I played a couple more $20 sit 'n go's tonight. Was knocked out of both before the money. On the first, I was short stacked with 5 players left. I made a +EV push from the small blind and the big blind called me with AA. Easy push, easy call. His aces held up. On the second, again 5 handed, and again short stacked, I pushed with JJ from the CO (didn't need ICM for that one!). Was called by the big blind with AQ. He caught an ace to knock me out.
My short-stack game has really developed over the last month. Quite frankly, I have spent almost all my free time studying short-stack play and believe I have close to mastered it (regardless of the results!). I evaluate my push/fold decisions after each game using SitNGo Wizard. I am at a point now where I am making almost 100% of my push/fold decisions correctly. By "almost" 100%, there are a few times when SNG Wizard says to push that I elect not to. For example, if I am on the BB and the small blind or button limps, SNG Wiz will recommend a push with almost any two cards. I started to do that when I first learned about this error but found I was getting trapped by the button. So I dialed back this move. But the rest are fair game. And I am hitting them near 100% correctly. So I believe my short game has gone from average to excellent in about a month's time (and I will document my strategy as part of the advanced lessons), even if the results do not show it (continuous bad beats).
I am always looking for the next part of my game that needs improvement. It occurred to me tonight that even through I have become an excellent short stack player, it would be much better if I didn't have to put those skills to the test to begin with. So, how do I avoid getting short stacked before getting into the money? Well, that is all about the middle game.
The middle game is where you build your chips so that you have enough to do battle when you get to the bubble. But to be quite frank, I suck at the middle game. That is probably why I end up on the short stack 80% of the time when 4 or 5 handed. So, my new focus will be on studying middle game play. I need to understand the key changes I need to make when entering the middle game with the end goal of accumulating chips so that I remain in the yellow or green MZones. In those zones I can continue to play poker, or I can use my chips to push around the short stacks. So that will be my focus until I master the middle game.
If you have any tips, please let me know!
