Rodders my old bean, how the devil are ya?
Decided to play some 180 man $2.50"s on stars tonight (played 2, one 4th place for $32 so far, 24th in the other one)
Any advice? What is expected cashing rates n ROI n stuff?
Well they are a long term proposition but you should be able to crush these. Sharkscope says me ROI is 19% (Pokerstars name is 33teetwo33). I have tracked these from the start of the year and Poker Tracker tells me I am only 5% ROI on $4.50 180 manners this year but I have run/played badly in them lately.
Games: 73
ITM: 5
ROI: 5%
Total Buyin: $328.50
Total winnings: $346.17
I normally play the non turbos. The traffic is not as good but I only play about 4 tables of them so it is not too much of an issue. If you have a good post flop game (which I would say you do) then it is worth seeing a few more flops and playing a bit more aggressive as you will easily see the spots where you can pick up the pots and gain some chips early on most of the time. Don"t try anything to elaborate though most people play their hands face up. I would not usually bluff too much but (for example) if somebody checks to you three times then you can bet the river and be confident of picking up the pot. This is just an example of where you can pick up a pot I know I don"t need to teach you to suck eggs and you already know how to spot this kind of thing. If you prefer you can just play very tight early on, this strategy works as well but I would favour the other way which I reckon would be more your style anyway.
You can do this and be pretty successful until the antes come in. Then you have to be nicking pots. Most people fold quite easily and you can make little raises and pick up pots really cheaply often showing a profit by picking up only half the pots you try too, realistically you should do a lot better than that as people generally play too tight at this stage (ie they have the classic back to front strategy). Min raises will often be enough, so you are basically risking 500 chips (at 125/250) to win more than 500 chips (625 at a full table with the antes and blinds) in a situation where the bet works more than half the time so it is really +cEV. You can have a loose range in LP as you will win the pot uncontested so often.
As times goes on and stacks get shallower look for people who are doing the same as you (my HUD does this for me) and you can exploit the fact they are trying to pick up pots by 3-bet shoving light and find really profitable spots. Obviously it is best to do this from the blinds and if you have a chance to increase your stack by about 20% then it"s worth having a look to see if it is profitable to 3-bet shove by checking your opponents PFR percentage, ideally in line with recent levels of play as often players are raising more pots late on than early (as you should be).
As you get to the money and the final table you start to get deeper stacked again sometimes and this means you can often find really good spots to 3-bet light and pick up more chips. People fold to 3-bets too easily and you don"t even have to 3-bet that big. Even if you get called a c-bet will often win the pot and you can really chip up this way.
You are still always going to need to win a couple of big flips to win one of them but this is a basic outline of the best way to play them in my mind. Make sure you are happy with shoving and calling ranges in the various spots you will get and you can expect to do very well.
If you want to make some notes look for the normal stuff, bet sizing tells and how players react to certain boards, how they play their draws etc. Will increase you edge a bit.
I would add I am no expert in these things and there are far better players than me about. Still fairly confident in the above though.
