Is this enough to win $10 and $20 SNG

[bigjiml0pht]

Hello

I am new here. I want to become an expert at lower limit SNG's. I have Holdem for advanced players (Sklansky) and Harrington on holdem. If I read and apply information learned from both of these books, will I be able to beat $10 and $20 SNG's ?

[SHAKE]

learn cash games 10 and 20 dollar sng's arent going to make you any money. Eaither play Mtt's wich yes the boks will help, espessaly HOH, or play ring games.

[taipan168]

Hi and welcome to FTR, it's good to have you here. If you have the first two Harrington books, you will learn a lot about NL Hold'em tourneys. Hold'em for Advanced Players won't help all that much with SNGs IMO.

Read all the stickies in the Sit N Go Tourney Tactics forum, particularly the Common Beginner Mistakes and the Dos and Don'ts of low buyin SNGs, play a few games, post some HHs/hands and I guarantee you'll improve.

The other thing is, to play $11 SNGs you should have a bankroll of about $330 and to play $22s you should have $660. If you're a new player I suggest starting at the lower levels ($3-5) to get used to the games before moving up.

If you want to post some hands, we'd be happy to look at them in the Sit N Go Tourney Tactics Forum (I'm the mod there ). Other than that, welcome again and good luck!

[bigjiml0pht]

Thanks

The main reason I was using the Sklansky book was for pre-flop play. Does his pre-flop info apply to SNG's to?

[taipan168]

Thanks

The main reason I was using the Sklansky book was for pre-flop play. Does his pre-flop info apply to SNG's to?

No. You need to play much tighter in the early levels of SNGs and (potentially) much looser at the late stages.

[bigjiml0pht]

Is Harringtons guidelines best for SNG play then?

[PapalRage]

Read all the stickies in the Sit N Go Tourney Tactics forum, particularly the Common Beginner Mistakes and the Dos and Don'ts of low buyin SNGs, play a few games, post some HHs/hands and I guarantee you'll improve.

neither of those books were specifically written for the SnG format so they will not be as useful for SnG knowledge as the stickies and info found (for free) on this forum. For general hold'em knowledge though, both are good reads.

[taipan168]

Is Harringtons guidelines best for SNG play then?

It's better, but still a bit too loose IMO because it's geared towards higher buyin MTTs where players don't play super loose like small buyin SNGs. Plus, chip accumulation is more important in MTTs than single table SNGs (due to the payout structure - but that's another discussion).

I don't like giving preflop hand advice because it is all so situation dependent, but EARLY in the SNG (say blind levels 1 and 2) on a FULL TABLE my hand selection is something like this:

Open raise
- Early position (first 2 places) - JJ-AA, AQ/AK
- Middle position (next 3 places) - Same as EP. Maybe raise TT from late MP
- Late position (CO) - depends on how loose/tight the players still to act are, but raise 66+, AT+, KQ
- Button - highly dependent on reads on the blinds (are they loose/tight), but assuming they are about average I'd raise 22+, A7+, KT/KJ, QJs, maybe JTs, T9s, 98s.
- Small blind - again, read dependent on the BB but a slightly tighter range than from the button since you're out of position postflop if you're called

Open limp
- 22-TT in early and middle position and 22-55 in the cutoff. That's it. If you are open limping any more than this you are likely playing too loose.
- If the BB isn't aggressive, you can profitably complete the SB if it's folded to you with a wide range, but bear in mind that you're OOP for the rest of the hand.

Limp after limpers
- Early/mid position - pocket pairs 22-TT. That's it.
- Late position (CO/Button) - pocket pairs 22-88 (I might raise 99/TT), suited connectors down to 65s if there are 2+ limpers in front, Ax suited.
- Remember if you are limping these hands, don't forget why you're playing them - for set value for pocket pairs (maybe overpair value for 88-TT) and for 2 pair or better or a good draw (for suited connectors, Ax suited).

Raise after limpers
- Again this one is quite position dependent, hard to give general guidelines - but you can raise a much wider range from the button than you can from early position when there are limpers in front.

Re-raise a raiser
- This is read and position dependent. If the raiser is tight and in early position, I'm only re-raising from late position with QQ+ (flat call with AK and pocket pairs). If I'm in the blinds and the raiser is on the button and loose/aggressive then I'll re-raise with a much wider range (since unless opp is a maniac they fold most of the time).

4-bet after a raise and a re-raise
- Generally speaking, QQ+ only. Everything else goes in the muck, except possibly AK depending on reads.

Hands to fold
- From early and middle position: Basically anything but pocket pairs and AQ+. This includes AJ, KQ (in fact K-anything), QJ (in fact Q-anything), suited connectors, A-rag suited, all other hands.
- From late position - crappy soooted cards and hands that are easily dominated like K9-KJ, QJ unsuited, QT suited or unsuited

Apart from the small pocket pairs, you should lean towards RAISING hands if you are first in the pot. If you're not comfortable raising them, then you should most probably fold them.

Hope that helps!

[SHAKE]

I think though that Dans explination of Mzones can definatly be applied to SNG's. Also they are great to learn final table play. When i first started on line i played the 11's at full tilt, i played about 500 then moved up to the 22's where i put in maby 2k or so. I then quit online to focus on live cash games. I recently came back to online playing nl and dabling in some MTT's. Every mtt ive played in, in wich i made the final table ive placed first or second. (9 wins 3 seconds) i know for a fackt that i was dominating the FT's becasue of all the time i took learing sng's. Definatly get sng powertools it helped me alot. in the end though i found that Sngs IMO are the most unprofitable for of poker from a cash EV perspective (uless you play 100's and up) however believe it or not the swings on your roll will be less and your %EV will remain moderatly consistand. We mesure this in ROI (return on investment) Im sure the stickies refer to it.

So gl, but dont try to limit yourelf to one kind of poker. Now that i play different structures and games i find my over all TimeROI is much higher, as I can play the type of game that im in the mood to play. And when you play poker, and your really in the mood to play poker, you play better.
GL

[topsoyale]

The banroll point was exceptionally important here.
SNG's are a fairly low variance form of poker, and as such a nice way for beginners to build a bankroll, but you can still go on long losing streaks that seem very bad when you're only just starting out.

So start of within your bankroll, possibly even playing the $1's on Pokerstars to get used to the style of play in general.
Then move up when you feel confident that you're beating the game and have the bankroll to do so.

Read all the stickes and articles you can in the sit and go strategy section and you should be fine.

Good luck