SNG Guide for Beginners

This guide is made especially for players who are complet beginners but also for players who already have some experience with SNG's. Also this guide is refered to the regular PartyPoker-SNG's where the Levels last 10 Minutes instead of 5 minutes.
The aim of the tacitcs explained here is designed for winning every single SNG. It has nothing to do with moving yourself "in the money" somehow, instead this guide concentrates on winning the first place every time you sit at the table.
This means you will have to take higher risks which will also eliminate you at 4th or 5th place but therefore you will more often go for the first place.

Basics

In PartyPoker you start with 2000 chips, resulting in a short length (40-50 minutes) for the SNG. The disadvantage here is that you will have less chance to make moves when you have an edge on the higher blinds. On the other hand, you can earn more per hour since the SNGs finish more quickly than other blind and chip structures.

The payouts for PartySNGs are

1st place - 50%

2nd place - 30%

3rd place -20%

of the whole pool.

ROI

ROI means 'Return of Investment' and describes the expected value per SNG.

An ROI of 20% of a 50+5 SNG would mean $11 profit per SNG ($55 * 20% = $11), that is you expect that for every $55 you invest you get $66 back ($50+$5+$11).

To calculate the ROI, use the following equation:

ROI % = Profit / Total Buy-In

example:

You play 10 $20+$2 SNGs with the placings:

2 x 1. (2 x 100$ = 200$ )

1 x 2. (1 x 60$ = 60$)

1 x 3. (1 x 40$ = 40$)

6 x 6. (6 x 0$ = 0$)

The total buy-in is $220 (10*$22) and the total winnings are $300 ($200+$60+$40).

Subtract the buy-in from the winnings to get the profit:

Profit = total gains - total buy-in

Profit = 300$ - 220$

Profit = 80$

Now to find the ROI, just divide the profit by the total buy-in.

ROI % = Profit / Total Buy-In

ROI % = 80$ / 220$

ROI % = 0,3636

ROI = 36,36%

To avoid making this calculation by hand every time there are many tools to do it for you, like SNG Tracker or Excel tables. I'll comment on the functionality and sense of these tools later.

To find the ROI value you can expect from a very good player I use the values posted on 2+2:

10+1 (11$) - 25% ROI
20+2 (22$) - 20% ROI
30+3 (33$) - 16% ROI
50+5 (55$) - 13% ROI
100+9 (109$) - 10% ROI
200+15 (215$) - 7% ROI

These are not rigorous mathematic figures but are instead empirical, coming from large samples of the values of many frequent SNG players.

Multitabling

The number of tables you play at once is your own choice. I started with 4 tables and now I'm up to 8. It's fine even if it's hectic sometimes when it's your turn on a lot of tables and only a few players are left in the games. It's certain that the more tables you play the less you can concentrate on individual players and situations, and as a result the ROI will fall.

But there is a sunny side to mulitabling: the hourly payoff.

Take for example a player that makes an ROI of 15% on 30+3 SNGs and only plays one table at a time. Per SNG his expected value is $4.95. Assume that our player is considering jumping to 4 tables at once. His concentration will suffer some and some winning moves will slip by, bringing his ROI to 10% and his expected value per table to $3.30.

If we compare these data we will see that our player makes almost 3 times as much playing 4 tables than just 1:

15% ROI, 33$ Buy-In, 1 table= 1 x 4.95$

10% ROI, 33$ Buy-In, 4 tables = 4 x 3.30$ = 13.20$

The number of tables should be increased until you think that you've reached a maximum. Play this setup until you feel confident you can open another table.

You can download a program (MTH- MultiTableHelper) at http://www.multitablehelper.com that will

1. Automatically set up the tables

2. Automatically open SNGs and pick a place

3. keep the active table in the foreground until the action has been made

4. allow you to control the tables by voice recognition

The program is shareware an the basic version only allows up to 3 tables. A license to remove this limit costs $25 and to me it's worth every dollar. MTH makes it possible to control 12 tables on one monitor without problems.

Statistics

To get an overview of your SNGs I recommend the program 'Tourney Manager'.

Tourney Manager reads the saved hand histories, evaluates them and shows you comprehensive stats on all your SNGs. Graphical evaluations are also possible. Tourney Manager can be downloaded at http://www.tourneymanager.net for $25.

ITM / In the Money

The ITM value describes the freuency of placement for prize money. Logically, the average ITM value for all players is around 30%. Here I will point out that the goal is not to place for any prize money but to have the will to take 1st place and win the SNG. I will explain how to do this in the tactical part of the article.

Bankroll management

Here, too, we can only use the standard answer: „It depends..." It happens even to the best players that they are OOM (out of the money) 15 times in a row in a short period of time and lose a few buy-ins because of it. You should have 30 buy-ins for a level and you should drop down a level at under 20 buy-ins, playing at this level until you again have 30 buy-ins for the next higher level.

I'm conservative myself and propose a bankroll of AT LEAST 75 buy-ins per level, so that you aren't forced to continuously switch between levels. Furthermore, with a large bankroll you can easily handle even larger downswings without problem. If you enjoy risk, you can use the 30 buy-in rule. (Important: when figuring bankroll you must always count the rake in the buy-ins).

Strategy

I will divide the strategy into early level, middle level, and late level according to the blinds.

General

The standard raise first in is ca. 3 big blinds.
The standard raise is around 3 times the raise before you.
In the early levels every hand from the SB can be completed.
You do not need to defend your big blind against a raise with marginal cards.

Early Level: (20/40 - 30/60 Blinds)

In this beginning level it is important to play very tight, but also to recognize opportunities to double or make significant additions to your stack with little risk.

Especially on the first blind levels it is important to protect your good cards and not try to play too „tricky." I won't expound on the particular card combinations but I will give a line for playing cards in specific situations.

Offsuited Facecards

(JTo, QTo, QJo, KTo, KJo, ATo) should be folded without further thought in EP to MP. If you're against a bunch of limpers in LP, you can try to see a cheap flop wtih KJo or QJo, but you must remember that these hands are too often dominated. Since probably only 2-pair will be hit with these cards the idea is not to put more money in the pot.

Suited Facecards

(JTs QTs QJs KTs) it's basically the same. You don't want to raise with these cards, rather you want to see cheap flops and hope to hit a monster.

In EP and EMP you can basically fold these cards, since the chance of somebody raising behind you is too great. The further back your position and the more limpers before you, the more playble these hands become.

Exception hands KQo and AJo belong to the type of hands that have a certain strength but are often dominated. In EP thse hands should be folded, in MP 50/50 fold/limp or fold/first-in raise and in LP limp/first-in raise.

KQs is also a hand that must be given special attention. The suitedness gives the hand more value but does not protect against domination. You should basically limp with this hand, but in LP you could raise first-in.

Important: all of these hands should be folded without exception if a raise has come before you as they are simply too weak to compete with that. (Of course there are exceptions. If somebody just min raises and you have a hand like KQo in the BB.)

To be clear once again: the pre-flop game I describe here for the first levels is intentionally weak-tight, since the point in the beginning is to survive or to double your stack if the opportunity arises.

Pocketpairs

(22-99) can develop into monsters. If you hit your set you quite probably have the best hand. Sets are optimal for getting properly paid off and doubling your stack. You should try to see cheap flops with these hands. Since probability of being raised is high, 22-77 should be folded in EP. I call raises cold in LP with small PP's as long as the raise is not larger than 1/10 of my stack.

Monster

(AA, KK, QQ) are the hands that can boost your stack but can also cost you a few big pots if you don't manage to fold them at the proper time, should the post-flop action indicate that you are beaten. You must protect these hands and prevent other players from drawing. If nobody has raised before you, I recommend raising by 4 BB plus 1 BB per limper. If there are 2 limpers before you on the 10/15 level, for example, you would raise by 90. There are enough players on PartyPoker who seem to have made a hobby out of paying other people off. If a raise came before you, raise by 2.5-4 times the previous raise depending on the strength of your hand.

If you're playing a hand in the first blind level 10/15 and want to raise, you should raise by at least 4 BB if not 5. You want to play your cards against 1 or at most 2 opponents, so it is important to make it as expensive as possible for others to enter the game.

Lil' Monster

(JJ, TT) TT is an exception with which you should raise around 75% of the time and limp the other 25%. After a raise and a re-raise you should fold these hands.

You'll have to make tough decisions if you are raised and then re-raised by another player with these hands. If your opponent makes a minimum raise, you almost always have the odds for a call and to try and hit your set. If your raise is tripled or quadrupled then you must decide whether you're ahead or whether to toss the hand out and with for another opportunity.

If you raise in EP or, even better, in UTG and somebody re-raises you should respect this raise more than if you had open raised as the button and the BB re-raised.

Big Broadway

(AKs / AKo / AQs / AQo)
AKs and AKo should be played like AA; you will raise and re-raise. AQ is a hand that can bring you to despair. I always open-raise with this hand, but if somebody has already raised before me I'm often inclined to fold the cards since this is a hand that is at best a coin-toss against another raise. If a maniac raises and you have a good read on him you can try to isolate him with a re-raise. AQ is definitely a trouble hand that often wins small pots and loses big ones.

Suited Connector

(45s - T9s)
If the circumstances are correct these hands are worth gold. Pre-requisite is that you are in LP and at least 3 players have limped before you. It is important that you mainly speculate on straights, flushes, or trips and fold hands like top pair. More about this in the post-flop part.

Blind steals

Blind stealing is not necessary in the first two levels. It is only interesting after the 50/100 blinds. But with a big stack you can also try attacking the blinds on 25/50, if the situation is good (everybody folds, you're in CO or the button). This can be done even with marginal hands like QTo, T9 etc.

Early Level Pre-flop - summary

Tight is right
be cautious with your stack and don't waste chips
fold marginal hands
protect good cards

Middle Level : (50/100 - 100/200 Blinds)

At this level it is important to go after others' blinds and to get a good staging area for the bubble situation. Depending on stack size and situation you must take opportunities to increase your stack and pressure other people.

The following overview shows how to go about with your particular stack size. It should provide a rough line for your own orientation. It's taken exclusively from my own experience.

1-2 BB	3 - 10BB	10-15BB	15-20BB	20BB+
Allin with every pair, Ax, Kx, any 2 suited, any 2 connected	'Push or Fold' - Mode	Stay calm, only steal blinds in PERFECT situations	Tight! If the time is right => steal the blinds	Tight, Blind steals are not so important

The „Push or Fold" mode means that you either fold your hand or go directly all-in. When exactly to push is determined by the the topic of ICM (independent chip model), which I will explain below.

If you were lucky in the first level and doubled your stack, you can use the size of your stack to pressure the blinds. It is important that you do not try to steal the blinds at random but that you pay attention to all important factors to give your blind steals a greater probability of success.

1. Your position: The CO and Button are optimal positions for stealing blinds. The fewer opponents who can act after you the smaller the probability that somebody has good cards.

2. First-In: Nobody can have raised or limped before you.

3. Your stack size: If you have fewer than 9 BB, you do not have enough for a blind steal. Here you apply the push or fold mode. I recommend at least 12-13 BB.

4. Stack size of the blinds: if the SB or BB is already all-in or has just 1-3 BB left, you have absolutely no fold-equity (FE). Shortstacked opponents are will often despair and set their whole stack against opponents with a reserve of 7-8 BB. You also don't want to go up against other big stacks, since these will defend their blinds. The best victims are opponents with 5-15 BB.

5. Your hand: Basically you can raise with whatever cards you want, but I prefer to raise with cards that have at least some potential. Pairs, Ax, suited (gap-) connectors or at least King high.

The raise size should not depend on your cards since that would be too transparent. Either you always use the same raise size (e.g. 3 BB) or you swing between 2.5 and 4 BB.

Late Level & Bubble (200-400 - 400/800 Blinds)

Here most players have <10 BB and it's just „push or fold." It is important to know which all-in pushes and which all-in calls are profitable (+EV). Here we can use the Independent Chip Model (ICM).

To explain this model here is beyond the scope of this article, so here are a few links:

TwoPlusTwo - "How to solve certain problems with the ICM (an algorithm)"

TwoPlusTwo - "Testing ICM"

Independent Chip Model Calculator

I definitely recommend that you download SnG Power Tools (http://sitngo-analyzer.com/) to play through different situations. The license costs $79 and is in my opinion the best investment that an SNG player can make. Tutorials in the program explain how it works and how to use it (even in the unregistered version).

The perfect application of ICM decides who will be the winning player and who the loser. This topic should not be underestimated and should be closely studied. You can practice your bubble skills at http://www.pregopoker.com/ , where the first 100 hands are free and after that you pay $24.99/month.

Blind-Battles

Pre-requisites:

- All others have folded

- None of the blinds involved have < 10BB.

Small Blind vs Big Blind

Regardless of blind level I recommend a tight manner of play in the small blind, which of course does not mean to fold all hands other than AA/KK/QQ/JJ.

Marginal hands can be completed and the trash hands can be folded without thinking. Just try to avoid creative or tricky play or raising bad hands, since your position is bad and you want to have a half-way playable hand if your opponent calls.

Your raising rangs should look something like this: 22+, A2s+, A7o+, KTs+, KJo+

Because of good pot odds you can complete marginal hands. Here it is important that you make a continuation bet of around 2/3 pot size. If you encounter resistence I recommend directly giving up the pot provided you have not improved yourself or have a good read on your opponent.

Completing range: Any connector, Any two suited, A2o - A6o, K8o - KTo, Q9o+, J8o+, T7+, 97o

Depending on the opponent you must adjust your ranges.
=> The looser the BB, the tighter the raising range
=> The tighter the BB, the looser the raising range

=> The more aggressive the BB (pre-flop), the tighter the calling range
=> The more passive the BB (pre-flop), the looser the calling range

Without reads or stats I recommend sticking to the ranges I list here.

Big Blind vs Small Blind

As the big blind you should generally play tight against raises. Because of your superior position you can play looser than in the small blind.

The following applies to standard 2-3 BB raises:

Calling range: 22+, KTo, ATo+, A5s+, KJo+, KTs+, QJ

If the SB completes, you should raise with a whole row of hands and make a standard continuation bet if you are called. Make notes about opponents who often complete with premium hands to provoke a raise and adjust your raising range accordingly.

In this case it is absolutely not about the hand but rather about the opponent.

Heads-up

In heads-up the ICM is used without exception. If it comes to an early heads up, in which the blinds are small in relation to the stack I recommend paying attention to the following points:

- Aggression pays off!

- It is basically wrong to fold the SB

- If the SB completes too much, the BB will raise more often.

- If the BB folds too much, the SB will raise more.

- If you complete as the SB and the BB checks you almost always make a continuation bet.

- If you sense weakness, capitalize without mercy!

SNG Moves

Continuation-Bets

Continuation bets are bets made on the flop after you have raised pre-flop and got called. These bets should be around ½- 2/3 of the pot and are not dependent on whether you hit the board or not.

In hands where you didn't hit anything you should make continuation bets, if possible, in heads-up or at most in 3-way pots.

Good flops for continuation bets:

Only small cards
Small pair on the flop
Uncoordinated flop like K83, J62, Q73 etc.
Every board with As and 2 smaller cards

Example:

MP1 (t3000)

MP2 (t3000)
Hero (t4000)
Button (t3000)
SB (t4000)
BB (t3000)

Blinds: 50/100

Preflop: Hero is CO with KQ .

2 folds, Hero raises to 300 2 folds, BB calls.

Flop: (t650) J, 3, 7 (4 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 375, BB folds

Hero wins 650.

Should you hit a draw, you can also think about checking the flop to gain a free card and make a delayed continuation bet if more weakness is shown (e.g. a further turn check), regardless of whether you hit the draw.

Stop & Go

Call pre-flop and go all in on every flop.

Pre-requisites:

1. You're in the BB

2. You're shortstacked

3. Somebody other than the SB raises pre-flop

4. Nobody but you and the raiser are involved in the hand

5. You think you don't have any fold equity if you go all-in directly pre-flop

6. Your hand is not so strong that you absolutely want to go to the showdown

Example:

MP2 (t6000)
CO (t4000)
Button (t3000)
SB (t4000)
Hero (t3000)

Blinds: 300/600

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5, 5.
MP2 folds, CO raises to 1500, 2 folds, Hero calls

Flop: (t3300) K, 4, 6 (4 players)
Hero bets All-In (1500), CO folds

Blocking-Bets

Blocking bets are river bets that you use to see a cheap showdown when you yourself have a marginal hand. Blocking bets should be around ¼-1/6 of the pot size.

Pre-requisites:

1. The pot is heads-up

2. You have a hand with showdown value but is not a great favorite

3. You are first to act

Example:

Hero (t4000)
MP2 (t6000)
CO (t4000)
Button (t3000)
SB (t4000)
BB (t3000)

Blinds 100/200

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A, J.
Hero raises to t500, 2 folds, CO raises to 800, 3 folds, Hero calls.

Flop: (t1900) 7, 8, 9 (3 players)
Hero checks, CO bets 300, Hero calls.

Turn: (t2500) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks.

River: (t2500) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Hero bets 500, CO calls.

Hero shows AJ for a Pair of Jacks
CO shows 66 for a Pair of Sixes.
Hero wins 3500.

When using a blocking bet, plan on folding against a raise.

Post-flop

To put it briefly: Post-flop (especially in early level) is played just as an NL cashgame. There are superb articles on this topic by other authors in the no-limit section.

Generally I recommend staying out of marginal situations, keeping the pot small with marginal hands OOP and using the right mixture of value bets and bluff induction.