SNG Strategy, Pokerlistings.com

Since I have been playing more donkaments recently, I thought I might try and write a brief primer on my SNG strategy. But then I was looking around Pokerlistings.com and discovered that Daniel Skolovy pretty much already wrote the exact series I was planning, only he wrote it better than I probably would have. Here are links to parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of his series.


While you're over there checking those out (they have some other pretty good strategy articles as well), you might want to look into the rest of the site as well. For instance there's a MarketPulse that allows you to track how much durrrr/Tom Dwan has won on Full Tilt this year (over 2 mirrrrrrrrrion) and how much Patrik Antonius has lost (over one mirrion...yikes!). You can also search for biggest winners, tightest and loosest players, etc., by site and stakes. You can also search for individual players and the site will describe their playing style for you. I'm a "shark" whereas brackchips is a "bomb" ROR.

All you railbirds can also check out the live poker tournaments coverage where you can get info on WPT, EPT, etc., etc..

Anyway I thought I'd kind of go through Skolovy's series and add a few comments of my own.


Part 1: Low-Blind Play


There's really no reason to go nuts while the blinds are low. Overall the theme is, stick around till the blinds are high and everybody is short, then start raising whenever you have some fold equity and try to win a flip at some point. This kind of plays on the errors that most players make, which is to play loose early (hey it's only 30 chips to see the flop, let's do it), and too tight late (wow, he raised to 600...I only have 2,000 left...I'll fold). You can't get to that point where blinds are high and everybody is short if you bust out early in a marginal situation.


Phil Hellmuth takes this almost to a ridiculous extreme, as you see him playing some pretty decent hands extremely weak. I used to think this was just plain terrible (and I still think it's why he's less successful in cash games against great players), but there is value to taking these lines early in tourneys. Here's an example:


Seat 4: bruechips (BB) (1,500)
Seat 6: UTG+1 (1,500)
Seat 8: MP (1,290)


*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to bruechips [Qs Ks]
UTG+1 calls 30
MP raises to 60
bruechips calls 30 (I could maybe even make a case for folding here. But I know UTG+1 will call as well, MP is clearly a donk with his min-raise of a limper, and I'm getting 6:1)
UTG+1 calls 30


*** FLOP *** [3s Kc 2s]

bruechips checks
UTG+1 bets 150
MP calls 150
bruechips calls 150 (This flop looks great, obviously, and in just about any cash game I'd be happy to raise and get my stack in here. But here in a donkament, 1) there is absolutely no chance of getting a fold from a better hand, 2) the value of survival means that giving up value vs. a hand like KJ or QQ is OK because I'm reducing my chances of busting out, and 3) If I hit a Q or a spade at least one of these donks will pay me off. Tourney players flat out hate folding pairs, even more than cash game donks. Basically, there are very few cards which kill my hand (really only an offsuit ace) and many cards that improve my hand, and I'd rather not flip for my stack this early.)


*** TURN *** [3s Kc 2s] [9c]

bruechips checks
UTG+1 checks (almost surely means I have him beat)
MP bets 190 (Less clear. I could easily have him beat, but he could also have a worse king, a pocket pair, 45, A5, random spades, etc.)
bruechips calls 190
UTG+1 folds


*** RIVER *** [3s Kc 2s 9c] [7d]

bruechips checks
MP bets 350
bruechips calls 350 (Against a donk like this guy, I could maybe bet/fold as opposed to check/calling to try and get value out of some of those worse paired hands that won't bet the river...but on the other hand this way I'll get value from his missed draws and I don't have to worry about folding the best hand to a raise.)


*** SHOW DOWN ***

MP shows [Ac Kh] a pair of Kings


So I played a pretty strong hand very weak here just to make sure I didn't get stacked. You might think that after seeing this other players would notice and realize that if you're raising early in a tourney your range is very polarized, but really they're too stupid or unobservant to either recognize this or figure out how to exploit it.


Part 2: Mid-Blind Play


To me this is the stage when c-betting is most effective. Early on you might not want to c-bet bluff as much because you just want to avoid committing chips and the donks will not be folding often. But these blind levels are where tourney donks in the blinds are most likely to call a raise preflop and then check-fold the flop.


Part 3: Shorthanded


The "deploy the pushbot" title pretty much says it all. Most players will be trying to fold to a cash. You should be attacking their blinds relentlessly, especially since you should have built up a tight image in the first few blind levels. I might go so far as to say that there are many tables where raising when folded to from the hijack, cutoff, button, or small blind is always correct, no matter what your hand is. Since big hands do not come around very often shorthanded, you really just want to maximize fold equity. Whenever you think you can win the pot preflop, raise. Those non-showdown chips are huge, since in general hand values will be pretty close, and it's never going to be that big a mistake this shallow to go ahead and flip. Force others to come up with hands or make courageous calls. Say blinds are 200/400 and it's folded to you in the small blind with J4o. The big blind has 1300 chips. Shove!! You might think....he has 400 chips in there already, how could he possibly be folding anything decent? But 1) what's decent? Is he gonna call you with Q5? Maybe, but it's really not that big a deal. T9s? Great! You've got that beat! 2) Even when he calls with something "decent", you will have decent equity. Even the lowly 23o has 30% equity vs. the top 25% of hands.


Another thing to look out for is players that raise/fold preflop. There are players out there that with a 6bb stack will raise to 3bbs and then fold to a shove. Man I love sitting to the left of these guys. When you see that, attack it. Winning a 5bb pot without showdown like that is absolutely delicious. Especially if you're the chip leader and the bubble is near. You should really be punishing these guys.


Part 4: Headsup


Again, the biggest mistake you could make would be to play too tight. Min raise from the sb/button until the other guy stops you. Feel free to 3-b shove when he raises your big blind with a wide range, as long as you're deep enough that he could conceivably fold. If either of you has less than 10 bbs, you should be shoving almost every time you get the chance. It's ALL about the fold equity. Say you raise and he folds a few times until you've got a 3:1 chip lead. Finally next time you shove and he finds a hand and calls you, and wins the hand. Now you're even in chips and next time you shove again, again he finds a hand, wins again, and you lose. Did you get carried away? No, you had TWO shots to win the tourney. Even if you were a 2:1 dog both times, like if you had T7o vs. his AKs, he only has a (2/3)*(2/3) = 4/9 chance to win the tourney. And he had to pick up AKs twice to get even that! So shove shove shove your way to tourney victories!!!


-BRUECHIPS