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6 handed SNG strategy

If you’ve played online poker for more than a few hours, then you’ve likely seen the “6 Max” or short handed tables available at sites such as Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars. While this format is rarely offered at live casinos, it’s common to see it available at many online poker sites. Everything about this format lends itself to action and speed. If your style is an aggressive one, then these types of tables may be the perfect fit for you. So in this article we’re going to discuss the primary strategies that you should employ if you’re playing at these tables. You can see a quick impact to your game by only adopting one of these Sit N Go tactics, master them all and the sky’s the limit.

Hit ‘em hard and fast

The blinds at a 6 Max table come at you at a very rapid pace so aggressiveness is definitely the correct play overall. For starters, you will often have the opportunity to “buy the button”. This means that even if you’re second to act in this situation, an aggressive raise may cause the players to your left to fold. If the blinds decide to call your raise and see a flop, you will still have the benefit of being last to act so you’ve essentially “bought the button”. If the blinds check to you, a continuation bet is mandatory here. If you’re check-raised then you will clearly need to evaluate where you are in the hand and react accordingly. In most cases however, you may well take down the pot in this situation. Being successful in these situations will have a tremendous impact on your long term results, especially if you’re a Turbo SNG player.

Tight is right - but not at this table

Many newer players will adopt a tight-aggressive style based on what they’re read in books, etc. This will almost certainly put a dent in your bankroll if you’re playing 6 Max tables. The blinds are coming at you much quicker than if you were seated at a full ring game with 9 or 10 players. If you were to sit and wait for premium hands and fold to small raises when you’re in the blinds, you’re going to look down soon and realize that you’ve lost 10 or more blinds in the process. This isn’t the way to manage a bankroll so to combat that you must play “smart - aggressive” poker. Smart meaning that, just as the example above illustrates, know when to fold’em and when to continue being aggressive. Aggressive is just that: bet, bet, and bet some more. Trusting your reads and playing accordingly is a vital piece of this puzzle, so make sure you’re able to adjust your style when you sit down at one of these tables.

Check-raising to show strength

The check-raise is a powerful weapon in poker; it signals that you wanted your opponent to bet so that you could punish him or her after they make a bet. At a short-handed table this will very often get an opponent off of a draw or small pair. Being selective as to when you use this move can pay big dividends. Make sure that you switch gears when using this move and you’ll keep your opponents guessing. Check-raise that four flush draw on the flop, check-raise that middle pair that you just hit, check-raise when you have complete air but feel that your opponent will fold their middle pair or ace high hand. These are all solid examples of how to make the check-raise work to your benefit.

Summary

These are only a few tips that you should begin to employ when you’re playing any short-handed game. If you’re a standard ring game type player then you should make sure that you’re able to switch gears when you sit down at this table. The biggest danger to your bankroll is thinking that a six-handed table is going to play the same as a 9-10 handed table. So take these tips and work on implementing them into your game, read more strategy articles on this topic and before long you should begin to see very solid results.

Turbo Sit N Go Strategy 101

Part one of an ongoing series by guest contributor Phillip Wheaton

Today I’m going to begin writing down my thoughts as I reflect over the last few years of my personal experience playing Sit N Go’s at various sites such as Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. I started out, like most players, participating in standard SNG tournaments but within a year found myself frustrated. What was I frustrated with? A few things actually:

• The pace of the game was simply too slow (duh)

• My hourly win rate was suffering

• There were always a few rocks at the table that I honestly had trouble playing with

So back in 2005 I began playing Turbo Sit N Go tournaments almost exclusively. In fact, taking a look at my Poker Crusher stats I’ve only played 19 standard SNG’s while playing 1,844 Turbo SNG’s ranging from $11 to $33 this year. My reasons for sticking with this format are pretty much what you’d expect after reading my reasons for leaving the old format SNG’s in the dust:

• The pace of the game was much quicker

• My hourly win rate is much more in line with expectations

• Far more players make mistakes at Turbo tables than standard tables

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So let’s talk about these last three points and break down the advantages of being a solid Turbo SNG player.

The pace of the game

The word turbo (for those that aren’t car savvy types) as it applies to Sit N Go tournaments means faster. More speed. More power. When I say “more power” I’m referring to the fact that as a Turbo Sit N Go expert (which you’ll soon be, right?) you have a LOT of power at the table. By working on the adjustments to your game in order to be a good Turbo SNG player, you’ll find that you wield quite a bit of power at the table. We’ll talk more about this in the third point.

With the faster pace of a Turbo table, you’ll complete more games per hour. Simple math, right? Yes and no. If you dive into these quicker events with no preparations you may just go broke just as quickly. With the quicker clock and the blinds rising accordingly you have to ensure you have made the proper adjustments for this game. As this series goes on, I’ll talk about these adjustments a fair bit.

Increasing your hourly win rate in Turbo Sit N Go’s

In a cash game, you can calculate an hourly win rate in terms of BB/Hour or “Big Blinds won per hour”. There are a few ways you can track winnings in a Sit N Go but we’ll dive into that later. What I want to emphasize here is that regardless of whether you break it down by hour, by number of buy ins, or just by watching your bankroll grow (I do hope you’re more scientific than that), you can earn more dollars more efficiently by focusing on Turbo tables.

When you add multi-tabling to the mix and are able to play 4, 8, or more tables simultaneously, you can really “turbo charge” things (like the play on words there?). We will also dive in the strategies and benefits of playing multiple tables in a later article.

Quicker pace means more mistakes

This is the double-edged sword of playing Turbo Sit N Go’s. With the rapid pace of the game you will see more players make more fundamental mistakes more often. So make sure that you don’t fall into this trap! Things such as playing too many hands, over betting pots, and chasing draws are magnified in a Turbo tournament because you will have less time to recover from these mistakes. Lose too many Big Blinds early and you may find yourself having to push marginal hands and/or draws to get back into the game. This isn’t good for your tournament survival, your bankroll, and it’s certainly not good for your morale as a poker player.

Again, I’ll talk more about specific strategies and how to adjust for a Turbo SNG later in this series. My primary goal here is make aware at a high level of the differentiators and have you commit these to memory. As your game progresses and you find yourself facing tougher opponents and higher stakes, the strategy that I teach you here will become infinitely more valuable.

In the next article, I’m going to talk more about the mistakes that players make and how you can avoid making these errors yourself. I’ll also talk about how to spot the players that are prone to these mistakes and how to punish them for it when you’re in a hand against them. Till then, Good Luck in the Fast Lane!

Phillip Wheaton is a small stakes winning Sit N Go player that plays daily on several sites.

Day 4 update from the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic Championship

With a name suitable for a poker player, Benjamin Straate (pronounced “straight”) is the leader heading into day 5 of the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Classic Championship. The field started off with over 50 players and many big name professionals were still in the hunt when the cards hit the felt. One interesting match up earlier in the event saw just one seat separating Clonie Gowen and Howard Lederer at the same table. Since Clonie is suing Howard’s company, Full Tilt Poker, one may have expected fireworks. Fortunately, there were none as Howard hit the rail long before Clonie. In fact, Clonie is still very much in the hunt with just over a million chips.

Heading into Day 5 the chip counts are as follows:

1st: Benjamin Straate (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), 3,197,000
2nd: Brett Richey (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 2,164,000
3rd: Justin Young (Morehead City, North Carolina), 1,807,000
4th: Evan McNiff (San Diego, California), 1,532,000
5th: Mike Matusow (Las Vegas, Nevada), 1,435,000
6th: Jack Wu (Palo Alto, California), 1,412,000
7th: Amnon Filippi (New York, New York), 1,374,000
8th: Steve Sung (Torrance, California), 1,359,000
9th: Robert Mizrachi (Las Vegas, Nevada), 1,266,000
10th: Hoyt Corkins (Glenwood, Alabama), 1,251,000
11th: Chino Rheem (Las Vegas, Nevada), 1,200,000
12th: Clonie Gowen (Dallas, Texas), 1,049,000
13th: Tom Pniak (Las Vegas, Nevada), 1,041,000
14th: Bill Klein (Laguna Hills, California), 999,000
15th: Ben Tollerene (Lubbock, Texas), 492,000
16th: Nick Schulman (Las Vegas, Nevada), 480,000
17th: Joe McGowan (Las Vegas, Nevada), 420,000
18th: Martin Deknijff (Las Vegas, Nevada), 298,000

WSOP Academy Announces Cash Game Academy

Despite popular public perception, poker players don’t make their living from paydays in tournaments, its typically earned over many grueling hours in cash games. A classic example is Bobby’s Room at Bellagio, which isn’t a tournament area at all, its strictly reserved for those participating in high stakes cash games only.

In light of this fact, the World Series of Poker Academy has announced a new style of poker camp, which it has named Cash Game Academy. The two day events will give players an intensive poker training focused solely on No Limit Hold’em cash game play. All levels of poker players are welcome and will give them the important foundation and tools they will need to be consistent, successful cash game players.

The first of these events will take place on January 24-25 at Harrah’s Atlantic City. Two weeks later the World Series of Poker Academy will make a stop in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace on February 7-8. Instruction at both events will come from poker pros Mark Seif, Paul Wasicka and Alex Outhred amongst other instructors at the Atlantic City event and Seif, Outhred and Michael Gracz lined up for the Las Vegas event.

The cash game curriculum will consist of in-depth seminars, live play workshops, video analysis and a cash game competition over the two days. A few of the topics being focused on is development of reading ability, transition from tournament play to cash game play, putting opponents on hand ranges, bankroll management and sophisticated plays and strategies specific to cash game play. Further driving the message home, each event will offer video analysis of cash game play with instructors dissecting players hands and situations then discussing alternative lines of play.

The grand finale of the Cash Game Academy will feature players competing against their fellow World Series of Poker Academy classmates to determine who made the most correct decisions as well as who managed their bankroll the best during the simulated cash game. The lucky winner will receive an all expense paid trip to Caesars Palace Las Vegas to participate in the World Series of Poker Academy Tournament of Champions, which is scheduled to take place just before the Main Event of the 2009 World Series of Poker.

Tuition for both of the Cash Game Academies is $1,899 and space is limited. Both events are expected to sell out in advance.

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