Time and again I have to remind myself to avoid playing BIG pots in these SNGs. If you wait to see the flop with "decent" cards you can decide to play the pot or not - but if you get all-in, you always have the chance to lose a big pot and potentially be eliminated against a "crap hand."
We've all moved in with that AK or KK to get called with some terrible trash hand like Q9 or A3 and been busted.
What I always ask myself about after this happens is, "Did I need to be all-in that hand?" A lot of times I decide yes, I had say 5-6 BBs left and I really cannot get away from the hand if I raise, so going all-in was the only play. But I often find myself pushing when I could stand to raise and see a flop and then either move in or fold. This middle range, around 7-11 BBs, is a good place to do the stop and go play as well as give yourself a chance to escape if your opponent hits an obvious trump card.
The key is to always avoid the sorts of "marginal" situations where you could afford to see a flop, but instead push and give your opponent the opportunity to get a lot of your chips if they get lucky. I have noticed that a big mistake players make against me is overbetting in heads up. I slowly grind players down, if they bet a lot, I usually fold (unless I think I'm way ahead). Its very typical for players to lock up when they get down to a 5:1 or 6:1 chip disadvantage. In these spots you should put lots of pressure on your opponent, but don't raise/call his all in with J5s or something stupid. I cannot tell you the amount of times my opponents have either A, come back and won when I have made this mistake, and B, made this mistake themselves, doubled me up leading to me winning 1st.
The obvious thing is hold'em is that you can find a lot better situations to get chips then a showdown - especially when you have chips. When you have an opponent who will fold a good percentage of the time you bet (if you are playing reasonably tight) then just grind it out. You don't need to gamble, use your chips as a weapon and play small ball to take home a victory...
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Yes Matt. What I'm suggesting at the 7xBB level is to often raise a normal raise - and be prepared to put all your chips in. I have noticed a major pattern of short stacks moving in and being called a higher percentage of the time than normal by larger chip stacks BEFORE the flop. However, if you raise to 2.5x BB, even with 7xBB this gives you enough to bet on the flop and it mean something. If you raise preflop and are called by a single opponent there is around 2.5 + 2.5 + 1.5 (averaged the blinds because sometimes they will be in the blind) = 6.5 BBs in the pot. You still have 4.5 BBs, so if you push the flop, you may be able to get your opponent to fold hands that missed the flop, regardless of if you hit or not. Basically, it just gives you another way to win - this works especially good against players who are loose or call a lot before the flop, but play tight after the flop.
One thing I try to do in a SNG is create the image that when I bet I have something. I fold the vast majority of flops that I miss - but this lets me get away with more bluffs later in the SNG. This makes the stop-and-go play work better as well. Because unless they hit a good chunk of the flop my small stack can get them to fold. An advantage of adding this play to your arsenal is that you can raise with more marginal hands when you are short. a 97s or a T8s become great hands for the stop and go. The good thing we these hands specifically is that you are not likely dominated - so if you check your pot odds (6.5 + 4.5 = 11, you have to call 4.5; 2.4:1), even if they have an overpair you are getting about the odds to call a reraise all-in preflop with these hands.
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