SNGs – What Are They, and Are They Worth Playing?
With so many different poker formats
available, it can be difficult, 🌛 especially for beginners, to choose the best game to
play. One of the most popular formats for new players are 🌛 sit and go tournaments.
Today
we will take a look at the pros and cons of playing sit and go tournaments(SNGs) 🌛 and
try to explain all the basic concepts you will need to understand before jumping into
these games.
What Are SNGs?
Sit 🌛 and Go tournaments (SNGs) are online poker tournaments
that start when a preset number of players have signed up. SNGs 🌛 can vary greatly in
number of players, the amount of time blind levels last, prize distribution, buy in
size and 🌛 more.
SNG tournaments are sometimes played in the live arena as well,
particularly at the WSOP, but they really started to 🌛 be a significant part of the poker
industry when online poker blew up in the early 2000s. Since waiting for 🌛 scheduled
tournaments to start can be a real hassle, the online sites introduced SNGs as a
perfect alternative and the 🌛 SNG grinders were born.
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The Structure
When they were first introduced, SNGs were usually 9 or 10
man tournaments with 🌛 10 minute blind levels. As the time went on, new, different and
more exciting formats were introduced until very few 🌛 continued playing the “normal”
speed or 9 man SNGs.
Instead, most serious players nowadays prefer playing 6 Max Turbo
or Hyper 🌛 Turbo SNGs. While the faster structure of such tournaments does limit the
skill factor of these games, players prefer the 🌛 shorter overall game time which often
leads to a higher hourly win rate for competent players.
Heads Up SNGs, especially
Hyper 🌛 Turbo with extremely fast blind levels, have become popular for the multi table
grinders. These players simply try to get 🌛 as much volume in as possible and profit from
online poker rooms’ returns such as rakeback and loyalty programs. With 🌛 recent changes
to PokerStars VIP system, this way of grinding life is disappearing for many low-mid
stakes HUSNG grinders.
Many players 🌛 still also compete in the Turbo Multi Table SNGs
where 18 to 180 players compete for a share of the 🌛 prize pool. These tournaments often
play more like regular MTTs, with more players than your usual SNG but still start 🌛 up
as soon as sufficient player numbers have signed up.
Return Of Investment And Hourly
Rates
If you are serious about poker, 🌛 you are in it for the money. The way to measure
your winnings in SNGs is through Return of Investment 🌛 (ROI) and the hourly win rate.
Players often have varying opinions on which one is more important, but in general 🌛 the
higher your hourly win rate, the more money you will be making.
Return of Investment is
the percentage of the 🌛 average buy in which you make per tournament played. For example,
if you playR$5 SNGs and your ROI is 10%, 🌛 this means you are winningR$0.50 per
tournament played. This may seem low, but in fact the numbers in the modern 🌛 game tend
to be even lower for winning players and the volume is extremely important.
This is
where the hourly win 🌛 rate kicks in. No matter what your ROI is, the more tables you can
play at the same time the 🌛 more money you can make per hour. For instance, if you can
comfortably play 10 tables at once without it 🌛 diminishing your ROI than you will make a
higher hourly win rate than playing just one or five tables at 🌛 once. The top players in
the game play much more than 10 tables at once as most of their decisions 🌛 in SNG
tournaments are fairly common and easy to make for experienced players.
The Phases
SNG
tournaments can be characterized as having 🌛 three important phases. The early, middle
and late phase.
The Early Phase is the first few levels of the tournament. The 🌛 stack to
blind ratio is high as you will often start the tournament with 100 BBs and you will
have 🌛 little reason to get involved with anything but strong holdings as there is very
little to steal in terms of 🌛 blinds. This is the phase where you will let the fish hang
themselves playing weak hands and own them when 🌛 you get dealt the monsters. If you
don’t get any big hands, preserve your chips, play well and wait for 🌛 the time when
blinds begin to matter.
The Middle Phase of a SNG tournaments starts with the
introduction of the antes. 🌛 Antes are very important in SNGs as they start to make the
pots significant to steal. At this moment the 🌛 average stack will have gone down to
about 20 BBs and it will be time to start using your stack 🌛 to steal chips relentlessly.
The re-shove becomes an extremely powerful play in this phase as players will be
opening hands 🌛 they are not willing to stack off with, hoping to steal the blinds. You
will have a lot of opportunities 🌛 to steal chips and grow your stack without
showdowns.
The Late Phase is usually on the bubble and in the money. 🌛 From a monetary
perspective, this is the most important phase as your mistakes will cost you the most
here, and 🌛 good plays will make you the most money. Learning a solid push-fold game will
be extremely important for the late 🌛 game, and a solid understanding of the ICM will be
equally as important. If there is one thing to remember 🌛 at this point is that you will
hardly ever really be able to open/fold. If you are going into a 🌛 hand you will usually
be going All In.
Why Not Cash Games?
There isn’t really any downside to playing cash
games in 🌛 general, if you can beat them. However, from my personal experience, SNGs are
an easier game to learn and an 🌛 easier game to beat. Cash games are often very
challenging on many levels, mostly psychological and the fact you will 🌛 spend so much of
your time playing very deep stacks translates into more opportunities for making huge
mistakes and tilting 🌛 your bankroll away in one bad session.
SNGs are less prone to such
big mistakes and while you may not be 🌛 able to win as much right away in them, you will
also limit your losses and learn discipline by playing 🌛 these games. Personally, I think
that most money is to be won in the cash games, but SNGs are a 🌛 perfect stepping stone
on your road to a successful cash game player.
Final Thoughts
I often hear people
asking if it is 🌛 still possible to win money playing SNGs and the answer is definitely
yes. The game requires solid knowledge of mathematical 🌛 concepts such as ICM and general
shoving ranges, but once learned it can be quite a consistent and good source 🌛 of poker
income and can even help improve your MTT game.
The increase in the average player
skill we have seen 🌛 in recent years has led to the variance being a bigger problem than
ever, so be prepared for some serious 🌛 downswings and upswings. Yet, if you use proper
bankroll management and play in the games you can actually beat, there 🌛 is absolutely no
reason SNG tournaments should not be a profitable game for you.
