13 replies to this topic

[ForumMod]

Allright everyone, I swore or SnGo's quite a while ago... but lately I've been crushing them.I'd like everyone to share there personal strategies and success that they have with them I've experimented with Every possible strategy (even nutbar!) and I think what I'm doing now seems to be the NUTS for strategy, so don't worry I'll share my input as well, I'd just like to get this going and get others advice, see if I can incorporate it.

[jogsxyz]

Poker is a high variance game. You need 25 SnGs to qualify as a small sample. Therefore it's really hard to draw conclusions until your sample size is well over 100.

[ForumMod]

I've played... 80 SnGo's on UB which is where this is taking place, and about 10 more over on PStars, so its a large sample... Just wanting some opinions here before I tell whats been working for me.

[brando]

Generally in the first 2 maybe 3 rounds of blinds I do alot of limping. When the blinds start getting pumped a bit I usually play real strong pre-flop. Hopefully by now I have a nice stack and with about 5 or so left I put pressure on smaller stacks with my big hands preflop (depending on the size of their stack most of my raises let them know their putting all their chips in). Thats what I try to do. Does it always work - no, but it has been successful.

[Jordan]

ForumMod said:

I've played... 80 SnGo's on UB which is where this is taking place, and about 10 more over on PStars, so its a large sample... Just wanting some opinions here before I tell whats been working for me.

What's your name on UB. Mine is Jord4n - not there much now cuz of connection issues...but add me to your ultimate buddy list if you want and msg me sometime.- Jordan

[Wilderness]

My general strategy is to play very tight and become increasingly aggressive as the blinds increase and players drop off. I play low limits sit-n-go's so a lot of the players are very bad and I've found its easy enough to double up or accumulate chips early on by just waiting until I've got the nuts or a great hand.Once I get to the middle stages I like to be aggressive but I do always keep track of my relative stack size and avoid big battles with other large stacks unless I've really got a great hand. I tend to play to get into the money once I've gotten to the middle stages and then once it hits 3 I become very aggressive and try to take control at that point.

[gobears]

I've been playing the $15 and $25 SnG's on pokerstars - probably about 30 of them now.Typically, there are two or three players who don't go in on almost anything as they are just waiting for some of the other players to drop out. I forgot where I read it, but one strategy was to not play any hands in the first round; seems to be popular on pokerstars.Since it is almost 6-handed or less depending on the # of the extremely tight players, I try to limp in as much as possible with anything passable in the early rounds.In the first few rounds with the blinds low, I try to see as many cheap flops as I can while trying to get a read on the table. On the cheap flops, I especially like the middle to low connectors as if you happen to flop something, it's a good opportunity to trap another player.Once the blinds start to increase; hopefully by then, I have one of the higher stacks and then I can start to bully the blinds. Once it gets to the bubble, there are lots of chances to bully as everyone gets really conservative.If I'm on the bubble, then I tend to just try to stay alive and hope that one of the higher chip guys busts out; however it can be tough if they are all just waiting to blind me off.Haven't found the "secret sauce" or the "nut strategy" so I'm eagerly awaiting your comments!

[JaysonWeber]

Okay.. I was having problems with these, back when I played them I struggled, and I lost, so I did the best thing I could... didn't play them. I remembered reading TJ Cloutier's Little theory of tournament poker.. so I went back and skimmed over it. Protecting your stack... folding a LOT.His reasoning is, your saving up for the all-in and if you waste... 5-6 bets on say even 10/20 blinds with K-10 or something.. thats 120 chips out of your original stack, so I started doing this.. Playing ultra-tight early on... playing the nuts rather aggresively, not letting people see 4th street if say.. 2 clubs were up there and I had TPTK.It works.... at Low Limit SnGo's this works...Played 10 5+50Placed First in 3, Second in 2, Third in 3 and out of the money in 2 of them.I will have you know... I had a 9700 to 300 chiplead in one of them that I took second in. Talk about 6 lucky hands in a row! It was rather funny to watch.. but I was at the tale end of that. And another one, the guy had A3 to my AQ or something of that sort... K5 to KJ... heads up and won 3 of those... eventually beating me, so I think that this strategy is my most solid to date... 10+1's are about the same as the 5+.50's in my opinion, in the 20+2's I'll be a bit more aggresive, but for now, I'm going to play atleast 40 more at the 5+.50 and 10+1 to see how well this works.As of now... have payed 60 dollars and won 125... thats a little over double of my buy-in, so doubling up daily is no problem for me.I feel I'll tweak this a bit.. perfect it more etc.. Right now im trying to figure out, on average how many times I get a medium to small Pocket Pair, because I figure, If I can hit it 1-15 times, even though the odds are 1-10 it will pay off immensly, just a ROUGH estimate... its probobly more like 1-20 or somewhere inbetween, but im staying on the conservative side, and I just folded 44 UTG actually.. but that may change on the numbers I get from this

[jogsxyz]

I've been playing the $15 and $25 SnG's on pokerstars - probably about 30 of them now. I wouldn't play turbo SnGs. There're just luck games. No one has much advantage over anyone else.

JaysonWeber said:

Okay.. I was having problems with these, back when I played them I struggled, and I lost, so I did the best thing I could... didn't play them. I remembered reading TJ Cloutier's Little theory of tournament poker.. so I went back and skimmed over it. Protecting your stack... folding a LOT.His reasoning is, your saving up for the all-in and if you waste... 5-6 bets on say even 10/20 blinds with K-10 or something.. thats 120 chips out of your original stack, so I started doing this.. Playing ultra-tight early on... playing the nuts rather aggresively, not letting people see 4th street if say.. 2 clubs were up there and I had TPTK.It works.... at Low Limit SnGo's this works...Played 10 5+50Placed First in 3, Second in 2, Third in 3 and out of the money in 2 of them.

Discount results in the 5+.50 game.

Quote

... 10+1's are about the same as the 5+.50's in my opinion, in the 20+2's I'll be a bit more aggresive, but for now, I'm going to play atleast 40 more at the 5+.50 and 10+1 to see how well this works.

My experience has been different from yours. The 10+1 games are much tougher than the 5+.50 games. Seems like some losing players who love the hold'em only play the lower limit game. The 5 game is somewhere between the 10 game and the play money game in difficulty.On the 9-player game(10+1), the standard deviation is 15.6. After 100 SnGs, if you are over $500 ahead, this would be an extremely good results. If you are over $1000, you should be writing a book on strategy. It would be nearly 7 s.d. better than norm.

[pkarcher]

JaysonWeber said:

Right now im trying to figure out, on average how many times I get a medium to small Pocket Pair, because I figure, If I can hit it 1-15 times, even though the odds are 1-10 it will pay off immensly, just a ROUGH estimate... its probobly more like 1-20 or somewhere inbetween, but im staying on the conservative side, and I just folded 44 UTG actually.. but that may change on the numbers I get from this

My calculation says you'll be dealt pocket pairs 8's thru 2's 3.16% of the time which is about 1 in 32 hands. Maybe someone with pokertracker can review their hands and confirm this. Then after you've been dealt your small to medium pocket pair you're only 12% to flop a set. So if I'm calculating right, you'll only be dealt a pocket pair 8 - 2 and then flop a set 1 in 266 hands. At the pace most SnG's go that means you can't count on it happening every game.

[gobears]

I only play the turbo sng's on pokerstars - has anyone seen any studies on how much more luck is involved in turbo's than regular tournaments?I play them because players are looser which helps me out and due to time constraints since I have to wait til the kids go to sleep and then I do have to wake up in the morning to go to work.I played a turbo 25 yesterday and on the second hand in the small blind, I was dealt 7 5 offsuit. Middle player called, I called the big blind and the big blind checked. Flop was 3 4 6 - the dream flop although with 2 diamonds. Middle guy bet 1.5x the pot so I just called while BB folded. Turn was a blank and he then bet 3x the pot; I re-raised all-in and he called. Ended up that all he had was a K4 with no flush draw. So I doubled up on the second hand.Later on in the tournament, there were five players, three of us all around the same # of chips in front. I'm in SB and was dealt 97 suited. Early guy called, I call and the BB raises 2x. First guy calls and so do I. Flop is Q 9 7 rainbow. BB bets about 1/2 the pot; I re-raised all-in and he called. He had AQ and didn't get any help.Ended up winning the thing afterwards.Since I play turbo's - seeing more flops with junkier hands seems to work.

[Suited_Up]

Wilderness said:

My general strategy is to play very tight and become increasingly aggressive as the blinds increase and players drop off.  I play low limits sit-n-go's so a lot of the players are very bad and I've found its easy enough to double up or accumulate chips early on by just waiting until I've got the nuts or a great hand.Once I get to the middle stages I like to be aggressive but I do always keep track of my relative stack size and avoid big battles with other large stacks unless I've really got a great hand.  I tend to play to get into the money once I've gotten to the middle stages and then once it hits 3 I become very aggressive and try to take control at that point.

This is pretty much exactly what I do also. So hopefully this seems to be the right way to go. If I can get in the money, I always have a chance to win it... even with a smaller stack... and If I end up with the big stack, I don't lose it very often.

[JaysonWeber]

Well so far the strategy is bringing me utter successWith 25 logged... I went through a horrible streak, sometimes you cant buy cards, and I was sucked out a lot, blah blah it happens...And it did happen, 5 sngo's in a row, but I was fine with it, I played correctly, and you can't win em all, thats a fact.Well before losing those I was up roughly 90...After that streak I got knocked down to roughly 65 (roughly, not counting the rakes here) and took second in one, then ran into more trouble... didnt place in 2... so out of my last 8 I've only PLACED in one... which is way below normal...So I figured I'll log 100 of these before I worry about that streak.. im currently sitting first in one, and I'm playing well, lets just hope that my luck can atleast even out... thats all i'll ask. Right now im sitting +70 on the night even with those 7 did not finishes.. so I know that this works.. I'll keep this updated, although I will be away for a bit within the next week, I hope to get on as much as I can, but we'll see what happens.

[shamhawks]

Suited_Up said:

Wilderness said:

My general strategy is to play very tight and become increasingly aggressive as the blinds increase and players drop off. I play low limits sit-n-go's so a lot of the players are very bad and I've found its easy enough to double up or accumulate chips early on by just waiting until I've got the nuts or a great hand.Once I get to the middle stages I like to be aggressive but I do always keep track of my relative stack size and avoid big battles with other large stacks unless I've really got a great hand. I tend to play to get into the money once I've gotten to the middle stages and then once it hits 3 I become very aggressive and try to take control at that point.

This is pretty much exactly what I do also. So hopefully this seems to be the right way to go. If I can get in the money, I always have a chance to win it... even with a smaller stack... and If I end up with the big stack, I don't lose it very often.

being extremely patient works well for me in these. I have on occassion got into the money without seeing 1 flop...crazy stuff... without the numbers to back it up. i would say that i cash in about 80-85% of sng's with about 40% win rate...the main thing for me is to win the first pot i get into...letting other players make mistakes...I feel I'm very good short handed, and don't mind being short stacked...on the same note, this approach of being very tight and patient does not work very well for me in multi tourney's with 400+ players...although i do make money most of the time in these as well, i never position myself very well to make a run at the final table for the big money...i find myself playing survival poker in later rounds, instead of being aggressive.