CleanUpMan, I like Office because it is the easiest to get started with and interface is more user-friendly. PT is a great program as well, and yes, I would highly recommend you get at least one tracking program because of the significant edge they offer in reading opponents.

Boise123, I would check the STTF FAQ where I think there's a pretty thorough answer to the ROI question. The SNG player will have a better understanding of pre-flop dynamics, but the cash/tournament player will usually have a more refined post-flop game and be much keener on late-street analysis.

Arp220, I would try to find the lowest rake possible. I give a table showing how crucial the rake is for long-term profits in SNG Strategy ... at this level, your competition should be pretty soft at most sites, so concentrate on minimizing the rake. (Once you build your roll a little, for example, definitely check out the Stars $15+1's, an incredible rake deal for the low-mid stakes player.) And yes, generally you should make at least a small raise with your premium hands during lategame play. The main exception is when an opponent one or two to your left is hyper-aggressive and you think he will come over top very widely. Getting called bad names at the poker table, BTW, is usually a sign you're doing something right

-- Collin

Do you know what range Sharkscope uses to divide "Lo/Med/Hi" stakes?

Very useful, thanks!

Collin,

I would like to start the $15+1 sng's, but my patient style gets killed in turbos. What changes should I make to my game due to the rapidly increasing blinds and loose no fold'em players? Thanks.

Collin, or anyone else, what's your general take on 45 man sng's.

1. Are they worth the time
2. At what point do you start to treat it like an SNG as opposed to an MTT

I'm missing something basic. Where is Low / Mid / High Blind defined? I've roughly been using M factors (ratio of my stack to blinds & antes) of >20 for Low, 20-10 for Mid, and <10 for Low. Should I use different ratios, or factor in something else, like number of remaining players? Thanks.

Look at the blind structure for the first hour. Chop that into 3 sections of 20 minutes. The last 20 minutes for example are high blinds and antes. Best of luck.

colin,

In your book you often make statements such as " in this situation you can play hands like Qh9h" or "in this situation hands like Qh9h should be folded".

How do i find out which hands are equivalent to those hands mentioned in your examples? For example is K8o weaker or stronger?

And are you referring to the type of hand (i.e suited 2 gapper) or according to some ranking system i.e grouped hands in HEFAP or the sklansky - chubakov rankings?

I've only just started reading the book, and it is giving me loads to think about. I like a lot of the material in there, and i think once i can get my hand around which hands are of comparative strength and why i will understand it a lot more.

Thanks
DB.

youbobAA, your tight game should still work well in very loose games. Just make sure that when you do hit a hand you bet it very aggressively for value (since these guys who won't fold can be exploited by coming in with big bets when you do make a hand). Then just make sure you're making good lategame decisions, taking into account that you may be called fairly wide. If you have a specific hand/situation in mind, feel free to post.

timmay, 45-man games with 5 tables are just like multi-tables with a limited number of entrants, so they're good if you have decent MTT skills. I don't play a lot of these to be honest, so if anyone who specializes in multi-table SNGs wants to chime in I'd appreciate your feedback on these games.

SodaSurfer, to give one more example on low/mid/high, in a current Stars SNG 10-20 and 15-30 are low, 25-50 and 50-100 are mid, and 75-150 and higher are high. The distinction isn't black-and-white, just a helpful guideline to think about the different stages of SNG gameplay. If you have questions on another structure, let me know and we can analyze it.

dirty banana2007, statements like that are fairly qualitative as you point out, but if you want to quantify them just use your S-C rankings or the ones on PokerStove to get a good idea. Is there a particular hand you're thinking of?

OK guys, have a good one,
Collin

I just couldn't lay this one down even though I may have been against a flush. Turned out to be a set. It turned out to be about the same pot odds to call and to win. What do you think, Collin? Should I have laid this down? Anyone out there could have gotten away?

PokerStars Game Tournament $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2007/11/23 - 19:56:53 (ET)
Table 1' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: knottoworr (1350 in chips)
Seat 2: malibucheeks (2350 in chips)
Seat 3: imprezza911 (1400 in chips)
Seat 4: StoneCareMan (895 in chips)
Seat 5: 2 of 2 Cats (2365 in chips)
Seat 7: Joba Rulez (1590 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero(1630 in chips)
Seat 9: DCrollin (1920 in chips)
Joba Rulez: posts small blind 15
t2wowheeler: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero[Ad As]
DCrollin: folds
knottoworr: folds
malibucheeks: folds
imprezza911: folds
StoneCareMan: calls 30
2 of 2 Cats: calls 30
Joba Rulez: calls 15
t2wowheeler: raises 150 to 180
StoneCareMan: folds
2 of 2 Cats: calls 150
Joba Rulez: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd Jd 5d]
t2wowheeler: bets 300
2 of 2 Cats: raises 1885 to 2185 and is all-in
t2wowheeler: calls 1150 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Kd Jd 5d] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [Kd Jd 5d Th] [7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
t2wowheeler: shows [Ad As] (a pair of Aces)
2 of 2 Cats: shows [5c 5s] (three of a kind, Fives)
Herosaid, "vn"
2 of 2 Cats collected 3320 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3320 | Rake 0
Board [Kd Jd 5d Th 7c]
Seat 1: knottoworr folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: malibucheeks folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: imprezza911 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: StoneCareMan folded before Flop
Seat 5: 2 of 2 Cats (button) showed [5c 5s] and won (3320) with three of a kind, Fives
Seat 7: Joba Rulez (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: Hero(big blind) showed [Ad As] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 9: DCrollin folded before Flop (didn't bet)

On the flop, you have pocket rockets, and a draw to the nut flush. It'd be hard to lay down.

I'm hoping that I could think it out as follows. Villain has better than a pair – probably a set or a flush (i.e., he's ahead). My backdoor straight's worthless. I don't want to get involved in a hand like this in the early stage of the SNG. Fold.

Collin, I am reluctant to go all in preflop. Is there an optimal way to play middle - high pairs?

hi colin... i'm not sure if my private message that i just sent got thru to you. it seemed to work but then my sent message box is empty.

anyhow, i was thinking it would be just as good to ask here where everyone can see your response.

the abridged version is this:

does your book go deeply into plays from the blinds? seems like it represents a pretty high % of hands played in early-mid. i understand basic SNG strategy, but should i just be giving up more or less on these hands?? end before flop??? all 3-4 players check flop, but i'm still OOP with weak 2nd pair??

somewhat similar but early to mid SNG, do you raise if it's folded to you in CO and you have Q9o, JTs etc. and you chip stack is down 15%....basically do you make small power, positional moves early? or do basically do nothing but TT+, AK??

i will be buying the book with my next order. basically waiting for tysen streib's book to be stocked in canada.
thanks in advance!!!

I agree that you have to fold. It is very hard to get away from though, and I can't say I would've been able to in the heat of battle. I think it really comes down to paying very close attention to what your opponent does, and what the board says.
When I have a monster hand, my eyes glaze over, and makes this objective thinking very difficult. But that's the beauty of poker...always something to work on!

As someone who has no vested interest in the book, I assure you he does. He discusses those plays from the perspective of both the blind and the other player.

One of the things I like about the book is that he makes a point, and then illustrates it with several examples. In each example, he gives a situation followed by a question. You can cover the answer with a bookmark while you form your answer. Then read what he says.

Hi, Collin,

I just finished your books and tried the advices in real play at $5 SNG.

The problem I now have is this. In low BB which is about 30-40 hands, usually I'll never get premium hands, and I'll invest some small amount for speculative hands and give them up against a pf raise or not-so-good flop.

So it's high probable that I'll be loosing 20% of my initial stack when the game comes to mid-BB when I have around 20BB. Then the game is all about stealing and all-in re-stealing. It's not normal poker any more.

Am I doing something wrong or this is just the way SnG goes?

httassaddar, i'm obviously not colin. but that's what i think the basic idea has been.... do nothing for the until mid-point, then get aggressive pushing when opening the pot somewhat in position. then wait out the bubble to a large degree unless you have a very large stack (avoid the other one)....

but i wonder if that is still the recommended line though. wondering if you should play more normal deep-stack poker early on now as more people seem to last more levels these days.

Hi,

I'm a US player and want to start playing SnG's on-line. What are the best sites and bonuses? Some sites only give bonuses for the number of raked hands, how does this apply to SnG's?

How can I sign up to play? I only want to put in about $300 to start.

If you want to open an account at Poker Stars, just go ahead and do it through Poker Stars. If you want to open an account anywhere else, first communicate with an affiliate. This is very important.

When I played poker on the Internet, my favorite sites were Party Poker, Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, and Ultimate Bet. Of course, Party no longer accepts U.S. players.

I'm sure some of the 2+2 experts will have more information for you.

Hello,

Just a quick question. When I get down to about 5 or 4 people sometimes early position players tend to limp when the blinds are really large(say im the bigg blind). I notice everyone folds pretty quickly, I usually tend to believe there are not holding much but I check anyways and I usually miss, I will then check and they bet the minimum and I fold. Any advice for these wierd situations?

Interesting hand posted by youbobAA. I actually like getting it all-in at the flop. You have an overpair with the nut flush draw, and while it was pointed out (correctly) that you want to be very conservative early, that hand is too strong to let go.

Mid-high pairs should generally be raised, with the exceptions being when you are in early position (where you will sometimes fold or limp). Hard to say much more than that speaking in general

htt, smbruin is right -- SNGs have a very fast pace, and often turn into push/fold battles after around 20 minutes of play.

Mike's advice is spot-on for opening accounts and where to play. You can get a $75 bonus (I believe) from a new Stars account, and a site like Full Tilt you should definitely get rakeback. Check out the internet and rakeback forums for more on this.

Aziatic, if the guy is limping a lot during high blinds, then you would want to make the "HBL" player note I talk about in SNG Strategy and be willing to come over top with an all-in raise with a much wider hand range than normal.

Very good questions guys, feel free to keep on posting.

-- Collin

Now we know. Thanks, Collin.

Collin,

I read your book & I think it's excellent & very well written. I mostly play 18 player, 2 table SnG's & have found most of what your book says about playing STT SnG's applicable to the 2 tables.

I would like to know what you think about FTP SnG's where the winner(s) are awarded Tokens.

First, for tracking purposes, I've been treating them as if I won $$. So if I win a $6.50 + $0.40 4 player HU SnG and am awarded a $26 Token, my net win/loss is $19.10. Is this the right way to look at it even though it really isn't $$. The Charts & Graphs I use show my winnings increase as I accumulate Tokens but my account balance goes down. Then, If I use a Token to play, my account balance is unchanged and my win/loss changes accordingly. (Read on)

Next, I began playing them because I $6.50+ $0.40 was a good deal @ 6.15% fee as opposed to 10% at low stakes. Even the $8.00 + $0.70 (8.75% fee) is a better deal than the usual 10%. With the $26 Token, I could then play for a a 45 player $24+$2 for $$ or an 18 player for a $75 Token. I figured that this would be a good way to play at higher stakes. Then It occurred to me that instead of my Account Balance growing, it shrinks, and I'm just accumulating Tokens (That's not to say they don't have value because obviously they do). The problem is that I can't use the Token to play 2 $10+1's and a $5+.50 (I know that's 27.50, but u get the idea), I have to play a $24+2 because as I mentioned above it's not really $$. I'm more likely to win @ the 10+1 stake than I am @ 24+2, but am forced to play @ the higher stake with the Token I won which I wouldn't necessarily do with $26 cash. If I can't beat that stake, I have nothing to show for my efforts. Now I have no Token and My account Balance is also lower. If I win a 45 or 18 player 10+1, my Account Balance grows & I can keep playing more 10+1's. So here's the question (but I think I already figured out the answer). Is playing for a Token a good way to jump up to higher stakes to try to build your roll because of the the discounted fee or would it just be better the jump up to the next stake the old fashion way @ the standard 10% fee? (I'm realizing that the tokens may have me playing at a higher stake I'm not ready for.)

Third, did I just discover something on my own that everyone already knows or am I on to something?

Thanks.

PS: I currently have 4 $26 & 1 $75 Token I might be willing to sell @ 95¢ on the dollar if it were possible. ;-)

What is your opinion on playing SNGs on less popular sites that probably have softer games (i.e. cake poker)?

Do you feel this increases ROI or not

Sorry If you address this in the book, I have not had been able to read it yet!

Rush4Rod, I definitely think you have the right attitude with the token games. It is the same as money if you're happy to play the higher-buyin tokens, and the house can afford to offer you a better rake deal because they know you must use your winnings to play another game and give them more rake. This is a pretty win-win tradeoff if your bankroll allows you to play higher and/or you don't mind the higher variance (risk).

wanderingrobots, this is a very good idea. The SNGs on these sites will take longer to fill up, but if you're playing low-stakes games that fill quickly anywhere, or you're willing to wait, by all means play where the competition is softest.