small tables

[bassy]

well i took the advice of people here last week to play some small tourneys in order to get my feet wet playing for money - so i tried some sit and gos - came 5th on my first try and on my second tonight i came 3rd - so yahoo i won some money (yep not much but i got excited)... and i really only won this by keeping tight and letting others knock each other out (i think i only played 5 hands and i won 4 of them).

However, when it came down to 3 people the entire speed and tactics of the table suddenly changed and i was completely outclassed. Can anyone give me some tips on playing on a very small table with just one or two other people?

[Dave B]

Bet aggresive with decent hands that you wouldnt normally play. Steal blinds by raising on the botton w/ any face card. Bet after the flop whether you have anything or not. When you are down to under 5 players, you need to run over others or be run over.

[Tralfaz]

Hey:

I completely agree with Dave. If you do not open up your game when it gets short handed you will be steamrolled. I was playing in an 18 person $30 sit and go on PS last night. When I started heads up play the other guy had $23,000 and I had $4,000.

However, he made a major mistake. He was constantly calling in the small blind - allowing me to see the flop even with garbage. When I am heads up in the small blind I will either Raise (with almost any face card and certainly with any Ace) or fold. The exception is if I am trying to set a trap (With a high pair or AK - for example) I will call hoping the other guy will raise so I can go over the top.

Anyway, If you realize that the value of any given hand goes up the more short handed the game is - you will do well. If I'm in the big blind and the small blind calls I may raise with next to nothing. With an Ace I'll re-raise if raised.

Note: I will lay down a certain number of hands in the small blind to lend credibility to my raises.

Oh yeah, the sit and go, It took me around 1/2 hour but I finished him off and took first. There is nothing sweeter than coming back from a very short stack to win. As soon as I saw him start calling consistently in the small blind, I knew I had a shot. He would fold to a raise from the big blind a good percentage of the time.

So the moral of this long, rambling, senseless diatribe. BE AGGRESSIVE - but not stupid. don't chase cards on the turn and river (note that I don't mean that you shouldn't attempt to steal the pot on the turn etc.) When you are short handed, you can literally win with your preflop play if you do it right.

I hope this is of some help, but you are probably better off just ignoring it and reading Dave's post he is a bit more concise than I am.

Tralfaz

[bassy]

whew thanks for the replys - actually tralfaz i thought you explained the process very well.

as i said in my post last week i have only been playing a short time and only on play money tables (where the strategy is completely different and seems to be everyone bets constantly) so now i have gone over to money tables i am having to learn strategies.

Thats excellent advice from both of you - i am now going to have to try and put it into practise (you wouldnt believe how chuffed i felt this morning with the email from PS saying that money was actually being credited to my account). I did really overplay one hand when we got down to 3 which i should have folded and i have to try and reign myself in from doing this again.

[HalfSugar]

Raise every Ace, don't chase, that's good advice. If u can grasp this early on, you'll be a better tourney player than most people - like Tralfaz's opponent who probably plays that way every time and loses more than he wins......