One of the biggest novelties that online poker brought to the game is the vast selection
of game formats available ❤️ to players. While live poker rooms usually only offer a
handful of choices to the players, online poker sites offer ❤️ a variety of stakes and
game types to pick from.
SNG poker became one of the most popular variants in the ❤️ early
days of online games, as operators pushed this format heavily, and players quickly fell
in love with it.
In this ❤️ guide to poker SNGs, we will take a look at what is sit and go
poker is, how to play ❤️ it, and how to think about these games compared to MTTs, cash
games, and other game formats.
If you are new ❤️ to online poker and looking to specialize
in one game type, keep reading and find out why SNG poker might ❤️ be the right choice and
how best to adapt to it.
What Is Sit and Go Poker?
The name sit and go ❤️ (SNG, sit ‘n go)
stands for a particular type of tournament poker that slightly differs from a classic
tournament you ❤️ might see in your local card room. Unlike such scheduled events, SNGs
don't start at a particular time but kick ❤️ off when enough players register for a
game.
The number of players needed for an SNG poker game to start can ❤️ be anywhere
between two and several hundred, but in each case, the game will only start when enough
players are ❤️ registered.
A sit-and-go tournament usually has a fixed prize pool as well,
although some poker sites have introduced "on demand" SNGs ❤️ where the prize pool can
grow when additional players register after the event starts.
A typical SNG features
fairly fast blind ❤️ levels and finishes in between one and two hours, making such games a
lot more convenient for recreational players or ❤️ part-time grinders.
Yet, SNGs retain
the traits of tournament poker, which means you will still benefit from understanding
concepts such as ❤️ ICM but will not have to play a single game for countless hours only
to receive a min-cash after a ❤️ brutal bust out.
Types of Poker SNG Games
If you open the
SNG lobby on any major online poker site, you will ❤️ notice many different types of SNGs
listed there.
For starters, you will find games at many buyin levels, ranging from
micro ❤️ stakes likeR$0.10 orR$0.50 all the way up toR$500 orR$1,000 entry fee. Beyond
that, SNGs can be played with different numbers ❤️ of players, and you will be offered
many options.
Some of the most popular single-table SNG variations include:
Heads-up
SNGs (two players),
6-max ❤️ SNGs (six players),
Full-ring SNGs (nine players)
Big online
poker sites like GGpoker also offer multi-table SNGs with multiple tables. These games
❤️ can require anywhere between 18 and 360 players to start and offer much bigger prize
pools.
Besides the number of players ❤️ in the SNG, different games will feature different
blind levels, with most sites typically offering hyper-turbo, turbo, normal, and slow
❤️ blinds.
The main difference between these SNG types will be their duration, with
hyper-turbo and turbo games finishing fast but allowing ❤️ you to see fewer hands
throughout the game.
As an SNG player, you will have an incredible amount of choice and
❤️ will be able to pick and choose the games you enjoy playing and have the biggest edge
in.
SNG Poker vs. ❤️ MTTs & Cash Games
More often than not, new poker players tend to
prefer playing poker SNGs to scheduled tournaments or ❤️ cash games, and there are several
reasons for that.
Compared to scheduled tournaments which can see thousands of players
register to ❤️ play, SNGs always have a limited number of players and tend to finish quite
quickly. This is an ideal setting ❤️ for a novice player just looking to play some poker
but not necessarily spend the entire night grinding it out.
What's ❤️ even more, there is
less pressure in SNGs, as even the final table of a multi-table SNG will not have
❤️ massive pay jumps as an MTT might have.
With this in mind, the skill required to play
SNGs effectively is also ❤️ lesser. Playing in SNGs, you will not be put to the test for a
lot of money often, and your ❤️ decisions will be relatively linear in value throughout
the game.
In comparison to cash games, SNGs offer more short-term rewards, as ❤️ winning a
game will win you several buyins for a single table and up to a few dozen buyins for ❤️ a
multi-table SNG.
Furthermore, SNG poker is much easier to master, as shorter average
stacks throughout the game allow for less ❤️ maneuvering space and make every play simpler
and clear cut.
While playing SNGs profitably is certainly not simple, it could be ❤️ said
that out of the three big poker variants, SNG poker requires a skill set that is
easiest and fastest ❤️ to learn, which makes it appealing to novice players who are
looking for a game type where they can quickly ❤️ hold their own against more experienced
opponents.
ROI, Hourly Win Rates, and Variance in SNGs
If you want to become a
sit-and-go ❤️ poker player, you will have to learn how to track your progress and winnings
and know whether you are winning ❤️ or losing in a particular game.
It is important to
understand that SNG poker is all about volume. The more games ❤️ you can play, the better,
provided you are playing at a high enough level to beat the games.
Due to their ❤️ fast
structure and limited winning potential in each game, SNGs are an extremely high
variance game where even the best ❤️ winning players cannot hope to win more than 10-15%
of their buyin per game.
Winnings in SNG tournaments are measured by ❤️ the same metric we
use for scheduled tournaments: return on investment (ROI).
ROI is the percentage of
your buyin you win ❤️ every time you play a particular game. Calculating this stat is easy
for the tournaments you have played already, but ❤️ you should also be able to predict
your future ROI once you play enough games.
For example, let’s imagine you are
❤️ playingR$10 single table SNGs. The first step will be to play at least a few hundred of
these quick games ❤️ to get a vague idea of how you are doing in them.
After 300 games,
you have paidR$3,000 in buyins and ❤️ cashed outR$3,300 in total. This would mean you are
winning at a 10% ROI, as yourR$300 profit represents 10% of ❤️ the overall money you
bought in for.
The next thing you should do is calculate your win rate per game (in
❤️ this case, it isR$0.30) and then calculate how many SNGs you can play in one hour to
get an idea ❤️ of your hourly win rate.
Keep in mind that 300 SNGs are actually not nearly
enough to calculate your actual win ❤️ rate, and you should probably play at least a few
thousand games before you can confidently determine your ROI.
What’s more, ❤️ an ROI of
10% in most SNG games these days is considered very high, and if you are winning at ❤️ 3
or 4%, you are doing more than the majority of the field.
How to Play SNG Poker
If you
have decided ❤️ that SNGs are the game format you wish to try to master, you will need to
learn quite a few ❤️ skills and adapt to these tournaments before you can start
winning.
SNG tournaments are very fast in their nature, and there ❤️ are a few basic
stages, with major adjustments needed in each phase.
We will briefly cover each phase
of an SNG ❤️ tournament now and give you some key pointers that you should consider the
next time you play.
Early Stage SNG Play
In ❤️ its early stages, SNG tournaments resemble
MTTs in many ways. You will start with 100 big blinds in your stack, ❤️ often without an
ante in play, and well away from the money.
In this stage, you will want to play fairly
❤️ conservatively and straight-forward, as your incentive to steal the blinds is very
small. In early positions, you should only open ❤️ and play your strongest hands while
slightly expanding your range as you get into the later positions.
You should be
mindful ❤️ of playing easily dominated hands like AJ, KQ, or JT against raises and mostly
fold these hands when another player ❤️ opens the pot.
Also, consider that the amount of
chips you need to accumulate to win an SNG is much smaller ❤️ than in an MTT, which means
taking speculative lines and spots is less rewarding.
In the early stages, you will be
❤️ playing tight and aggressively while hoping that a recreational player will make a big
mistake and dump their chips your ❤️ way to double you up.
Middle Stage SNG Play
As the
blinds start to escalate and the ante kicks in, you will ❤️ need to expand your ranges and
start playing for the dead money more.
The chip stacks will quickly dwindle down to
❤️ 20-30 big blinds on average, allowing you to take aggressive lines, such as shoving
over open raises from late positions, ❤️ and punish any potential limpers.
While you
should be quite reluctant to bust out with a hand like AQ or TT ❤️ in the early stages of
an SNG, the middle stages make such confrontations nearly inevitable.
Learning how to
play with short ❤️ and middling stacks will be key for this part of the game, and this may
just be the most difficult ❤️ period of an SNG to navigate properly.
Late Stage SNG
Play
This brings us to the late-stage play, which usually starts around ❤️ the bubble in
single-table SNGs and on the final table of multi-table SNGs.
In the late stage, the
average stack will ❤️ be very short, and your only play will often be to move all-in or
fold your cards, or call off ❤️ an all-in from another player.
Fortunately, this type of
short stack play is fairly easy to learn with some simple push/fold ❤️ charts, which you
should memorize by heart before you consider playing SNGs seriously.
You will also need
to learn as much ❤️ as possible about the independent chip model (ICM), a very useful
concept in late-game situations and tournament final tables.
Combining proper
❤️ short-stack play with the right ICM decisions will make you an SNG champion, but it may
take many hours of ❤️ practice before you get there.
The Swingy Nature of SNG
Poker
Perhaps the biggest discouraging factor for many new SNG players is ❤️ the extreme
swings they often encounter in these games. Upon signing up with a new poker site,
players often manage ❤️ to build up a bit of a bankroll in a good run and expect this run
to never stop.
However, SNGs ❤️ are extremely swingy, and the variance in these games is
massive, which means even the biggest winners go on huge ❤️ losing streaks.
If you want to
play SNGs for a living or grind them part-time, you must understand that long
downswings ❤️ that will cost you dozens of buyins are inevitable.
The real art is in
recognizing when you are running badly and ❤️ when you are playing badly and doing
everything you can to always play proper poker despite the way cards may ❤️ be
falling.
Start Your SNG Journey Today
There is no way to put everything you need to
know about SNG poker into ❤️ one article, which is why this guide serves only to point you
in the right direction.
If you want to get ❤️ serious about SNGs, we recommend signing up
for a more extensive course, practicing both in play and in the lab, ❤️ and dedicating
time to learning how to play each stage of an SNG correctly.
With enough effort, you
will be able ❤️ to reach a point where you are steadily beating low to mid-stakes SNG
games, and further progress will depend on ❤️ your continued dedication to the game.
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