a much higher ROI is achievable, so it must be worth it.

I'm going to have to get a thicker skin for the bad beats.. especially near final table when you run into a cooler, or a lower pair calls hits a set against you. I had another huge chip stack evaporate this session after raising at the final table in CO with AJs, BB calls. flop AJ7ss, I shove he calls with a 89s flush draw and binks both the turn straight and river flush and I'm out. Oh well. I shouldn't complain, I hit 99.5% in the 'bronze' league on OPR, which is by far the highest I've ever had.

Here's the last week or so, 450 games MTTSNG's (mostly $3.50, $7.00 45mans) As you can see I started the 180's at about game 325.

I may post some hands here after a review. The hand history for the comeback is very interesting, I might offer it to anyone to do a session review for me?

Still some game to work on, good fortune at the tables.

I decided to take advantage of the 100 billionth hand promotion at stars. Last time I won one of them for about $600 so I know it's possible.

I haven't played cash for a few months, but I've been keeping up with coachings and hand reviews.

I started at NL10 but realized the rake is impossible there, so now at NL25. Getting used to throwing around a decent dinner per hand.

I don't know if I want to run it twice, I had it on, but turned it off, afraid it might screw up my HEM stats or something?

Right away I'm reminded of how cash can be., First I flop set under set, and fish hitting on rivers after chasing is the norm. I have KK on a low card board, squeezed pf and a fish who overcalls hits two pair and stacks me. I think I'm overplaying my big pairs a bit - probably from tournament play..

Best hand was one that i just joined a new table, got dealt QQ, and here's the rest..

Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players

CO: $25 (100 bb)
BTN: $25 (100 bb)
SB: $43.26 (173 bb)
Hero (BB): $25 (100 bb)
UTG: $25 (100 bb)
MP: $79.65 (318.6 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q Q
UTG raises to $0.75, MP calls $0.75, 2 folds, SB calls $0.65, Hero calls $0.50

So flatting queens isn't the best idea, but I think I'm just as good as squeezing everybody coming along (or even get 4bet) and not liking and A or K high board. I think if the board comes without a K or A I can win a decent pot and lose the minimum if it does come.

Flop: ($3) 5 T Q (4 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2.25, UTG calls $2.25, MP calls $2.25, SB folds

Bingo, I must donk, and get two calls.. ok.

Turn: ($9.75) K (3 players)
Hero bets $4.75, UTG calls $4.75, MP calls $4.75

Ugly turn, I plan to bet fold, hopefully I could fold if raised here.

River: ($24) K (3 players)
Hero bets $17.25 and is all-in, UTG calls $17.25 and is all-in, MP calls $17.25

I don't think I'm up against KQ, would have raised the turn, and there aren't many combos, I'm hoping up against other K's, and maybe a straight will call.. they both call, I get nervous, and finally they muck and the chips come my way.

Results:

I'm planning to 9 table, maybe more if I can handle it - for the duration of the promotion. Funny thing is, even if I break even in rakeback the hourly is almost the same as the $3.50 tourneys. If I can turn a profit on top of that, I'll be very satisfied. So far only 3k hands, but running about 10bb/100 EV - I think I can easily sustain 5.

The calculations are promising. 200k hands/month at 5bb is $2500US, while rakeback is about $1k.. that would be enough to achieve a big part of my vision, and is very motivating.

Also being able to beat NL25 has been a goal of mine for ages, I've never been able to do it, but I think my game has come a long way since then, and I'm also challenged by it.

It' going to be a different kind of month. If I do well, I might stay for a while (the SNG promotion at stars is also appealing this month) so I will have a good look at both and decide.

Just saw your blog, Great blog I'm currently playing the $1 45 man and $1.50 45man turbo games. How do you find turbos vs normal speed in these sng's?. I find it hard to get a lot of itm in the 45 man turbos but when i do i usually get a top three or win.
What methods / material do you use to study ranges ?. I have a fairly good idea but i'm not sure where to find more detailed info and how to apply it to different opponents a bit more .

Will be adding this to favourites, keep up the great work

Originally posted by adamrothwell
Just saw your blog, Great blog I'm currently playing the $1 45 man and $1.50 45man turbo games. How do you find turbos vs normal speed in these sng's?. I find it hard to get a lot of itm in the 45 man turbos but when i do i usually get a top three or win.
What methods / material do you use to study ranges ?. I have a fairly good idea but i'm not sure where to find more detailed info and how to apply it to different opponents a bit more .

Will be adding this to favourites, keep up the great work

Hey Adam, thanks for kind words on my blog page.

I don't find much difference between strategy for turbo vs regular, only the competition seems to be less reggy on the regular speeds. most regs want as many tourneys as they can play.

I think your ROI will go up for the regulars, but it's probably even for hourly rate, considering you play fewer per hour.

In the turbos I guess the blinds are going up faster, and not that you should change your ranges, but the future games catch up that much faster.

The way I deal with it is not to worry about falling down to 7 or 8 blinds if it means a better chance to double up. Usually someone is more desperate than you and will shove Q8o into your AQ or something like that.

Also you need to call looser than you think. Overcalling shortstacks going all in when they are desperate is a great source of chips. Also trapping regs is doable, limping on the SB etc.. I find the minraise/fold minraise/call strategy works well, but some people are calling oop w crap hands and going for Stop and Goes. I use those too when I don't have any fold equity, and all the money's going in anyway.. it gives that one more chance to win on the flop.

To study ranges, I recommend to use holdem resources calculator. I was using SNG Wizard, though you need to be careful with that too. Unam did a coaching recently that talked about the holdem resources tool and it was very useful learning how to take the standard Nash ranges and adjust based on the opponents perceived range. SNG Wizard will push hands to the online Nash calculator... Even this wasn't enough.

You'll see people shoving waaay too loose in some spots (e.g. blind vs blind, or bu vs blinds) I think this is because they use standard SNG Wizard ranges, which are not realistic. The nash ranges are more realistic, but still need adjusting.

For example with 2 tables left, SNG Wizard will put you in chip equity mode, which is too loose when there is an effective bubble on the final two tables. On your table of 9 with 18 people left, only 3.5 of you will cash at all. I tighten up a bit in the 300/600 level according to a slight bubble factor, but on the other hand if you are the big stack, you can really run over the table, and even the final table.

SNG Wizard is too nitty on the final table, Nash is somewhat loose, but unexploitable. I don't mind being exploitable if my opponents aren't using Nash. Sometimes it's better to give up that small +EV call or push to ensure more play at the final table. It's getting to be a bit of an artform, and after a few thousand tourneys it gets a bit clearer..

So yeah, download the holdem resources calculator trial, SNG Wiz trial and see what you like.

Don't forget to use chip EV mode when far from the money, and try to include some bubble factor when you get close to the final table. I see a lot of people making very loose shoves here, and I think it's a mistake. Minraise folding is your friend, you can choose which stacks to get in against, and which to avoid confrontations. On the final table be aware of short stacks. If they are soon to bust, don't double them unnecessarily, and maybe give up a marginal spot or two to let them bust out or eat away at other big stacks.

I could probably write a bunch more.. good luck with these. I think the $3.50's are still horrible play and very beatable. Early on there are great opportunities to double, but you will also get sucked out on, as fish are known to do often.

I'm on a short break from these for some cash game, but feel free to ask away, if I can help or point you in the right direction, I'm only happy to.

Take care