Leaks with 6 max tourney strategy

[ifunk]

Gonna play in the $22 Saturday 6-max tourney since I played last week and busted out before the money (and hence got a ticket into another one).

I normally play micro stakes 6-max sngs and cash games, and have had reasonable success over a small sample size, but would love some guidance on how to approach a larger 6-max tourney (with higher buy-in).

There are two plays that put me on serious monkey tilt last week:

1. Min-donk betting from the BB on the flop. ie. betting 50 into a 350 pot. Just calling telegraphs my hand hasn't hit yet and gives them great odds to improve their hand if they are behind. Raising bloats the pot unneccessarily when I might not have the best hand. Folding overcards feels weird in this spot. Usually in a ring game I'd just call and see how they proceed on later streets, to see if they keep min-betting or pull out the big guns, but in a tourney that play feels/looks weak and can cost valuable chips.

2. Other players limping pre-flop (or early position min-raiser with multiple callers) when I'm in the blinds holding reasonable cards (suited paint cards or medium pairs). Should I just call from the SB/BB and see if I hit a monster flop? Or raise to isolate one or two players and C-bet the flop, hoping they missed (or I hit)? Or should I just fold these marginal hands so early in the tourney?

This is my final hand from last week's tourney. I got my money in as a 75% favourite on the turn, but should I have played this hand differently? runningbul had been a fairly active player (VPIP around 70).

***** Hand History for Game 63764644490 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, June 25, 07:31:24 ET 2011
Table 404554105 15 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: Oleg Bashev ( $2950.00 USD )
Seat 2: ME ( $1665.00 USD )
Seat 3: runningbul ( $5785.00 USD )
Seat 4: Beany82 ( $3000.00 USD )
Seat 5: jekstars ( $5413.00 USD )
Seat 6: serikcs ( $3902.00 USD )
Oleg Bashev posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
ME posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ME [ Kd As ]
runningbul calls [$50.00 USD]
Beany82 folds
jekstars calls [$50.00 USD]
serikcs folds
Oleg Bashev calls [$25.00 USD]
ME raises [$250.00 USD]
runningbul calls [$250.00 USD]
jekstars folds
Oleg Bashev folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8c, 9h, Ah ]
ME bets [$400.00 USD]
runningbul calls [$400.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7h ]
ME bets [$965.00 USD]
runningbul calls [$965.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6h ]
ME shows [Kd, As ]
runningbul shows [Td, Ad ]
runningbul wins $3430.00 USD from main pot

[ifunk]

OK, so I decided to register after 30 mins to stop me from playing too many hands in the initial stages. After 20 hands, I pick up QQ in the big blind. And two cards later I'm out. Can anyone teach me how to run good? LOL.

***** Hand History for Game 64038874541 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, July 02, 07:39:16 ET 2011
Table 407708226 250 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: Minieri93 ( $9280.00 USD )
Seat 3: justlanS ( $6190.00 USD )
Seat 4: Luc18667 ( $7283.00 USD )
Seat 5: ME ( $2675.00 USD )
Seat 6: RusProFFn1 ( $3890.00 USD )
Luc18667 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
ME posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ME [ Qd Qc ]
RusProFFn1 folds
Minieri93 folds
justlanS raises [$125.00 USD]
Luc18667 folds
ME raises [$275.00 USD]
justlanS calls [$200.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, Ts, 8d ]
ME bets [$320.00 USD]
justlanS raises [$5865.00 USD]
ME calls [$2030.00 USD]
justlanS wins $3515.00 USD
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9c ]
ME shows [Qd, Qc ]
justlanS shows [8h, 7s ]
justlanS wins $5375.00 USD from main pot

[berry1]

it appears going to war with AT in button vs blind wars could be a leak. regardless this saturday 6-max thing was even softer than expected

[SEABEAST]

1) depends on the texture of the flop (especially how many likely draws) and whether there are other players in the pot but generally when someone min-donks into you headsup after you raised preflop you should raise them to continue representing a hand.

don't be disheartened if they call - again, depending on the board and what transpires, you should be looking to continue betting and take down the pot on the turn or river. by raising you also maintain control of the hand, giving you the option of barreling or taking a free card on the turn - whereas if you just call the 50 on the flop it's hard to know if his 375 bet on the turn is because he now feels his medium strength hand is good (genuine value) or because you showed weakness by just calling (he could have complete air).

you usually have pretty good equity anyway and it's pretty rare that guys mindonk flops with hands that end up being good enough by the river to play for stacks, so with the combination of your hand's equity and fold equity on future streets, raising the flop is usually profitable - except when you have complete air on really drawy flops like T98ss where he is way more likely to have a hand that wants to call more than once.

building pots then taking them away is a big part of poker. the whole 'dont bloat the pot without a strong hand' attitude is rubbish.

2) vs habitual limping fish in 6-max raising hands like AT and 77 from the blinds is generally a good idea. again, building a pot you are a huge favourite to win postflop (you usually narrow the field to headsup while repping a strong hand meaning when you both miss the flop you win the pot, whereas if you just check and play multiway you have to check-fold way too many flops). you usually want to raise fairly big since you will be playing out of position, so you want it to either go headsup or for everyone to fold. what constitutes 'big' depends on stacks and how many players.

don't be afraid to be aggressive

[sal fazzino]

Seabeast still the man tho

[ifunk]

Thanks seabeast, your advice is appreciated.

I've been raising min-donk bets in the SNGs and that seems to be the answer - I found my opponents were less likely to donk with a stong hand in tournaments than in the ring games I played.

I also tightened up my range in the SB/BB and am losing a lot less chips with marginal hands. And the hands I play I usually 3-bet or 4-bet to gain the betting lead, and often puts my opponents in a tough situation with their marginal holdings, which is great!