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Strategy: SNG: Sit and Go Tournaments

Raise sizes in different blind levels

by steinek

Introduction

In this article

Why you raise before the flop
How much you should raise
Why you should adapt your raise sizes

In the introductory article, "How to play before the flop", you learn first of all to raise to 4BB before the flop if you have more than 13BB in your stack and want to attack the blinds. In the beginning this is definitely a strategy which you can play very profitably. However, it is advisable not to stick to it stubbornly, but to vary the size of the raise in the range between 2,5 and 4BB if you have more than 13BB in your stack.

In this article you learn when and why you should raise before the flop and by how much.

Next article: Sit and Go Strategy Overview

That's not the entire article...

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Comments (21)

#1 Cardbender, 23 Apr 10 20:13

Thanks for the article!

#2 drawback, 23 Apr 10 23:28

Yeah, ty very much.

#3 antonin87, 24 Apr 10 06:59

nice..thanx

#4 Sejnar, 27 Apr 10 00:47

Good one, Figured it out myself, nice to see it added to the selection of articles.

#5 joeldowey123, 10 Jun 10 13:46

good read thanks for the tips

#6 AleMantovani, 14 Jul 10 17:09

Great article, and made me happy to know I'd have taken the right path

#7 dadaas, 25 Jul 10 14:45

Very exploitable

#8 Venukhalidindi, 02 Aug 10 13:29

can someone send me the article , i have no access: my email: matchyoungboy@hotmail.de

#9 Bebebe88, 11 Sep 10 12:54

very interesting

#10 VladimirLaki, 06 Oct 10 20:57

Very good article

#11 27twoseven, 08 Nov 10 09:46

Great article, thanks

#12 madaracis, 24 Nov 10 14:57

Pretty helpful, thanks.

#13 minkur, 28 Nov 10 17:41

great aticle

#14 Preiby, 21 Jan 11 08:47

Maybe is even better to bet as little as 2,4BB or in late phase (when you are not good enought to push or call AI) even less in SnG tournament. The reason is simple. On microstakes there are not many players who will 3bet light you and if you feel resistance, you can easily fold and lose very few. I play 18max turbo on PokerStars and I use that concept very succesfull, as I get barely exploited, because there are not lot of players, who understand, what I am trying to do. This is even more important, when ante comes in. All you have to consider is your stack and effective stack of other players, position of shortstack (and you have to know, who are you willing to call and who will force you fold with 3bet push).

#15 legend4ry, 29 Jan 11 22:49

thanks

#16 SPADES1, 01 Feb 11 08:02

From a mathematical point o view all sounds good, but there's sth which isn't taken into account: The most of the time (especially in early stages for small buy-in (1-3 euros)) a raise of 4bb is called in the same way is called a smaller one. It follows that if hero does't hit the flop (and we now this happen 1 out of 3) the chances of suceeding with a c-bet are reduced. So how can we cope with very good hand like (AK, AQ) with more than 35 bb if a raise of 4 bb (sometimes also a raise of 6 bb) is often followed by 3 (and at times 4) players?

Thank you for answering

#17 steinek, 01 Feb 11 09:51

Thanks for the positive feedback.
@14: I agree with your post. For simplicity I wrote 2,5BB here but with higher blinds I tend to make it even smaller and use odd raise sizes in order to make it harder for the opponents to figure out their odds. Thanks.
@16: There are some points that still make the 4BB raise a very profitable play:
-In case we win, we win bigger pots.
-We actually "hit" more often because in out tight ranges there are also lots of high pairs which do not need to improve so we don't have to give up 2/3 of the flops in general.
-If there are more players playing fit or fold (only invest more money in case we hit) is still a very good line. In case we lose, we "just" lose the 4BB but in case we hit there are great chances of doubling up. This is how I use to play AK, AQ.

#18 Bookiebasher82, 06 Mar 11 22:24

nice article,its things like this that help people out when 1st starting,nice1

#19 Spidey1978, 13 Apr 11 20:56

Nice Article - looking forward to implementing it into my game.
Quick question - In advanced early and medium phases should I add 1BB per limper still?

i.e. 3BB+1BB and 2.5BB+1BB respectively.

#20 tagant, 21 Jul 11 05:15

ty, nice article

#21 Skraggy, 05 Jan 12 13:31

will there be an update to include changes to this strategy when you play a turbo sng and antes come in?

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Strategy Sections

Article Contents

Introduction
The very early phase
The advanced early phase
The medium phase
Blind levels and standard raises on different poker rooms
Summary:

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