I was in a 9 person SnG and when there were only 2 of us left, I kept going all in and got called out on it.
Here’s how I look at it … I don’t really care who WINS, I just want to place in a winning position. I’ve been in games where there are only 2 of us and sometimes it takes for freaking ever. I never go all in before the last 2 people are there unless I have a hand, I won’t even call an all in unless I have a hand.
What did I do wrong?
Hi LinIsLost
I don’t see anything wrong with the way it played out. Many poker professionals are lauded for their aggressive nature and Heads up play in SnG is one of the most appropriate places.
You found yourself heads up with a third of the chips and the tournament lasted another three hands. Absolutely normal.
Ok, so you had 30 Big blinds and could have taken a different approach, but if your opponent believes your strategy of all-ins was suboptimal, they should adjust and exploit
Rob
Going all in every hand is fine heads up at the end of a tournament. It is exploitable by your opponent, but you have a reasonable chance to win when they call, and being aggressive can cause your opponent to make mistakes. From a strategy standpoint, I wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s certainly not unethical and far from the worst strategy seen on Replay. Selectively going all-in with a large percentage of hands is actually extremely effective in these situations.
i like to add to all this that winning is probably more important then you think, besides the obvious reason that it’s most fun to win, tournament structures are usually meant to put a very large part of the prize money in the first place. which means there is a serious difference between teh first and second spot. and since poker is a game with variance, there is no question you will lose often as well, so to cover these losses and make profit, you’ll need those wins as well. in a 9h SnG, the top 3 gets paid, and the other 6 get nothing. so statistically (not counting skill) you will lose 2/3 of the time.