sng basic stragie 1

I can not guarantee to answer everything. All I can do is giving advices that helped me along to improve my own game, yet I still did not read any poker book in my life and I am also not sure if I will ever read one.

Short handed SNG's. Well where to start, short handed SNG's can be either the HeadsUp (the ultimate form of a battle) or the 6 seater, that you will find on each poker room and in many variations, not only NLHE. The huge advantage of those SNG is the fact, that you only require 6 players to start and if you miss the registration for one, another one will be up for grabs within a very short period of time and they also fill up fast, The waiting time is not that long and the playing time is also much shorter than an MTT. You are still faced by the tournament strategy and put your chips to risk and no cash in every hand like on the normal cashgame tables. There is no way to rebuy or reload and you have to stay focused on that single table, you can even choose one that suits your likes best: normal blind levels, Turbo and Super Turbo.

I personally tend to hate the 6 seater Super Turbo, because you are forced to pick up a hand very quickly and manage to build up a decent chipstack, whether in the Turbo games or the normal ones, you have time to get to know your opponents on the table and also try to pick some drawing hands preflop, without committing yourself too much. The start there is almost like in an MTT and you try to find out, what player types play against you and you also got the opportunity to build up a special image at the table. Opposed to the MTT's, you wont get transfered to another table and thats why the table image and player reads get more important here. Making player notes helps you to tag some specific players and recognize them quickly when you play a lot of SNG's. I know many players that just pick that SNG because they already know 2-3 players there, although a lot of other SNG's got spots open.

SNG's are also more profitable when you compare it with the time that you invested, because the payout usually covers the first 2 places out of 6. That means a probability of 33% (1 out of 3) and you will barely find such a payout structure. One special case for example are the Jackpot SNG's at iPoker, where the "Fort Knox" and "Rio" tables even pay out 3 places, giving the 3rd place finisher just about the buy in back. The profit may not be that big there, but the rake is a bit higher and a lot of "highrollers" prefer those tables to increase their rake and bonus points that they earn. They usually have a rakebackdeal and even when they just play break even, they cash through the rakeback and also some leaderboards. Basically they are a great way to build up a small bankroll when you start with a fairly small amount, you will always find a game in the smaller stakes and the average skill there is not that good. Sure you will see a lot of crazy moves, but if you stick to your game, you will be able to increase your bankroll within a very short period of time. The players on the higher limits know each other and there are just a few fresh names, once the bankroll allows it many step in and try to make fast cash, but they usually pay first to gain some experience.

On the first 1-2 blind level I would avoid confrontations where you loose too much stack, unless you are holding a big pair. First off, you need to gain some informations about your opponents (unless you already know them and got player notes) and see some cheap flops. There is no need to overplay great starting hands, as you dont want to show strength and let your opponents pay - most of them will also call a raise with medium cards when they hit the board and dont think, that they are wasting too many chips. But sooner or later, they will realise that they are getting low as the blinds move up, thats the time when you need to raise the aggression and play your position, to put them under pressure. Most of the SNG's start with 1.000 or 1.500 Chips and when you reach the 5th level, most of the players are scared when they fall below the 10xBB range - you will see more action with random cards as you just cant wait that long for a decent hand, the blinds will reach you each 5th hand. You will be forced to play your opponents and your position more than usual and your own cards become less important.

I think I am going to continue on this topic with the next blog, not sure yet on how many words its going to be.