Sit n Go Strategy and other useful tips

I have been spending a lot of time working on my aggression and accumulating chips. Recently, I had a mentoring session with gbmantis, one of the more aggressive tournament players online and that was extremely helpful. If you are serious about tournaments, you should check out one of the sites offering poker mentoring or coaching. I used www.pokermentors.com but there are several online -- a google search will help you find them.

The benefit of this approach is that your mentor actually "ghosts" your tournament play and helps you with strategy along the way. So in other words, you play a tournament while on the phone with your mentor, they watch the tournament table and you tell them your cards and you discuss strategy together. This is much more helpful than book advice because it is real time and highly practical.

Alright enough with the commercial. On to my SNG strategy.

I recently have been playing quite a few single table SNGs to practice my aggression. They are a great vehicle for practice because an MTT takes up to an hour before the blinds are at a level where aggression makes sense (usually $100 big blinds).

In total during the last week, I have played in 20 single table SNGs ranging in buyin from $10 to $50, mostly at the $33 level. Of those, I placed in the money in 8 of them, or 40%. More importantly, of those 8 times I placed 1st 5 times, 2nd twice and 3rd only once. That is the significant result of aggression. My "in the money" rate was about the same as it used to be, but my finishes were much higher and therefore my total win was much better.

So first a little background on SNGs and your competition. Most people that play SNGs do so because they are learning the game and want to cap the amount they can lose per hour, or they do not have a big enough bankroll to sit down at cash games. Given a big enough bankroll, a cash game makes more sense because the "luck factor" is reduced in a cash game. In a SNG you cannot wait for the nuts, your time is limited and you will have to rely on luck to a certain degree.

As a result of this mentality, most people play very tight trying to get into the money. You need to use that to your advantage. However, you have to wait until the blinds are big enough to be meaningful before making your moves.

During the first 3-4 levels, I play a fairly tight strategy and only play good cards in early position and some speculative hands in late position where I can see a cheap flop (suited connectors, small pairs). Since everyone starts with 1500 chips at most sites, I am trying to conserve my chips or double up during the first four levels. Usually an opportunity presents itself and I try to get all in to either double up or get knocked out. If you are unable to double up before the $100 big blind level, then you are going to have to start looking for decent hands to move in with to both take the blinds or hoped to get called by a weaker hand (big stack). For these purposes I would move in with hand as weak as ATo and KQo and any size pair, believe it or not you often will have the strongest hand.

Once the big blind reaches $100, you want to switch gears to "sheer aggression". Many players believe that once they double up they should play tightly until the money and then try to make a move. The problem with that theory is that several other players at the table are playing the same strategy and with the blinds increasing very rapidly, you will likely not make it to the money without maintaining or growing your stack. Often I will see three or four players that have doubled each sitting back waiting for big cards, one will catch them and that person will make it to the money. That leaves far too much of your destiny in the hands of luck!

However, since several players are sitting back --- you can be the aggressor and begin stealing blinds and taking pots on the flop. Once the blinds hit the $100 level, you are usually down to between 6-8 players. I will start raising aggressively preflop. I try to raise it at least 2-3x per round, and I am usually raising between 3x and 4x the big blind. Most of those hands are folded to me preflop because of the predominant tight SNG strategy. This makes this strategy very profitable.

If I am reraised preflop, I usually will throw away my hand unless it is big or has some good speculative potential (such as middle pairs). I would through most small pairs and suited connectors to a reraise because they are too speculative given my opponents strength. Your opponent is representing AK or better here, so you need to be careful. The exception to this rule is when your opponent is another aggressive player that may be making this play with any two cards. Then you might think about calling only if you are willing to make an allin play for the pot on the flop or fourth street -- and your opponent is a good enough player to fold a lesser hand to such a bet.

When a player calls me preflop, I then judge the complexion of the pot before making a continuation bet. Generally, if an A hits I will lead out with a 60-70% of the pot bet because my preflop raise represented an A. I may not have an A, but I am definitely going to represent one. If I am called, I will then slow down dramatically and probably check/fold from there -- unless of course I have an A.

If the flop, is small I also will often lead out that I was raising with a pair. If the flop comes with other big cards, I usually just check because the flop may have hit my opponent.

It is in these situations where you really earn your keep. You have to be willing to get away from hands, even if you have a significant number of chips in the pot. Reraises usually mean strength and most times you will need to throw away your hand to reraises.

You will be surprised how many times you steal the blinds and take hands on the flop. Your stack will continue to grow while others will dwindle. As your stack gets bigger you will start to call some of the desperate all in moves by small stacks. I usually want good cards to make these calls, but they can be less than great cards since the short stacks are in desperation mode. They will be making these moves with hands like A5, KT, 33, etc. So you can afford to call with lessor hands. In fact, if the small stack is less than 15% of my stack size I will call with virtually any two cards -- as long as I am heads up.

Taking out the small stacks helps to continue building your stack. By the time you get to the money, you are usually a big chip leader and you continue to punish the small stacks so that you can have a big chip lead going into heads up play. Having a bigger stack will increase your chances of winning and keep you focused on the #1 and #2 spots, where all the money is concentrated.

Good luck and I hope this stategy works for you.