But I can’t since Full Tilt doesn’t really have that many games going, and that’s where most of my money is at the moment.
Lost $120 today playing 2/4, 3/6, $5 and $10 SNGs, and $100 NL Hold ‘Em.
The NL cash game was whatever–I wasn’t catching flops and occasionally I’d make a play at a pot that would get re-raised significantly. Was I outplayed? Maybe, but I didn’t think my holdings were strong enough to continue.
There were definitely some suckouts in the limit cash games–if I play back at you on the flop/turn because I know you’re full of shit, why are you calling me down with bottom pair or ace high?–but nothing too unusual. Sometimes it’s not enough to have over 30 outs when the other guy’s got 2 or 3.
No, the thing that’s really gotten me feeling antsy, wound up, and irritated is the run of SNGs. On 5 or 6 occasions I was ahead preflop or on the flop, and got brutally beaten on the flop, turn, or river. I seriously don’t know how all you people can stand to keep playing these SNGs. I mean, yes, I want these calls each and every time, but when I got outdrawn and knocked out, I feel incredibly frustrated. Sure, it’s only $5 or $10, but it still pisses me off to no end.
So. Am I doing something wrong here? Should I raise more than 3xBB in the first few levels with my big pocket pairs? Should I not risk so much of my stack when I flop a set? Should I just stay away from these fucking things because I’m clearly unable to deal?
I suggest drinking heavily 🙂
FT has been unkind to me lately also 🙁
Still a fun site to play on though.
Those SnGs will suck the life out of you.
“Should I raise more than 3xBB in the first few levels with my big pocket pairs? Should I not risk so much of my stack when I flop a set?”
Honestly? I don’t think it matters. I’ve spent so much time on those two questions. The fact of the matter is, at $5 and $10, people don’t fold when they should. Any ace or king, any piece of the flop, any backdoor draw, they’re staying in. If they’ve got four to the flush on the flop, forget it.
Make your bets when you’ve got the best of it, destroy their pot odds and when they call, hold your breath.
Good luck! 🙂
I’m convinced, and I have numbers to prove it, that playing almost any hand in the first few levels is a mistake. Sure, you’re not going to lay down QQ, KK or AA, but in a lot of those cases, you’re winning small pots and losing big ones. JJ in EP in the first three levels is now a fold for me. I’d rather lay low, see a couple of free flops and push it when I know I have the best hand and otherwise wait until there are 6 or fewer players. At that point you’re in one of two situations: the dumb money is gone and you can play poker or the dumb money has made massive suckouts and is now sitting there ready to Gus Hansen all his chips to you on the way to a cash. People don’t know how to play these games when the table gets shorthanded, that’s where your edge is, make sure you’re there to capitalize.
I love the SnG’s, for the most part – though I’ve decided recently that I much prefer the $20 games to the $10’s, and can’t even bear the $5 games due to high suck-outage. Let’s say 7 of 9 people suck at the $5 leve. 5 of 9 suck at $10, and 3 of 9 suck at $20. Less sucky people = less sucky suckouts, at least from my experience. The $20 games actually seem overly tight to me. I’ve only been playing them for a month or so, though, so it’s a small sample size.
I rarely plan a hand in the first two levels. For whatever goofy reason, those pots early on are hugely contested, despite the fact that their value relative to the blinds sucks. A guy might raise 20x the big blind, and four people call! Unless I’ve got jacks or higher, I don’t even bother to play in most cases – sometimes into level 3 even.
Once the crazy people have knocked themselves out, come level 3 or so, I start playing. As for big pocket pairs, I raise whatever the standard table raise is, usually 3 or 4x bb – though I will go for the high end whenever possible, up to 5x or 6x. Yeah, you’re risking more chips, but in these SnG’s, you really want to make it a huge mistake for someone with a marginal hand to call you, and more often than not, those hands will win for you (or the marginal hands will fold to the larger raise). Nobody seems to even balk at a 3xBB raise in these SnG’s. It’s hardly even regarded as a raise. Flopping a set, I pound the heck out of it. No slowplaying allowed.
Sometimes you’ll get sucked out on, and sometimes a voice in the back of my head says, “If you’d only bet a little less, maybe you’d have gotten called and won a few more chips…” But I’d rather win the pot right then and there, than get called by a drawing hand that always manages to suckout on me.
And the beats go on:
You have been dealt [Ad As]
glyphic raises to 120
Villain calls 120
The flop is [8s 3s Qd]
glyphic bets 300
Villain raises to 1,040, and is all in
glyphic calls 740
Villain shows [Qc Jh]
glyphic shows [Ad As]
The turn is [9h]
The river is [Tc]
Villain shows a straight, Queen high
glyphic shows a pair of Aces
Villain wins the pot (2,380) with a straight, Queen high
I don’t really recover from this. I double up once with pocket eights, but when I’m down to 7 big blinds, I make a stand with AQ, get called by AJ and KK, and no ace, flush, or straight comes along to save me.
Jesus.
That shit drives me to the bottom of a liquor bottle.
All you can do is play it right. You’ll profit when all is said and done.
I could never play just one SNG at a time anymore. That’s part of it.
When you play 20-30 a night, everything evens out for the most part. If I were playing one at a time, I’d have losing streaks that lasted the better part of a week…that would drive me insane.
Should you just stay away? Yes, you must. The flames of Hell are lapping at your feet and you must repent, repent, repent! Stray from the Truth and the Devil will take your soul.
Yeah, I figured the Nerd would even out some of the variance playing his 5 sets of 4 simultaneous SNGs every night.
After that SNG I just played some .25/.50 Razz while watching the Geek finish up his Razz MTT. I just realized what makes Razz so relaxing… you’re all trying to make the same hand!
I had that EXACT think happen to me last week. I had QQ he had QJ and runner-runner his flush vs my trips. Helllooooo you did have 2nd pair when you called my large bet, and not much better when you called my even larger bet, although the straght draw had materialized. lol. Hang in there. I think things will get better.. (Hope I am on an upswing).