This post is going to be a response to
TiocfaidhArLa's blog comment as he got me really thinking about the proper ways to play AK preflop in these 45man SnGs. I've been doing some research and the general consensus is such that in these turbos, it's almost always +EV to get aipf with AK. There are obviously going to be times when you're going to make some tough laydowns with AK preflop. I'll give an example:
You're in LP looking down at AKo. Blinds are 15/30 and everybody at your table all have around the starting stack of 1500. A player in EP raises to t90, he gets min-raised by the guy directly to his left. The action folds around to the player to act before you, who then raises 3-4 times the min-raise. I would most likely find a fold here as you're almost always beat and there's no point getting it all in here as one or more of your opponents will show up with QQ+. I can see myself being completely dominated here and AKo just doesn't appeal to me as we don't have flush potential.
Now lets consider the same scenario but this time you have AKs. I would say this is an easy shove even considering the action. My theory on this is now your equity just went up that much more with AKs over AKo in this spot and unless you're up against AA, you're flipping. If he felts KK then its a race as you can now hit your three A outs, hit a straight, or hit a flush. Perhaps my strategy is flawed but in these MTTSnGs you want to build a stack as soon as possible and with AKs in this spot is the perfect way to build one or go busto and rob a liquor store.
You also need to consider the games you're playing. Right now I'm playing the $6 45s which are full of super donkeys. These guys are 3-betting really light and shoving even lighter in the early stages hoping to build a stack so they can sit back and wait for the bigger blind levels. I've played a couple $12 45s and the play is still the same in those as in the lower limits so the strategy doesn't change there either; I'm getting it in aipf! I'm not sure if I'm playing this aggressive in the $27s and the $60s but seeing as how I haven't played those yet I can't really say.
That's all for my brief attempt at 45 man turbo strategy for playing AK preflop. Now onto a more interesting topic...
After I wrote my last blog, I signed onto sharkscope (Thanks be to EY for getting me an account) and was looking at the Leaderboards and daydreaming of how bad ass it would be to be one of those guys. So I decided to look at all of them individually and noticed that all of the top 5 on the leaderboards are HUSNG players. I was immediatly intrigued by this and starting doing some research on teh Googlezzzz. I found some really awesome blogs of HUSNG players that I play on adding to my blogroll but more importantly I found incredible articles written by some of the top HUSNG players in the world regarding certain issues like BR management and basic strategy and such. I've always been fascinated with BR management discussions and such which is definitely a weird trate to have but fuck it, better to be safe than sorry right? I read about 5-6 full length articles regarding BR management for HUSNGs and think I have it down pretty good. I then researched ROI and expected variance in the games. Obviously if one is to become a husng grinder, he/she needs to be fully aware that their swings are going to be the sickest than from any other game... especially at the high stakes games. I really loved the articles on expected ROIs for the game and think that 1 tabling would probably be best. You can still get in 12 games an hour as the average run time for the turbos on Stars is around 7 mins.
Now the question is if I'm really going to grind these.. and to be completely honest I can't really say if I am or not. I think I may wait until I'm rolled for the $33s on Stars and 1 table them while I continue my 45 man grind. I did a test run today and loaded my usual 6 game session of 45s and 1 $10 HUSNG. I played a really aggressive game based on the strategy articles I had just read and crushed my first opponent who was actually a very profitable player. He declined the rematch so I fired up another one and was playing against some French fuck so obv I knew I was going to crush him as French players suck. He was terribly bad but apparently he's a top player in the $10 husngs according to Sharkscope. I didn't care, I raised every button and 3-bet him with decent hands and he would just fold. Once he would get down to 1k in chips he started shoving on me every time i would raise preflop on the button. At first I found it annoying but then I decided that I would keep doing it until I had a monster hand and trap his stupid ass. So I stuck to my strategy and kept raise/folding my button until I got KK in the hole and did it again. He obv snap-pushed like a donk and i called. He had AhJh but didn't get any help and I took down my second one. He accepted the rematch and pushed the very first hand. I looked down at AJo and folded. Very next hand I'm button with AhJh and obv open to t60 here, he instashoves again. It's quite clear he's tilting and my read on him is pretty solid imo so I call. He felts KK and starts blowing up the chat with shit like "haha justice! same hand, how does it feel donk?". I didn't say shit as obv I hit my A on the river and bust him again. He accepts my rematch again and we're on to game 3. He immediately starts blowing up the chat calling me a donk and saying some other stupid french stuff that I didn't really care for. Very first hand I'm in the bb with AA and he shoves and I obv snap. He shows K3o lmfao. Flop is K83, turn is K and I'm like foooking shit... atleast till I binked my river A ;) he obv declined my rematch and I tried to find him reg'd for another but it looked as if he signed off haha. It's always nice to tilt players like that. I'll definitely be looking for him when I grind these some more.
It was a decent small session of 4 husngs. It was also nice to take all 4 of them down relatively easy :D
Oh and as for the 45 man grind I put in.... yeah, I min-cashed in 1 out of the 6. fml when it comes to those, srsly.