Sit 'n Go / STT strategy

[Dodgey]

Firstly I'm no expert, but I am a profitable SNG player, and recently my game has taken a big improvement after changing a few things, so I thought I'd post my thoughts - feedback and criticism is more than welcome. I have a lot to learn still :-)

I'll start out by saying why SnGs are my thing - it's simple - you know how much you have committed to a game, and I love the strategy. Those two things make me relaxed and let me play how I like, not in fear of losing my money.

I'll also add that my strategy is for getting 1st or 2nd, not 3rd. Limping into 3rd is hard work, unreliable , and not usually worth the time and effort. You end up paying a lot of rake for not a lot of money and it takes an age to accumulate winnings. This is what I had been doing until recently - the odd 1st and 2nd, with a lot of 3rds and a few non-placed - which were all 4ths. It gave me a huge variance and was not fun. Now I play to win.

p.s. I play 10 seat SnGs with top 3 places paid, 1500 starting chips.

- Start carefully, but capitalise on low blinds - you get to play some good speculative cards like low suited connectors and can suprise people with an unexpected monster. Don't be afraid to lose a couple of hundred speculating with lots of low blinds.

- Don't be afraid to call raises with speculative hands (like 67suited) as long as it's only a small percentage of your stack. This is where I'm winning big pots.

- Watch the others like a hawk and make notes. The great thing about SnGs is they are stuck with you for the duration of the game, and it's very likely you'll play the same people over and over again. It makes a world of difference knowing who's an avid blind stealer, who goies all-in with Ace-anything, etc. etc

- Raise big with premiums - this is your big shot at taking the lead and should not be missed. Slow playing these is usually disasterous and small raises get called by all the people following my above tip about calling small raises with speculative hands! :-)

- Captitalise on the fact that most people don't want to put all their chips on the line on one hand early in the game - this is where your big raises come into play.

- Don't get clever with blind stealing until they are in the 150's at the very earliest. It's just not worth it and it's far too risky.

- If you find yourself with 3000 chips or more, do NOT sit on them hoping to ride it out until the final 3 people. You just won't be in the running by the time it gets that far. YOu NEED to make those chips work for you to hope to win. I will happily risk 1000 of them when I have around 3k calling a "forced" all in from someone panicking with something marginal like A9. Very frequently people push all in with Ace anything once they drop to the 900's. They've only lost 1/3rd of their stack, but faced with others at the table with 3, 4 or 5k, they feel they've lost already and go all in with Ace anything, or even worse, hands like KQ off. Even if they don't do a panic all-in, they'll often feel pot committed after calling a raise or two and then go all-in. I've lost count of the times I've called with A9 and been up against A8, A7, A5, or even A3.

It may be a risk calling this with a 1000 of your chips, but if you are playig good going down to 2000 chips should not be a big deal. You only need one big hand to be back to 3 or 4k.

I know it sounds reckless, but I've played 100's of games and slowed down once I've doubled up or got to about 3500, and every time, unless you keep getting monsters, without exception, you'll find that after only a short while, your 3.5k has blinded down to 2.8k and people opposite you have 5k, and now YOU start feeling left behind.

I'm not saying go mad, what I'm saying is watch the players, and when you feel fairly sure someone is panicking, or pulling off a mega bluff, wave good bye to the 1000 chips and call. You'll probably win if you are right, and if you are wrong, learn from it (how they play) , and carry on, building your stack. better educated to how they play for the next fight.

- That brings me onto chip loss - do NOT give up if you lose most of your chips. You've never lost until you are out. It sounds obvious but, mainly at levels of $11 and down, I constantly see people who "give up" after a big loss. You know the ones, they get a bad beat, or a suck out, and then just go on an all-in frenzy until someone with pockets calls them down and they show Q 10 off. Usually worse. Only 2 days ago I had 4.2k chips, made a good call, got sucked out, and was down to 320 chips. The very next hand I got QQ, immediately pushed all in to feign tilt, got 2 callers, and trebled up. I went on to get 1st. I've done it from 27 chips once. Obviously I got very lucky.

- Peoples' chips stacks are nearly as important as position. You MUST observe what players have before you get into some fights. Again it seems obvious, but it's easy to get carried away in the moment. YOu don't want to be running into big stacks unless you are very strong. You DO want to be running into big stacks if you are very strong, and you want to be piling on pressure on the small stacks, though at the same time, if you are trying to steal off small stacks, bear in mind they are certainly going to push all in with Ace anything.

Sometimes it's best to keep well out of the way depending on people's stacks. You may have a nice hand like KQ suited, call, and get 2 callers 1 raiser, and then 1 reraiser, then a caller. Now if the reraiser or raise-caller has a big stack, run away. Sit back and let them take each other out. Go any further and you are almost certainly going to be put in the all-in position.

That's the key with SnGs - the strategy of picking the right fights and getting out of the way to let others take each other out. You want people to lose but it's not hugely important that it's YOU doing the winning. Which brings me onto...

- Don't get distracted or bothered by one or two players with huge stacks. Let them accumulate, as long as it's not you losing to them, and the blinds are not huge - who cares? their huge stack will often get redistributed before it gets to the last 4 or so players so don't get drawn in, and don't feel like you are "Losing". If you have 2k and one guy had 7k, and one has 3k, well, the rest will have less than you, so you can pick your spots. At the end of the day, when you end up in 3rd with your 3k - dwarfed by, say, 8k and 4k, you are in a great spot all things considered. You have made the bubble, and you have enough chips for plenty of blinds so you can play your normal game.

I'm often glad to see the huge stack guy win hand after hand that I've had to fold from. At least he's gaining, which means the rest of the table is weakening, making them better targets for me! Far rather than than a drawn out game where all stacks keep ebbing around an euqual level. All that happens then is that the blinds overtake and it becomes a crap shoot.

- As the table shrinks - remember you are not playing a 10 seat game any more. You's lead out with a raise with A9 six handed wouldn't you? so do it when 4 players have gone. It's a short handed game now. Easy to forget.

- As the blinds increase, like 150 to 200 and upwards, you NEED to do some stealing. Particularly when you are down to 4 players. You cannot hope to win by only playing good cards. Period. You just can't rely on luck, it doesn't come enough! Blinds of 200 or more are going to make you very weak very quickly without cards so you have to play the players. Watch what they do - judge what amount is needed to push each player off his blind, then raise by that amount or a fraction more. Too much and it'll stink. If they call and then play hard, it may be time to run, though frequently, on a boring flop, another large bet will get rid of people who've called with unmade hands like AK, AJ AQ etc. Remember, a LOT of people are happy to "get away" with 3rd, so putting them on the line close to the bubble will often make them fold. Just remember that folding and losing 1/3rd of your stack is better than battling on when you have clearly run into a monster.

I'm finding the trick with blind stealing is to do it here and there. Of course on a soft table you can keep going, but normally, someone will "rebel" after a few consecutive steals. Make no mistake though, you NEED ot blind steal unles syou are getting monsters all the time. You just can't win without it.

Certainly blind stealing is the trickiest thing I think I have to face in SnGs but I'm getting better at it, and when I get the swing of it in a game, I sit and laugh out loud with what I get away with, hand after hand. If you get caught, so what? you'll lose only a fraction of what you've stolen so far.

- Don't "take it personal" - frequently you'll find one guy that ALWAYS raises if you call and there are just two of you, or he always goes all-in if you try to steal his BB. Don't react! - you can be sure the one time you go for it with a medium hand, he'll magically have KK. Have a play, try something different with him, and if you can't fathom him, or he is getting on your nerves, avoid him! Fold! let someone else deal with him. No pride in this game If you are being outplayed, which WILL happen unless you are a poker god, learn from it and either adapt, or if you can't , then leave someone else to to it.

- Be wary of using all-in to intimidate people off hands. IF you run into AA or KK you are probably out fo the game. Even more problematic is unprovoked all-ins are often seen as the weark panick move that they often are, and if there is a big stack on your table, he'll likely call. Raising 2000 of your 2500 chips looks far more "serious" in my opinion.

If you don't go all-in you can't go all-out - as someone famous said. Though I can't remember a SnG I've won without going all-in a fair few times. Particularly on the bubble.

- Even with say 4.5k of chips, don't think you can sail into the money. The blinds will eat you alive and it doesn't take long with blinds of 300 for example, to find yourself going from 1st or 2nd to last. You MUST play with the chips and be prepared to drop a place or two. That's how you win, you need to play hands and hit the one that takes you to 6k or more. Seriously, there is no point playing for 3rd, which is in effect what you are doing if you slow down when you can see you will place in the money if you tighten up.

- Big stack - start really playing those suited connectors, low ones especially, and any pair. You can afford to and they pay huge when you get the suprise wins. Don't be afraid to drop from 1st to 3rd, it'll pay off eventually. It's great fun having some chips to play lower cards. It's amazing how often you'll hit medium hands and the other with A10 and AK etc miss completely.

- Final 3 - so you make the bubble - now bear in mind, probably one of the players is releived to have made the cash, and will now loosen up. Watch for this, it can be an easy way to take the lead. Don't make the same mistake yourself. Focus and tell yourself nothing but 1st will do. You may laugh, but I mentally pretend it's the final table of the WSOP main event - you wouldn't want 2nd or 3rd would you? You want the bracelet! - that kind of thinking helps me play a proper game instead of relaxing too much after the bubble.

- Heads up - well I won't tell you how to play heads up - just bear in mind again that a lot of people are happy for it to be a coin toss and get it over with. For me I play ultra aggressive, and if I have them covered x2, I'll call with Ace anything once, to see if I get lucky (providing I was the initial aggressor), after that, if I lose, it's back to grinding, and raising everything, with the occasional SB fold to feign tightness.

- Last thing, don't play above your means. If a $33 SnG is 20% of your bankroll, you won't play by your convictions, you'll be scared of losing and you'll revert to the "3rd will do" attitude. Just the same, playing too cheap is also bad - you'll find you play too casually, and dont' take it seriously enough.

I'm sure I've missed some things as I've been out between starting typing this and finishing, but overall, I think that's most of it. The real keys are:

Strategy: remember it's about you winning chips AND others losing chips, no matter to whom they lose. It;s a game of attrition - getting rid of people is key, wherever the chips go.

Stacks - watch them like a hawk and play accordingly. Don't be David against Goliath, pick on the fat kid.

PLayers - Make notes - they are stuck with you for the next hour

Don't be afraid to gamble - losing a big hand is not the end of the world, and unles syou take some chances you are going to find yourself in 4th position scabbling for chips as the blinds overtake you.

[SitNGoTraining.com]

This is a great post. I especially love your comments about taking notes on the other players. Having a solid default strategy is important. But knowing how and when to modify the strategy based on the playing characteristics of your opponents (captured through observation in your player notes) is critical.

[Dodgey]

Thanks SnGT - one of the reasons I love Carbon poker - you get to see regular familiar faces at the tables, particularly at $22 games. It makes a world of difference having people's playing styles tagged.

I played FT for a while, but as I practically never saw the same face twice I found it a bit tough going. SOmetimes you'd get a "regular" game, other times it would be a donk fest. Too much of a lottery for me. I guess as I improve I'll learn to take advantage of those situations more easily.

As it stands now, I find the best games for me are on Carbon (tried PKR, Cake (love Cake), FT, Titan, Stars, PP, plus a few others)

[Calmplay]

Nice article mate, does it really come from you because I'm looking for a site where we do have great articles like that. Thanks.

[Dodgey]

Thanks - yep - mine, all mine :-) - I'm certainly not an expert, like I said, but I do tend to say it as I see it. That can mean I'm wrong at times, but it also means I don't say things to "sound right" or look clever. Just want to share things as I learn them, and get corrected when I'm off the mark ;-)

[Dodgey]

I'd add - be prepared for variance. My God I've been the victim of bad luck this week lol. I've lost about 7 SnGs in a row. Each time on a bad beat/suckout. It happens. Grrrr lol