The 1$ + .20 on Stars like everyone has said here are rake killers but are still quite beatable.

If you are on a limited budget for a deposit and have almost no SNG or poker experience I don't think it makes sense to deposit 40 to play 5$ sitngo's.

I don't think newbies should be overly concerned about "beating the rake" if just starting out. Of course if you play 40 of these and have a 15% ROI , forget them and start on 5$ ASAP. Even depositing some more $ to make sure you have at least 10 buyins for the 5$ tourneys is a good idea.


With that said if you don't mind depositting 200$ or have some SNG and poker experience then the 5$ ones are where you want to start.

Collin - I just discovered this thread today. I just ordered your book and looking forward to reading it.

Question - I know you've already answered this question so I'm going to try to rephrase: Which SnGs do you prefer to play yourself? HU, 6, 9, 18, 45, or 180s? I've been playing 45s and have been placing a lot but only a few 1st finishes.

Anybody - please feel free to chime. I'm interested in hearing from you all.

ty

Hi Collin, do the strategies in your book work at the lowers stakes, eg. $16 buy-ins?

I'm struggling at time because I'm finding that the aggressive moves you recommend are getting me into trouble, for example, reraising steal attempts with marginal hands and playing weaker hands all-in at the bubble.

I find that because the buy-in is low I get called constantly by hands that should not call me. For example, I spot an obvious steal attempt and reraise all-in with a hand like K10, only to get called by A2, and go out. The same occurs at the bubble.

Collin,

I'm really enjoying your book and your insight. A question about implied odds:

If an express odds call is very close, say, with a flush draw where you are getting exactly 4:1 on the flop, would a change in equity be determinative, and if so, how would this be quantified?

The obvious example would be that I am last to bet, villian is all-in and would be busted out if I call and hit my flush draw, leaving 4 players instead of 5.

Since it's heads-up with no further betting, there aren't any implied odds, but there will be an increase in my equity when I'm one spot closer to the money.

How much would this equity increase be worth, for example, would it justify getting, say, 3.8:1 express odds?

Yeah, but you can still get a free gift through PokerSourceOnline by depositing on Pokerstars through them. True, you can't get rakeback, but you can still get yourself a nice chipset or Amazon gift certificates or something.

Collin At my local Casino I play the sit n gos The structure is very fast paced and 60-70% of the players are pretty bad and like to limp in a lot of pots with hands like A7os and worse. My friend plays pretty loose in the sit n gos sometimes and I usually play a very TAG style. We are given 3000 starting chips with blinds starting at 100/200 and the levels increasing every 12 mins. I usually play a very TAG style of play but usually dont find myself able to play the way i do online such as raising on the button with a wide range of hands. This is usually because there are 3-4 limpers behind me. I'm not sure if I should be changing my style of play or not I also sometimes find myself limp folding small pp's quite a lot and and because of the structure i probably shouldn't. Should I keep playing the way I play or loosen up? Also here is a hand where I flopped a set if you could take a look at it for me please. Villain is quite a loose player. This was a £20+2 sit n go I usually play the £10+1 the structure difference is stack size and 2 minutes more until next level of blinds.

£20+2 sit n go at local casino. Starting chips 4000 blinds 100-200 (increase every 14 mins)

1st hand No reads on villain

Hero in MP+3, Villain in CO.

Hero dealt 5 5

Hero calls 200, Villain calls 200, Button calls 200, SB calls, BB checks

Flop (1000): A K 5

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 700, CO raises to 1400, Button folds, SB folds, BB folds.

Turn (3800): 7

Hero checks, BB bets 1000, Hero raises all in for 2400, BB calls 1400 more

So, what were the results?

You dont post results other peoples judgment about a situation will be altered if they know the outcome.

High-Blind Stack Variation
sample from C.M. Book (SNG Strategy - Expert Advice...) Hand 3-15 page 156-157
Push or fold with K2o when the big blind is small staked?
This question can be solved only, if you have this book.

I loved your book Colin.

My question is about push/folding when it comes to the bubble. How do you adjust your push/fold strategy (assuming you are push/folding correctly) if villains are calling you way too lightly? An example scenario would be if I have 2k in chips, blinds at 80/160, and the BB has 3200. I shove with 78s, and get called by KQo. He's not calling because he's adjusting for my loose pushing range; he's calling because he's a weak player.

Does push/folding "correctly" rely on our opponents calling correctly? Am I forced to tighten up and steal the blinds less in this situation? My whole bubble strategy is based on what you outlined in your book, where you are not trying to squeeze into the money.

Colin,

Can you explain the push charts in the appendix? They appear to be incomplete or incorrect unless I'm missing something.

no question really. i just wanted to be a part of this thread.

Colin,

I currently play $22 STTs 2 or 3 at a time. My ROI is about 20%. I'd like to move up to $33s, but I don't use any tracking software.

At what level of STTs do you think it would be necessary to have it, because a large proportion are using at that level? I've heard that full time grinding professionals play at the $33 and $44 level.

Whats your opinion on this?

Thanks.

I bought your book about a month ago, great investment for anyone who hasn't got it already.

Question about HU in a SNG. Normally at the HU stage the blinds are very high what is the best strategy at this point? It seems if I take one big hit to my stack, I am almost crippled.

Cheers

Colin, I was really questioning this play I made recently. The table wasn't getting to crazy at this point. Given my stack in relation to the others, what is your opinion on this play?



$20 + $2 Sit & Go No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t120/t240 Blinds - 5 players

CO: t1590
Hero (BTN): t1735
SB: t5012
BB: t4320[/COLOR]
UTG: t843

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with Q J
2 folds, Hero raises to t1735 all in
SB and BB left to act.....

I think that the health of your stack relates more to M or to the big blind you have than it does to your opponents’ stacks. You don’t have enough of a stack to survive even five rounds. Yet your stack is big enough to be a threat even to the chip leaders.

Not to sound trite, but you don’t want to go out like Broomcorn’s uncle. Your hand was good enough to take a chance, and you can't get first or second place without taking a risk.

If one of the blinds wakes up with a premium hand, so be it. In that case, either suck out or else go on to the next SNG knowing that you played this correctly.

Who am I? You know more about this than I do, but that’s my two plus two cents.

Moshman,

Just wanted to say thanks. During a recent 'tilting' experience, a fellow player in an SnG and I got to talking... He seemed to know what he was doing, and he highly recommended your book. I just completed reading it. (Plan on rereading it again)

It has already helped me soo much in high blind play. I was already playing tight early; but failing to open up later and not get blinded out, take advantage of bubble play, or when I was chip leader. I think it might have, or will soon have already paid for itself. Just joined this forum as well, and since this seems to be your spot, I just wanted to tell you thanks, it's made a difference.

I do have a question though. I seem to do better on the 18 men SnGs and maybe like them better since that is where I got started. So, I'm still playing mostly those. In the turbos, I'll FT them most of the time, but sometimes my stack is not the greatest... What do I do when say I'm around a 1200 size stack and the blinds are 200/400... Too many times lately I've found myself in this situation. I try to pick out a tight, average stacked BB to shove on before blinds hit me. (Cover up the left side of your screen and shove before getting blinded out)

But, many times in the 18 men, this means shoving UTG or early position with a less than par hand through almost still a full table. I did this today w T-3 and stack size and blinds like the case I just mentioned. I got called in two spots, obviously lost. Would you still recommend this strategy when in the 18 men case and almost a full FT, or let the blinds run through me and hope I pick up a solid hand to double/triple up on through the next decently long orbit?

Thanks a bunch. And feel free to take your book off the market and make sure my opponents don't get this edge too

Nice bump..Was looking for something like this to read.

I have some DON questions.

1) Should I use Cev or $ev to create an ICM pushbot chart?
2) Playing $1 turbos on stars with a limited sample size , I'm winning around 66%. Does that sound sustainable? Or does it sound like I'm running great? I'm doing this 20
tabling.
3) will $5s be about as easy as $1s? When do they get more difficult? $10?

In turbo SNG's where the typical flop has 3-5 players involved and a typical show down will look like this:

flop - Jh 7d 2s rainbow - SB leads 2/3 pot everyone calls I fold (AK)
turn - Kh - SB leads pot - everyone except 1 calls
river - Ah everyone checks including the idiot who has the nuts holding Qh4h

How in the world do I defend and play vs. villans like this? We all know that it's hard to flop a pair or better and if we continue to raise with hands like AK, AQ, suited connectors, pairs ect. and often don't get flops that work with our hands how can we ever be a consistant winning in a game like this. Somedays I decide to just play tight and trap - hands never come and I get short than I push AK in late position after 3 limpers and I get 2 callers 1 with QT anothe with 99 - we all know how that hand ends (the worst hand wins). Other days I try to play aggressive and the don't respect a single raise or reraise and again I don't connect with flop decide to c-bet wide and still get 3 callers.

This is basiclly a long question about how in the world to play in a 6 handed game when 4 players don't care, 1 other good thinking player, and me. Do these games just end up being way too high in variance? Are they beatable? BTW these players are typically the same people I play vs. on a regular basis occasionally live, usually on a private online server.

Are low to mid stakes SNG's still beatable in the long term at a decent ROI?

Wow, you guys are really dumb. This thread was started back in 2007.

Fantastic first post!

The questions will still get answered since the rest of the forum doesn't have the same attitude you do.

for any questions like this can be answered by a quick search in STT forum.
Read the stickies, anthology...

is this thread still open?