15/01/2012 PKR Raise Your Game Painting by numbers

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Painting b numbers
Broadway cards like K-Q and Q-J can be your best friend or your worst enemy
in a Sit & Go, so you must know how to handle them
By Rick Dacey on Friday 18 Feb 2011 16:00
15Recommend
Non-Ace Broadwa hands are often plaable in a Sit & Go, but can
cause ou headaches if ou get too attached to them
Paint cards. They can look so attractive, so pretty to behold. Those Jacks,
Queens and Kings have swords, sceptres and swirling details, so how could
they possibly not play well? Well, they could be dominated, but were getting
ahead of ourselves here. Theres plenty of advice out there about playing big
Aces, suited Aces and small Aces, a lot of which is quite straightforward. The
Broadway cards that dont have a bullet backing them up, however, can be a
little more problematic.
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How strong is paint?
Before we go into details you need to ask yourself whether youre looking at
these non-Ace Broadway hands correctly or not. As you progress through a
Sit & Go you need to appraise these K-T, Q-J type hands in different ways
according to the usual SNG factors: the proximity of the bubble, the structure
and the relative stack sizes.
1) Suited Broadway hands (K-Ts+, Q-Ts+, J-Ts)
Suited Broadway holdings function well in multi-way pots as well as heads-up,
even without an Ace. They are great for flopping big draws as well as
frequently granting you top pair (or both!). The use of fold equity is massively
important in Sit & Gos, and shoving all-in with draws that have good equity
even if called will give your tournament chances a huge boost.
2) Unsuited Broadway hands (K-To+, Q-To+, J-To)
Unsuited Broadway hands simply arent as playable in the earlier levels of a Sit
& Go, when being able to pick up big flush draws as well as straight draws and
top pairs is vital. However, as you progress through the levels, preflop
showdown and shoving strength comes more to the fore, so these hands
become far more valuable to your survival.
A quick overview of the non-Ace Broadway hands shows that K-Qs is the
strongest and is in the top 5% of hands (alongside pocket Nines and A-Js).
Like pocket Nines and A-Js you probably dont want to find yourself getting it
all-in with K-Qs for 100 big blinds preflop in the first level. At the other end of
the scale J-To is the worst Broadway hand, but even that is in the top 21% of
hands you can be dealt. Thats not too bad now, is it, especially if the action is
short-handed.
Making paint pa
So how do you go about making these hands chip you up, rather than you trip
you up? As already mentioned, the suited Broadway hands can play really very
well in the earlier levels where the dynamics are more akin to a cash game. At
this stage you can enter the pot more cheaply and take a large chunk out of
players with overpairs, A-K and weaker drawing hands. Dont get married to
these hands and over-commit yourself preflop youre looking to flop big and
play your hand fast (in most cases) or get the hell out of dodge.
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Shae
As the blinds go up and there are fewer players left at the table, these
Broadway hands become a vital part of your shoving range. Its usually
recommended that you can open-shove for up to 15 big blinds from late
position with all these hole cards and around 10BB from middle position.
When stacks are really short (were talking 5BB) then theres little more you
can hope for get them in. Of course, whether you should be shoving or not is
dictated by stacks, player styles and the proximity of the bubble.
The top end of the non-Ace Broadways can also be used for three-bet
jamming in spots where you suspect you have a lot of fold equity and some
level of showdown value to back you up should you actually get called (much
like shoving draws on the flop). Look our for late-position raises from similar-
sized stacks near the bubble, as youll generally have loads of fold equity in
these spots. A large proportion of such raises will be steals that are unable to
call a shove, and of the hands that will call there will be quite a few that youll
be very healthy against. For example, if your opponent will call all-in with A-Q+
and 9-9+ youd still have 33.4% equity if youd shoved with K-Ts. Against that
calling range youd win one in three times. Not great if youre called, but every
time they pass weaker Aces, small pairs and random junk youre adding
around four or five big blinds to your stack. That can certainly make a major
difference in a Sit & Go.
15Recommend
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Shae
Relaed link
1. The basics of reading a poker hand
2. Aces rock
3. A simple blueprint for MTT success
4. The new Sit & Go landscape
5. Folding our wa to (some of) the mone
6. The big paoff
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2. Eighteen plus
3. Gamecare certification
4. Gambling Therap
5. ICRA
6. Gaming Associates
7. Gambleaware
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