bodog nonsense (long)

[Mattnxtc 0]

I had been away from poker for about a month due to financial reason. Bodog is my normal site when i have money b/c im a big sng player so now that i have some money i thought id get back into it...Over the past couple weeks ive read posts from people saying bodog has tightened up so i was kinda worred...so heres some recaps from the sng i playedblinds were 5/10..saw several 300 dollar preflop raisesblinds 30/60 raises were still up to 30+ by most players if not just pushing all in....I was following for the most part moneymakers strategy of not playing a hand that had less value then 1010 for the first 3 rounds (its a good strategy). I of course folded the q3 boat that would have tripled my stack (I also was folding all pocket pairs less than 10s to any raises of 4x or higher) and hands like that but after a few rounds i was still around 900 and ready to make my move...Now some might think that the strategy i used was to tight but with the blinds as low as they were i felt it was positive to establish a tight table image...it wasnt costing me much and it was a great setup for later. As blinds reached 30/60 i played my first hand on my own will. flopped a set and was up at 1300 on one hand played. I still stayed away from marginal hands with the pot so small still and avoided callin raises unless the same requirements above were met.As blinds reached 50/100 it was finally time to start buying blinds. In sngs there is always 2 big stacks and then the rest were marginal stacks lookin to double up. Blinds are finally big enough to justify more pushing preflop with monster hands. i tripled up when people felt the need to push with ace high against my trip kings pushin me to about 2500 with 5 left and thats all u need on bodog or on most sites. Well to end this story i won the sng pretty easily...Sklansky said it best when he said the money is in how u play the marginal hands. At the end of the tourney i won every pot i showed down. i laid down top pair several times to a large bet(maybe to tight) but i never put myself in a position where i was in trouble...my advice is to establish the tight image early on unless you are getting a sick run of cards. I spent the first 2 rounds taking notes on the other players and that really came back to help later on. Marginal hands are exactly that...marginal..i avoided going against aggressive players with them unless i felt i had enough of a read to handle it..I made sure i knew my pot odds and all before every hand and never took any major risks.On a side note i never had a pocket pair higher then 6s and had a10 or higher maybe 3 times. The cards were not with me but my tight play early let me buy pots later on without any calls..i highly recommend it

[LongOdds 0]

I follow a similar strategy, and to be honest, it doesnt work well on BoDog.If you fold a lot and only play premium hands, I usually have between 840 and 960 by the time the blinds become 30/60. That give you 10 hands to make a move and try to win a monster pot (which you did in your example). More often then not, you either wont get the cards necessary, or you wont get the action necessary to double up here. Then, its 50/100 and you are short stacked with less than 10 BB. Now, you have 10 hands to make a desperation move, and if it doesnt happen in the first couple, you start looking to steal the blinds. Countless times I have made position raises to get those blinds and have been called with marginal hands (Q10, A9, etc) granted, usually ahead of my steal attempt. So, since they are generally willing to call of chips regardless of image, the only real way to compete if you play tight early is to double up in the 20 hands between 30/60 and 50/100. You go 0 for 20, and your out 4th or 5th. Just a bad structure for the strategy, if you ask me.