Winning SnG Tournaments

Basically you will win playing a tight aggressive style using solid pre-flop hand selection & understanding position. Unlike playing in cash ring games which can give you a good return but equally can tear through your bankroll in double quick time … SnG’s Tournaments are more consistent.

The Sit and Go format also offers less swings and drama than playing multi-table tournaments – Regular SnG play is a great way to improve any poker players game.

Playing in single table tournaments can be a profitable game and importantly they have a pre-defined risk (ie. you only stand to loose the buy-in). SnG’s last around an hour assuming you get into the money – 1st,2nd & 3rd on a full 10 player table.

As with all games of poker the most important aspect is patience, but more so with a tournament as once your out … your out.

SnG tournies can be split into 4 different stages requiring slightly different play and mentality to get through to the money and hopefully 1st place –

Generally play tight aggressive poker (TAG) and let others lose, rather than you making borderline plays trying to win – This is the most effective winning strategy.

Remember as the number of players in the tournament drops the strength of poker hands increases – ie. at the start you don’t want to get caught playing moderately strong hands but towards the end moderate hands become eminently more playable.

1. Early stage (10-6 players)

This is where patience is most important. Don’t get involved in any hands with anything less than premium cards and be prepared to lay them down if you’ve got in over your head for example with low middle pairs or suited connectors.

If you see opportunity with the very best cards you can reap early rewards as the very worst players are still in the game and will pay you off – but don’t do anything fancy – slow playing and getting 3+ callers will bust AA more often than not – so you don’t want any 3 way action on anything else either.

There will be very loose aggressive players in at the early part of this stage – going all-in with next to nothing and playing as many hands as possible.

The blinds are low so don’t get into calling big bets chasing small pots with marginal hands. You need to be making very solid starting hand selection and paying close attention to positional play.

If your in middle position you have to think about the players behind. Re-raising in anything other than late position could mean throwing away chips as a later player could go all-in and leave you with a difficult decision you just don’t need.

Above all avoid playing in marginal hands at the early part of this stage as you will be consistently eating into your chip stack.

If you are disciplined player you can consider seeing the flop if its cheap with drawing hands – suited connectors, maybe lower connected picture cards and Ace suited – but the important thing is you MUST be able to lay down a hand if it hasn’t worked out on the flop. If your not disciplined enough to do this DON’T play the hand in the first place.

Always make them pay to play – If you have premium hands AA, KK, QQ, KA suited then you must play them hard … you don’t want more than one caller but you want to get the maximum money from that player.

Playing moderate pairs – JJ, 1010, 99, 88 you need to be prepared to fold of the flop hasn’t worked out or your facing a big bet – they’ve either hit the flop or they had a bigger pocket pair in the first place.

TIP: Depending on the players at the table / site and also the starting stack I often like to test the table out on the first couple of hands.

It will make the other tight aggressive players think I might be a loose cannon – rather than folding when I have the nuts they will be inclined to call or raise.

If I’m at a site with better players and a starting stack of 1500 chips there is a little room for testing the table – On the first 2 hands I may raise to 4xBB from any position with any hand just to get an idea who the calling stations are, who I can bully and who the maniacs are. Using this information if you hit a premium hand early you can quickly double up but also know who your danger players are.

NB. At a loose site full of weak players or one with a starting stack of 800 / 1000 chips you can’t afford to waste your chips and you can also be fairly sure that you will get your premium hands paid off anyway – just sit back and chill out and wait for you set.

2. Middle stage & The suck out (6-3 players)

By this stage the complete idiots and bad players will have been eliminated, leaving the tricky middle stage where your all close to getting into the money.

Now by this stage you will either have a very healthy chips stack to build on (but not blow-off by being impatient) or you will be scrapping along with an average or short stack.

The important thing here is opportunity – Big Stack or small the way you’ve played so far will have got respect from the remaining players – they will have seen you have a solid tight aggressive game – added to that your early big raises on the first couple of hands puts in a element of doubt too. If your short stacked it gives you opportunity in late position to steal and get super aggressive as they will put you on a good hand also knowing that you could be prepared to go all the way with a hand – this is a huge advantage at this stage as most players tend to try and sit on their chips to make it to the money and then play more hands.

TIP: Take advantage where you can. Look for scary cards you can represent on the flop. Get more aggressive on the button / late position consider stealing with semi bluff cards- hope for a fold but if not you have some outs.

I’ll add one other point here – If you are really really short stacked with say 4/5 players left a couple of which are very loose aggressive (ie. likely to go out if they carry on playing) then there is no shame in sitting back and hoping they loose their chips before you get blinded away.

Only play if you get a really decent hand – remember you WILL get called as it’s not going to break anyone to get you out – Patience – It’s better to scrap in to 3rd place and make a small profit for your time than get desperate and play a weak hand.

3. In the money (1-3 players)

You’ve made it into the money and now the strength of any half decent starting has increased dramatically – the chances are everyone will be getting borderline junk – Depending on your stack you must press the blinds hard where you can, steal from the big stacks and give the small stacks tough decisions every time you play. If you come into the money with a short stack you can double up off the blinds alone or if your the big stack you can commit the others to early all-in decisions they don’t want to have to make.

4. Heads-up (2 players)

This is the crap shoot part in terms of the cards you get – Heads-up is Texas Hold-em in the raw. Again you will both for the most part be playing with junk but you will have to play – when I say play I don’t mean every hand and I certainly don’t mean calling just to see if the flop helps you out . You need to be super aggressive or appear to be super passive lulling your opponent into getting aggressive and giving you the chance to gain a lot of chips with a decent hand against a weak bluff.

TIP: Sometimes folding or flat calling a couple of times to a re-raise works well. The other player continues to bully with nothing and you can get paid off well with a strong hand. Heads-up is all about aggression, imaginative play, knowing the strength of moderate hands against junk & being downright sly.

In summary

Always play a tight aggressive style with solid hand selection and position play. Only play premium hands in early stages, then increasingly more starting hands in late position as the numbers drop. Never let anyone in cheap always be prepared to get out rather than get over committed. More tactical play towards the end of the tournament. But above all be patient.