Greetings everyone,

I’ve been playing in a house game, it’s a 2 table no limit holdem tournament....16 - 20 players with a $100 buy-in. Blinds increase every 30min.

What strategy would you use here, a single table SNG or a MTT SNG? It’s truly not a 9man SNG, but it’s not truly a MTT either....is it?

How many get paid?

Final 3 are paid out.

I'm far from an expert on this kind of thing, but since only a small proportion of the field gets paid, the game will be more like an MTT than a STT. In a single-table STT that pays 33.33% of the field, you can often fold a lot and still have a decent chance of getting through the bubble, as one double up from 10bb will often be enough to put you in a position to cash. If you do too much folding early on in a game with about 18 entrants and only 3 getting paid (<17% paid), the big stacks will have way more chips than you when you get down to the last 5 or 6. I guess this means you should be looser early on in the MTSNG, as chip accumulation is more important than survival, because the bubble is "further away".

Makes a lot of sense.....thank you! I will give MTT strategy a shot and see how it goes. We play ever Saturday night.

A description of the starting stack and structure would be relevant here. One of the ways I gauge my strategy is based on the number of hand you will see before certain milestones. For example, I play in a daily live MTT where I will only see about 60 hands before a starting stack is reduced to under 10 bb, and I play in one (at the same casino) where it takes about 150 hands to get a starting stack down to under 10 bb. I will play each tournament with different styles, different ranges, etc. In the former, for example, I would happily take a coin flip for stacks in the middle levels, as you can't wait for better situations.

Gauge your strategy based on how many hands you can see before you are forced into short stack play.

We start with 10,000 chips....30 minute blinds....and start at 25/50 for the blind. Games usually take aprox 2 1/2 hours. No rebuys or add-on’s.

How on Earth do you finish in 2 and a half hours with 18-20 entrants and 30 minute blinds?

This seems odd. Even if you are doubling the blinds at each level, that the tournament would end with about 100 bb on the table, and would end after seeing about 75 hands or so. You guys must be crazy aggressive.

We play every other week. 6 entrants. 20k starting stacks, blinds at 100/200 and up every 20 minutes (or every orbit, depending how slow it's going) and we generally play for around 5-6 hours (sometimes a little longer).

I’m sorry guys.....that 2 1/2 hours was a typo. It’s more like 5 hours, give or take but it’s right around there.

I think you're overcomplicating this. I don't see why there would be a significant difference between MTT strategy and STT strategy, or strategy for a fast-paced structure vs. a slow-paced structure. Just play poker.

There is something called ICM which basically says tournament chips have decreasing marginal utility. This affects your strategy, but it shouldn't cause your strategy to be dramatically different between STTs and MTTs.

Does it have more than one table? Then it's a multi table tournament