9 Seat STTs, Strategy when 3handed.

ArmaniJeanss

99% of my poker is 9/10handed STTs at $20/$30. I've consistently ran at ~20% ROI on Tribeca/iPoker/OnGame (1300+ games by now so the figures are close to reliable).

However the breakdown of my ITM figures has always worried me, roughly 25% 1st, 35% 2nd, 40% 3rd.

I thought that maybe I was a rubbish h2h player, but I worked at it, read a few articles, HOH2 etc, still no improvement.

So I looked at the STTs where I was in a head to head and found that on average I start off with about 37% of the chips in play so it appears my conversion to win rate isn't too bad as despite only having 37% of the chips I'm winning about 40% of my h2h's.

And I'm happy that my bubble play is close to perfect, no fear, no stupidity etc.

I think I have a problem when an STT goes 3handed.
Sometimes I lose focus as the 'battle' to avoid the bubble has ended. Sometimes I find myself up against 2 lunatics who are so relieved at making the money that they proceed to push all on each other with rubbish, which moves me up a place but leaves me facing an uphill struggle in the h2h.
Or else I get too aggro with marginal hands, hands which are perfectly playable as openraises 4handed because of the bubble situation seem to become less playable 3handed as other peoples fear factor has gone.

Wondering has anyone any tips on this part of the game, links to good articles etc. There seems to be plenty written about h2h and plenty written about bubble play, but nothing much about this situation.

AJ

RoundTower

I don't know much about analysing your numbers for SNGs specifically. It sounds like you've taken a sensible approach to this. But I don't think 1300 games makes your figures "close to reliable", you should really find out how accurate they are.

It sounds like you are on the right track looking at % of chips coming into HU, etc. Why not look at what % you have of the chips coming into 3 handed? Or better still, if you have software to do it, look at what % of the prizepool you deserve on average according to ICM at the start of 3 handed. Then compare this to how you actually do, it's quite likely optimal play should have you less than 33% here.

BobSloane

Play some heads up tournaments - even for $10. Get used to playing flops even if the blinds are big. If you end up heads up evenish on chips on say level 5 of a tournament that means both players have ~25bbs. There's a bit more to playing this effectively than pushing or folding pre-flop.
Also I always find in these situations that the key is to get 3/4 of the chips. You can generally do this by stabbing at pots in position. If he pushes over the top a few times then you'll have to call him down light. Once you have 3/4 of the chips you can start putting real pressure on him.

I've seen it here that heads up tournament are boring and the blinds are not worth stealing etc etc. I'm not a great heads up player - but i regularly play $11-$33 heads up games. I've played over 200 in the last maybe 3 months with a win rate of 51%(which is not break even). When I end up heads up in a tournament though I feel a lot more comfortable with whats going on and often feel that my opponent has little idea about heads up play as its a much more unusual experience for him.

But your question was about 3 handed so all i can suggest there is that you play heads-up tournaments and maybe draw a third player on the screen with a marker. Consider him to be very tight. If he raises - put the cap back on the marker.