Late Sat play. Best strategey?

CraigSG1

Hi, I would like to ask a question of the good sat players if I may?

Its getting to the end where blinds start to get big and stacks shallow, your placed in the places that would win a seat. Now what? I get stuck between not taking risks and playing too snugly. Either side of that line and I'm fine. Do you open up and try and steal a lot to greatly improve your stack but risk getting a big dent and putting you with the very short stacks or try and wait for good spots to pick off said shorties? 

Its happened twice to me this week. First time I called a shove with AQ and got beat by 77. Is that standard or was I better folding and making sure im the one in first? At that time I was 10/45 with 31 places paid. 

I got myself into a similar situation last night but any hands I would have considered playing always came when I was UTG or UTG+1 (such as A9s, small PP's). I felt I cant min raise and pushing allin felt like when I got called I would be crushed. What made it difficult was we all had similar stack sizes. 

Any help would be appreciated.

F_Ivanovic

A general strategy when blinds are high and we are close to money but not so close that we can fold our way there is to ship AI with hands that are strong but would happily take it down pre. AJ/AQ/KQs and 77-JJ. Our min-r hands are hands that are happy to induce a shove - so AKs, QQ-AA and then hands that play well post-flop if someone decides to call you but will be happy to fold to a shove (78s-QJs, KJ)

And for calling shoves if we are in a good position we should be very tight. AKs, TT+ (obv depending on positions we could tighten or loosen this range)

If someone is jamming a lot or is so short stacked that their range is super wide then AQ becomes a call but generally it's a fold based on the information you gave. 

hhyftrftdr

When you're very close to the seats, but can't fold your way to the goods, being first into the pot is way more important than your hand strength.

Ivan covers stuff nicely.