Final three strategy.....

darbday · Nov 17,2009, 12:06 PM

was at a final table with three to go, big stack was say 800,000, I was 2nd with 500,000 last was 450,000. Last place hit away post blind and was letting me and 1st place battle it out. I was tooling first as he was constantly letting me steal his blind and folding his button. Can't remember the blind level but no one was in danger of blinding out for quite awhile. I inevitebly lost AT to 7T off, allin post flop top pair top kicker (lost to two pair on the river). What is some strategy about this, it seems i could have folded to 2nd place, yet i gave up 2nd and a strong chance for the third player to take 1st from head ups.

philliivey · Nov 17,2009, 01:11 PM

good time for this thread, cause from my games last night noone has a clue how to play shorthanded.

With AT just raise er up, your already in profit so don't worry about where you finish, just focus on 1st place at this point.

darbday · Nov 17,2009, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by philliivey

good time for this thread, cause from my games last night noone has a clue how to play shorthanded.

With AT just raise er up, your already in profit so don't worry about where you finish, just focus on 1st place at this point.

its not about the hand it about how i could fold to 2nd and still have chips to play, im wondering about comments on the postblind/fold strategy.

thx ivey

Little King · Nov 17,2009, 02:07 PM

If you are chip leader, be the aggressive one. Usually in final three, people who don't know better play tighter than they already were because there so close to Heads Up. Im not saying play every hand. Just play a bit more loose with hands than you normally would, because three-handed any face card and standard cards are good in the situation. (A8,A9,KT,JT, etc.) You catch the drift of it. Don't get to carried away and know when to fold but keep pressure on them.

Anyways that is my opinion.

darbday · Nov 17,2009, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Little King

If you are chip leader, be the aggressive one. Usually in final three, people who don't know better play tighter than they already were because there so close to Heads Up. Im not saying play every hand. Just play a bit more loose with hands than you normally would, because three-handed any face card and standard cards are good in the situation. (A8,A9,KT,JT, etc.) You catch the drift of it. Don't get to carried away and know when to fold but keep pressure on them.

Anyways that is my opinion.

thats fine basic stategy, but the question is about being three handed and the third guy is folding every hand hoping either of the other 2 loses their stack and gives up 2nd place.

syphilaids · Nov 26,2009, 01:20 PM

The question you have to ask yourself is are you playing for second or playing for first?
The chip leader is being Uber tight to try to get heads up. If you do the same then the other player is just going to steam roll you 2. You have half the stack the chip leader does. If you're playing for first you want to double up in order to contend against him. When you're heads up and he has double your chips its going to take a lot of work and luck to beat him out, no matter how bad he is.

When Im in your situation, 3rd of 3, Im allways playing to win. When Im behind I'll take on anyone thats willing to double me up.
You're definetely not folding your AT, you hit TPTK, and you had a guy shove against you that you had dominated. Its unfortunate that he hit his 3 outter, but if you did win, you'd be almost guaranteed 2nd, he'd have a tiny chip stack, and you'd have a great chance of winning the big prize.

The only time you should play tighter then this is if 2nd place is life changing money for you, where 3rd wasn't. Honestly, I've never seen a situation like that, so don't doubt your play.