Carl “The Dean” Sampson.

 

Usually in small and mid-blind play, you can be faced with many situations in which several possibilities present themselves for how you can play in a particular situation. But the situation is totally different in high blind play as moving all-in is quite often the only available play that is open to you apart from folding of course.

 

What this means in essence is that if you stand to increase your overall equity in the prize pool by moving in then this is the correct play irrespective of the risk of elimination. The stack sizes are so small compared to the blinds that attempting to make smaller raises is going to lead to pot commitment anyway so you may as well move all-in if it is correct to do so.

 

When moving into the high-blind phase, many novice players instinctively know that they need to change gears and be aggressive. What they lack is a proper understanding of just when to be aggressive. To assist you in this process I have my very own rules that should help you in these situations. I do not break these rules under any circumstances.

 

 

RULE 1:   NEVER ALLOW YOUR STACK TO CRITICALLY ERODE

 

 

What does this mean? We all know that we cannot prevent our stack from eroding as we cannot call every bet and defend our blinds every round. But there are clear cut-off points for when you should put a stop to this and simply pull the trigger. In principle if my stack gets down to the region of between 3 and 5 big blinds then under no circumstances will I allow the blinds to hit me.

 

Now in some situations, you may not have a choice with regards going under three big blinds. If you have been outdrawn in a hand where you had your opponent slightly covered and you were both all-in then this cannot be avoided.

 

But take a look at the following scenario, the game is six handed and your stack is T1300 and the blinds are 200-400. You are UTG and see the 10c-7d, despite the fact that you would more than likely see a stronger hand if you waited until the big blind, this would be the wrong move.

 

You would be forced to post a T400 big blind which would only leave you with T900 left in chips. This creates a potential situation where your opponents could team up against you. Sometimes it is better to allow yourself to go into the big blind because you can use the raise of another player as protection for your own hand.      But when you have enough chip power to create fold equity then this presents a different situation.

 

I have used this three big blind principle in every SNG that I have ever played and in my experience, this tends to be the level where you can either steal the blinds with enough frequency to make the play profitable or you cannot. In the previous example then I would be looking to make a move with a T1300 stack as soon as possible with the blinds at 200-400.

 

Once my stack gets above five big blinds then I have time to go through the blinds as this means only expending a further 1.5BB. So once again in the previous example, if my stack was at least T2000 then I could afford to expend the T600 and go down to T1400 and still be slightly above my level for shoving.

 

Timing is critical during high-blind play if you are going to maximise your equity in any given situation. Pulling the trigger too soon or too late will seriously harm your bottom line. But even in this situation then 5BB is by no means a stack that you can relax with. Most online SNG’s have fast structures with some faster than others and many of them are Turbo’s.

 

So with another blind level imminent then I would tend to shove sooner rather than later and this is especially the case on the bubble where I can exploit some bubble passivity. But this does not mean that I would make desperation plays just because I need to do something quickly.

 

If I see three consecutive hands of 8-3, 7-2 and 9-3 then I will still fold those hands even in situations where it has been folded to me. I would rather let the blinds come around and be down to T1400 than try to push at the wrong time. I think that many experienced players make these decisions on reflex but I know that it took me months of trial and error before I eventually started to make these plays.

 

But letting your stack erode too far in high blind play robs you of any folding equity whatsoever except against players who don’t know what they are doing. If you have carelessly let your stack erode to say T1000 in the 200-400 hand example then moving in for T1000 in chips means that even if no one else calls then the big blind with only have to call T600 in what is a T1600 pot.

 

Pot odds of over 2.5-1 are more than enough for the big blind to call with any two cards and especially when you consider that they are aware that you are shoving on a very wide range because of your chip situation.

 

Carl “The Dean” Sampson is sponsored by Cake Poker and can be seen at www.pokersharkpool.com