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New moves in low-stakes Sit & Go's

How to combat the resurgent trend of limping when the blinds are high in Sit &Go s

By Nick Wright on Monday 7 Dec 2009 12:00

3Recommend Alex Keating at HUGS

Trends in Sit & Go's change all the time, so make sure ou're up tospeed with high-blind limping, large open shoves and the donk lead

Although there are many who argue that Sit & Go s are a solved game in termsof optimum strategy, I believe there are trends within them that come and goand evolve over time. Ignore these shifts and you re missing out on a healthyedge, as a move that once screamed weakness may now very well indicatemassive strength (or vice versa). In this article I m going to look at three of the

trends I ve noticed playing low stakes Sit & Go s ($10-$30) in the last fewmonths, starting with the dubious practice of limping in when the blinds arehigh and moving on to look at the overbet shove and the donk lead.


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Limping high

There s no one-size-fits-all definition for a high blind limper (HBL), but I dadvise making note of any player who routinely limps at blinds of 50/100 or higher. By this point most stacks are 15 big blinds deep or less and in thesecircumstances open-limping is almost always a bad play. The standard andpreferred play is to raise or fold, yet there s been an influx of high blind limpersin six-max turbos, even when play is f ive or four-handed (making open-limpingan even worse option).

High blind limping always used to suggest a polarised range: either massivestrength or a hand an opponent really wanted to see a cheap flop with butwould fold to any resistance. Now though it seems a wide selection of playersare high blind limping a range of hands that includes Q-T, Q-J, K-9, K-T, 2-2+,

Ace-rag suited and, of course, monsters (although weak players areincreasingly just mini-raising these). Having limped in, the general practice is toeither see a cheap flop or snap-call when someone tries to isolate their limps,although limp-folding is not out of the question.

Obviously the popularity of this move means you have to adjust, and while youcan shove wider for value against these players as their high blind limpingrange is wider, you have to accept that you ll get called more often. Jamming

over an HBL thus tends to put you in a lot of high-variance spots.

My theory is that players are choosing to limp more often when blinds are highbecause the overall aggression factor in Sit & Go s has increased so much.They thus feel that by open-limping and folding they save chips or if theyopen-limp and call a reraise or a shove their hand plays better against thatrange than if they had open-raised and decided to call all-in.

The large open-sho e Another trend in Sit & Go strategy is the large open-shove. Just as thestandard open-raise size has shrunk in recent times, from 3BB to 2.5BB andmaybe even lower, at the other end of the spectrum the size of stack peopleare willing to shove all-in has grown.

The cutoff point for having a one-move stack (shove or fold) used to be ten

big blinds. Any more than that and the consensus was that you should justopen-raise and respond accordingly. Over time, however, opinion and playingstyles have shifted. In tournaments, raise-folding with a stack of less than 20big blinds is now frequently seen as incorrect. This thinking has also filtered


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through to Sit & Go s, so you ll often see players open-shoving 12-15 bigblinds, and not just as the chip leader on the bubble.

These moves often fall into the category of unexploitable shoves , so calledbecause they will show a profit, in terms of chip EV, whether anyone calls or not. The open-shove with a stack size such as 15BB has also increased in

popularity due to players realising that they re left with an awkward stack sizeon the flop if they open for 3BB and pick up a single caller. The pot will beanywhere between 6.5 and 7.5BB, so with a stack of 12BB you re in anawkward spot postflop if you miss. You have a bit too much to shove and youcan t bet half pot or more intending to fold as you ll leave yourself short-stacked. At this point the open-shove, although a bit extreme, certainly seemsto offer a far easier decision than a standard raise. The argument goes that ashove will often get players to fold hands such as Sevens or Eights hands

they might have moved all-in in with if you d simply made a standard raise.Debate continues to rage as to whether an open-shove for more than 10BB isoptimum even if it is unexploitable, or whether a standard raise (intendingeither to call an all-in or fold to a three-bet) is a better line. Either way, themove is becoming more prevalent and you need to watch out for it and adjustwhere possible.

Donk i pPerhaps the biggest trend in Sit & Go s in the last year has been that of regular players drifting away from the traditional six-max and ten-handed formats toplay multi-table Sit & Go s with 12 to 180 runners. Because of this, a fewmoves that almost violate the tight is right STT code have began to crop upmore commonly in the six- and ten-man games.

Leading into the preflop raiser christened the donk lead by the online forumcrowd is an unorthodox move that doesn t exactly have a rich heritage in theSit & Go arena. Standard Sit & Go strategy dictates that chips gained areworth less than those lost, so preservation rather than accumulation is theorder of the day. As such, bloating pots, especially out of position, isn t veryclever. Because of this you barely saw the donk lead in days gone by, andwhen you did it was almost always a sign of huge strength (from a competentplayer). But these days the donk lead usually means something very different

and has merged with the blocker bet. A donk lead varies wildly in size,whereas a blocker bet is by definition around a third of the pot or less.

Here s a common situation I see at the tables. I make a raise to, say, 180 from


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Sha e

the cutoff at 30/60 and get called by the big blind. The flop comes aninnocuous looking 3-8-T rainbow and the big blind min-bets 20 into a 360 pot.It s a pretty obvious tactic to get a cheaper turn card than I would allow him andnarrows his range to drawing hands and weak made hands such as an Eight or a Ten with a bad kicker. There are a couple of ways to combat this. Shouldyou wish them to fold then often simply coming over the top either for a large

raise or all your chips will do the trick. Be careful though, as some players getstubborn and will call any amount with any draw on the flop. In that case,waiting till the turn to blow them off their hand at the risk of them actuallymaking their hand is sometimes a better play. Even ignorant players are lesslikely to chase with only one card to come!

If you actually have a hand, then manipulating the pot size in your favour byraising an amount you think your foe will call is better than simply calling the

donk lead in most instances.3Recommend

Commen

The game and the strategy behind it is constantly changing and as players, wehave to adapt to new ideas and strategies. Reading articles like this is free, butyou might just learn something.If you dont understand some of the 'lingo' used, then google it and read whatan open limp is, dont expect the article writer to wipe your arse as well.

Comment by Pspacer11 - 27/09/10 ( Report )

Sorry, but half of this is like reading chinese. Any chance of helping us littleguys, the ones who play to learn and don't speak the lingo.

Comment by CelticGold - 30/01/10 ( Report )


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it's more simple,no one can teach ou how too pla the game,if we all followedso called pro's advice we'd all pla the same and the game would be just aheads up gamble ever time....slow pla top hands with thehope of drawing asman pla ers in as possible...it never failed me,especiall when pla ing incasino's.

Comment b obimike - 24/12/09 ( Report )low stakes $10 - $30 eah ma be for ou mate but what about us $1-$5pla ers,does this advice transfer to that level too??

Comment b Billmillar80 - 23/12/09 ( Report )

Thank ou for the article. I am a veteran local club pla er but online is differentagain. I found our article helped to remind me to freshen up m game and towatch for others pla ing this limp bait game. Thank ou.

Comment b DavidSullivan - 17/12/09 ( Report )

Please! Less jargon. Remember man people reading these pages arebeginners. Limping???? You need to make it a little more basic gu s.

Comment b englishfrank - 08/12/09 ( Report )

not reall sure what is the benefit to post a strateg article?.....teach fish to plabetter?......praise our egos?...or do ou earn mone from pkr?....all thesegenorous pokerteacher at the tables and forums are ver welcome....give our wisdom for free....and dr out the fishponds.....no pokerpla er should pa for his learningtime an more......

Comment b bschuermann - 08/12/09 ( Report )

pants

Comment b compass87 - 07/12/09 ( Report )

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Rela ed link

1. The basics of reading a poker hand

2. Aces rock3. A simple blueprint for MTT success4. The new Sit & Go landscape5. Folding our wa to (some of) the mone6. The big pa off

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