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telebob · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 8:44 pm Post subject: $3.80 super turbo strategy

As usual, take anything I say with a grain of salt. In this case, maybe a few grains, as the sample size is limited, 42 games. That said, I've been having good success in the $3.80 super turbos. The essence of my strategy is to get one early double up, then stay out of the line of fire until the bubble.

First orbit: Tight. Shove w/ AQ+, TT+. Call shove w/ same range, if all-in has already been called, call only w/QQ+, AK. (shove/fold is mandatory except as noted below, imo)

Second orbit: By now, 2 people are already gone. If you go through the blinds without at least picking up the blinds, pick an unopened pot to shove before the big blind hits you again. That means ATC from UTG, so don't hesitate if it folds to you with K7s in the CO. If you go through the blinds again without picking up any chips, you're pretty much screwed anyway. Hope to take the blinds, and failing that, hope to suck-out. If you pick up the blinds, lather, rinse, repeat on the next orbit. Buy yourself some time to catch some cards.

If you double up though, you can cash almost every time. Tighten way back up, wait for the others to donk out, with one exception: when you have the opportunity to steal, take it. The folks with 240 chips left will be very careful about calling you down, and the real shorties will often call with worse. Keep that stack around the 600 chip mark if you can, but remember: that one double up probably got you enough chips to sit-out and cash.

On the bubble: Identify the weakest link and hammer them unmercifully. Soon the other opponents will join in, and before you know it, they'll be forced to make a bad push.

In the money: Once the bubble pops, just use your normal late tourney short stack/short table game. There are often several orbits where you can use standard raises instead of shoving before the blinds catch up and put you back in shove/fold mode. I try to avoid the big stack, and focus on the 3rd player. If I can get more chips than him, it often turns into 2 big stacks ganging up on the shorty.

Heads up: I'm usually the shorter stack when we reach heads up, so I flip the maniac switch. For the first few hands, I raise or shove every time I have the button, shove anything decent from the BB. Hopefully, by the time the opponent catches on, I'm back to even, and can shift back into a more normal aggressive game. It really only takes a few hands with only 2700 chips in play and the blinds at 60/120. The shallow stacks also help me because there's only one decision per hand, fewer opportunities to release my inner donk.

I think Lost Ostrich suggested keeping an MTT size bankroll for these games, 50 buy-ins. That's probably about right if the variance that others have seen is true. I have a very small bankroll, barely enough to play these by that standard, so I play one at a time, and limit myself to 3 games in a session. That way, I'm never more than one 1st place finish down after a session, easily made up with a good run the next session.

Well, that's about it. Feel free to comment or flame, just know that I realize that my success is above sustainable levels right now, and that the sample size is quite small. FWIW, here are some stats:

Tournaments: 42
1st: 12
2nd:4
3rd: 4
Investment: $159.60
Winnings: $252.00
Profit: $92.40
ROI: 57.9%

RoyLuv · High Card Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 1

I play these SnGs quite a bit. They are a nice alternative if you aren't a ring player and don't have a whole lot of time. I basically subscribe to the same game plan, but I try not to put all the chips on the line in the first few hands unless it's KK or better. There are too many donks that will push with anything just to try to double up right off the bat. I've seen some horrendous plays on the first hand of these games.

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