the low stakes can be beaten, even on Party. I understand how frustrating the 800 chips and the weak/tight opposition can be, but that's actually not *too* harmful in the long run to this strategy. Lets compare how this strat fares against weak/tight and against loose/aggressive.

Loose/aggressive:
You do really well in the first half, before you shift gears.
Shifting gears only minimally effective, as you get called too often.
If you don't shift gears, you get blinded out.

In other words, the loose/aggressive play is pretty close to optimal for the late rounds.

Weak/tight:
You do seemingly poorly in the first half, and there are more people left when you shift gears.
Gear shifting is HIGHLY effective, as you get tons of wins without showing down.


And another thing to note is that if you feel that the game is too weak/tight to make a profit with this strat, there are some potential edits you could make:
(1) Subtly shift the beginning of each stage of play a little earlier. For example, instead of loosening up on hand 30, you could loosen up on hand 25. If the next stage used to start at hand 50, start it at hand 45. I would not recommend drastic changes though.
(2) Be more patient in your heads up (and three handed) play. If you're up against a weak/tight player, it doesn't serve you well to raise all-in. You should be making smaller raises, and folding whenever he goes over the top. If he simply calls your small raise, you should be quite LAG after the flop. weak/tight players are the easiest opponents to beat heads-up.
(3) More semi-bluffs earlier
(4) Being the 2nd or 3rd limper from late position becomes more attractive with marginal hands.
(5) Put no value on hands like AJ and KJ -- if the players are really weak tight, they might even come off of KT with a Kxx board if you put heat on them, but they will never come off of AK or KQ. This is more because of the tightness than the weakness....

Thank you, Nash. This is exactly the kind of information I was seeking.

Hey Everyone,

I've played 19 $10+$1 SnG's on Party since Yesterday playing with Nash's strategy.

I'm up $11.00 I would of played 20, then posted the results, but I think Party caps the numer of tables, because there hasn't been a new table registering in about 30 minutes. Maybe all the "traffic" with the holiday and all.

Anyway, I am by no means a Poker Pro, I've been playing intermittently for about a year, and keep losing on the Ring Games. So I figured lets give the SnG's a try.

I've followed Nash's strategy about 95% of the time. A couple of times I've deviated with good results (based on tightness of table, number of players left etc), and a couple of times I made sub optimal plays and paid for it. But I can't complain because I'm up $11.00. I do agree that this would work better with 1000 starting chips. I don't think Party understands how to manage the number of tables (obviously there haven't been any available for about 30 mins) or how quickly they finish. I agree that the 800 start makes people play tighter.

Here are my finish details...


Well just wanted to chime in, any suggestion on where I should play the $10+1 with weak players and 1000 chips?

Thanks,
Conneen

Keep following Nash's strategy, and I feel like my play is also getting a little better. One caveat, I've found I do much better when I get into Hand 31 with 800+ Chips. This means I had to get some of the premium hands early on. This is probably obvious, but I'm just trying to say that if you find yourself in Hand 31 with <600 chips its really hard.



A little story as well. I had my AKs beaten by A8o when he rivered an 8.

This left me at 110 chips at Hand 8 in the SnG. I rallied and finished in first. So even though it's harder with less chips, its not impossible.

Thanks Nash,

Conneen

**BUMP** (Moderators, you gotta make this a sticky, man)

hehe.... that would be my bad... i'm a bit uncertain of how to make things a sticky! I'll ask tet or someone...

I'm an absolute newb, so I'll ask a newb question. Are there any starting hand guidelines for stage 2 ? Or should one just use their best judgement/experience ?

I'm not Nash--I don't know where he got off to--but I'll attempt to help.

I suggest you start a new topic below, because this could be a good discussion, but long.

Where do you play? That's a biggie in this question.

Welcome to BTP

CJ

Much easier with more opportunity to pick up tells, plus the fact that most B&M players haven't played nearly as many SNGs as the average online player. There are a few things that make live play a lot different and somewhat more difficult, but there are a lot of advantages, too. The hard part is not having the pot total right in front of you in order to calculate pot odds easily and quickly. And distractions. If you can concentrate, it should do quite well.

CJ

would also know around what hand range you guys open up to in stage two, had been very good.. at the moment i still only play the preimium hands in stage two

I added a few thoughts to Nash's very excellent guide in the link below. You may find some help here.

forum/viewtopic.php?t=7297

CJ