While this is my first post, I’ve been lurking for a while. I haven’t read every thread, but I’ve looked at lots of them. I’m impressed with the quality of the posts and the level of debate. IMHO, this forum is the best source of information out there about SNGs.
As my way of paying back, I’d like to share what I thought were some of the most useful threads for newbies to read and for veterans to refer back to. I started with t perkin’s FAQ, added my own favorites, and checked suggestions by
morgan180 and others. I had already started this list when curtains offered to update the FAQ. Since he and others are working on the 2005 edition of the FAQ, I hope this list can assist. Please add any of your own favorite threads and links.
Before I get to the threads, I first want to thank t perkin for his work in putting together versions 1 and 2 of the
FAQ.
Second, at the risk of leaving out lots of great posters, thanks to AleoMagus, allencoix, Bozeman, curtains, dali, dethgrind, eastbay, frozen, gigabet, irie, Jason Strasser, lori, PrayingMantis, yugo, ZeeJustin, among many others, for sharing their knowledge of the game.
Third, thanks to 2+2 for hosting these forums, as well as Chuck for moderating this one. BTW, to keep things cool with 2+2, I’m sure that David, Malcolm, Mat, Chuck and the rest of the 2+2 crew don’t endorse any of the advice, recommendations, products, or services in any of the threads or links below.
I’ve organized the threads as follows:
1. STRATEGY
2. TACTICS
3. HANDS
4. THEORY
5. THE METAGAME
6. OTHER FORUMS
7. LINKS
1. STRATEGY
AleoMagus’s original world-famous guide to beat PP’s $10+1 is
How to win at $10+1 NLHE Partypoker sngs (long).
benfranklin’s “new and improved” condensed version is
Beating the Party 10+1, Part 2.
Also check out:
Is my basic SNG strategy alright? (this is pretty long, sorry)
CrisBrown and others, what is your SNG strategy (newbie)?
The Way
my sit and go poker system... discusses Chris Moneymaker’s
Sit & Go Strategy.
While it deals more with multi-table tournaments,
Darse's No-Limit Hold'em Tournament Primer is also worth looking at.
2. TACTICS
2.1. PUT YOUR OPPONENT ON A HAND
Gibabet’s
Almost there with Success and Failure (Long)
2.2. COMPLETING THE BB
blinds 10/15 - complete with anything?
2.3. RAISES
Daliman’s
3x BB + 2x limpers formula for raises
2.4. MINRAISE
Let's kick this one around a little: the much-maligned minraise...
the "min" raise - please teach the newbie
The case with mini-betting (long!)
2.5. PUSHING
optimizing calling all-in in a heads-up, all-in or fold poker model
The "If Betting Is 35% Of Your Stack, Go All In" Theory
Folding Equity
Interesting formula (Shove EV)
10xx BB Rule
Rebuttal to the magic 2/1 rule. (Long)
2.6. STOP AND GO
Fossilman coined the
stop and go in the MTT forum.
When to use stop and go?
My first conscious use of the stop and go
2.7. BUBBLE
A bad way to play on the bubble
The old coin-flip debate
Fundamental SnG bubble theory question
On the Bubble - interesting puzzle
2.8. IN THE MONEY
curtain’s
argument with PokerDali
pot odds and such
2.9. STEALING BLINDS
OK, let's talk about wmajik's article discusses
MJ’s Theorem of Blind Stealing.
Re-steal
2.10. HEADS UP
Simulated heads-up endgame in all-in or fold mode
Heads up evaluation
HU Strategy
Heads up in SnGs, Can you do anything?
Nash Equilibrium Heads Up???
Single Table SNG down to heads up
2.11. MISTAKES
“The greatest weakness of all is the great fear of appearing weak”
Your opponents never make mistakes (long)
3. HANDS
3.1. A HAND IS MORE THAN JUST TWO CARDS
Read
What is a hand? before posting hand history threads.
3.2. PREFLOP HANDS
AA early on
AA with callers - good flop, now what?
Calling an all in with AK
Standard play with AQ?
folding KK preflop (don’t do it)
KQs All In call
QQ with a lot of limpers
Comments please - QJs
JJ preflop : The Final Discussion (for the FAQ)
Some thoughts about survival, drawing hands and small pairs
Calling a raise with suited connectors
3.3. POSTFLOP
Flush Draw w/ Axs
3.4. QUIZZES
Bob Ciaffone One Table Quiz (4-handed KQo)
SnG Bubble Quiz
Quiz time! (10 common SNG scenarios)
Hand Quiz (5-handed push hands)
4. THEORY
4.1. INDEPENDENT CHIP MODELING (“ICM”)
Start with dethgrind’s
how to solve certain problems with the ICM (an algorithm).
dethgrind has posted eastbay’s
The ICM calculator.
Even before eastbay and dethgrind, the poster who pushed the development of ICM is Bozeman. Some of his best posts on ICM are:
Tournament Finish Probability (long)
Test your intuition (three handed SNG play)
Four Way Tournament finish probability
Also look at allencoix’s
Tournament finish probability for five players left in SNG post in the Poker Theory forum.
While it’s a commercial product and hasn’t even been released yet, eastbay's
Sit n Go Power Tools uses ICM, opponent calling standards, and hand rankings to analyze whether it’s better to push or fold.
For the other side of the debate, check out curtain’s
ICM is often flawed.
4.2. HAND RANKINGS
The Sklansky-Karlson All In No Limit Holdem Rankings
Sklansky-Karlson hand rankings
ranking hands against "push hands" preflop
self-balanced hand rankings
A question on Sklansky's hand rankings, and two handed odds
SNG all-in hand groupings
As far as links go,
Jazbo’s Heads Up Hold’em Percentages, originally posted to RGP in ’95, ranks hands against random hands.
Poker Forum’s
Heads Up Against Two Random Cards Winning Percentage also ranks hands against random hands. The numbers look the same as Jazbo’s, but breaks the rankings out by pairs, suited and unsuited hands. (While 2+2 may not be thrilled with a link to a competitor’s website, it’s got nothing to fear from this or any other site.)
allencoix’s
1 on 1 poker matchups ranks hands against the top 5%, 10%, 15%, 25%, 40%, 67% and all hands.
eastbay’s
Hand Rankings vs. Specified Sets of Opponent's Hands ranks hands against (A) random hands, (B) any ace and any pair, and (C) any pair, any ace except A6o-A2o, KQs, KJs, KTs, and QJs.
4.3. IMPLIED ODDS
Pot Odds Vs. Implied Odds in NL
4.4. SURVIVAL v. EV
Positive EV vs. survival in Tourneys
4.5. WINNER-TAKE-ALL TOURNIES
Winner-take-all theory
5. THE METAGAME
5.1. BANKROLL
That incredibly silly subject...
5.2. ROI and ITM%
Bozeman’s
Results for 435 $109 SnG's
Irieguy’s
Finding rhythm in the madness (a theory)
5.3. STANDARD DEVIATION
Irieguy’s
Why the standard deviation for SNGs is always about 1.5-2.0
5.4. MOVING UP
SNGs: Moving Up
Party $10+1 vs. $30+3 -- Opinions?
5.5. PARTY v. STARS v. OTHER SITES
best site for sng's
5.6. NOTES
Check out bisonbison’s
Some notes on notes in Micro Limits.
Lori’s advice is easier and, IMHO, better –
“only note good players, and if you see 2-3 notes before you sit, just play the next one.”
6. OTHER FORUMS
While STT was one of the first and is still one of the few forums that’s built a FAQ, some other forums have FAQs or threads that serve as one.
The best example is Lori’s
FAQ for the Internet Gambling forum, a/k/a the zoo.
In Micro Limits, bisonbison posted
A FAQ for people new to hold 'em, online poker and 2+2 and btspider followed up with [
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...c=1]Microlimit Guidelines/FAQ v1.0[/url].
In Small Stakes Pot-, No-Limit Hold'em, BobboFitos posted
SSNL FAQ, V 1.0.
In Texas Hold’em, check out illunios’s
Favorite threads on 2+2 and
Favorite 2+2 threads part 2.
In Heads Up and Short Handed, look at Guido’s
To all the new 6-max players.
In Brick and Mortar, check out
Virgin seeks FAQ....
Everyone in Multi-Table Tournaments is waiting for 2+2 to publish Fossilman’s book they don’t have to write a FAQ, but, in the meantime, look at:
MTT Early Level Strategies
eMarkM’s post in
my problem in tournaments
Che’s
hand against MLG
Tournament Strategy Summarized...
7. LINKS
7.1. POKER ODDS
Hold’em Odds
Texas Holdem Pre Flop Odds
7.2. CALCULATORS
Combinations calculator to calculate C(n,r) given n and r
Poker Stove is a freeware poker odds calculator to calculate show down odds against ranges of hands.
Poker Calculator is a freeware program to calculate show down odds against certain, random, or a range of hands.
Two dimes is an online Poker Odds Calculator.
7.3. SIMULATORS
Poker Academy Pro is a well-written commercial program written by the brains at the University of Alberta’s GAMES group. You can play SNGs against a variety of bots.
7.4. RECORD-KEEPING
New Penultimate 2005 SNG Spreadsheet discusses AleoMagus’s
SNG spreadsheet.
Poker Tracker is a commercial program that stores your hand histories and generates statistics and reports based on them for you and your opponents. It’s useful for analyzing ring games, but less so for SnGs.
7.5. REPLAYERS
Party Poker Hand Replayer
MJ displays
his own Party Poker Hand Histories, as well as those of some
top players, including Dali, Strassa, and Frozen Fish.
7.6. CONVERTER
slavic's not ready for prime time Party Poker hand converter
7.7. GLOSSARIES
2+2’s
Abbreviation Lists
A Glossary of Poker Terms
Poker Terms & Abbreviations for Advanced Players
7.8. MISC.
Finally, for a laugh, check out the
primate poker and
saabpo websites.