SNG = Printing money

Ok, so now you've read my first update, and are possibly wondering how sngs are so profitable. Obviously there is more money in cashgames, but who cares. Cashgames require you to actually play poker, and be semi good - anyone can play sngs! The whole point of sngs are they not just mini tournaments, but they play totally different. In a tournament, payouts are so top heavy that its good to gamble early to win chips, as the aim isn't to fold into the first payout structure but to final table and hopefully come top 2 (where all the money is). However, sngs have a much flater payout structure, so in some sense you no longer are playing for first, but playing to come in the top 3, THEN playing for first.

Ok firstly stats. If i use this blog to keep track of my stats, then its possible i will update it more. Over the last few days i have played 110 $60 turbos (i play in sets of 10). My ROI (return on investment) is 23% and ITM 45%. I'm pretty sure 20% is about the best you can hope for longterm in these, personally my goal is 15% roi. This works out at about +$1500 so far

So rather than just posting how much i rule (or suck when downswing hits) at these, i guess i could be nice and post some useful hands. Because these are turbos, for the beginning i play really tight. Raising AJ from MP might seem a good idea, but with blinds 10-20 your usually either going to win the blinds, a small pot, or lose a big pot. There really is no reason to get involved too heavily early on without a big hand. This being said, once you get down to the bubble you can play much more hands, but instead of standard raising its often best to push/fold till the sng ends.

So for me, it goes TIGHT->fairly tight ->pushbot maniac as the blinds increase, and more people get knocked out. For anyone playing sngs, the main software that you really should own is called sng powertools. This lets you plugin the stacks of all the players along with the blinds, and lets you see what hand you should push in different situations.

One final note, Heads up at the end of sngs is often played wrong by most people. By the time you get HU in a turbo, the blinds will often be pretty big, and one of you will have about 10bb stacks. If either of you or your opponent has 10bb, then you should be pushing or folding preflop - not raising 3bb or anything. This is an easy way to play HU, and profitable too.

With 10bb the hands you should push are 54s, 65s, 75s+, 86s+, 96s+, T7s+, T9, J7s+, J9+, Q3s+, Q8+, K2+, A2+, 22+. (This assumes a calling range of 22+, A2+, K2+, Q7+, J8+, T9s for the villian). Onbviously peoples calling range is different, but as a standard this one isn't bad (but possibly a touch too loose).

If you were to play against a mirror image of yourself, you should be calling with JTs, Q9s+, QT+, K5s+, K8o+, A2+, 22+.

If you use ICM, you can plug in ranges for opponents, and work out what range you should be pushing in such a situation. Heads up isn't hard, its about what range will he call, and then you have a defined set of hands which are profitable to push. There is no grey areas, if the calling range is correct, then so is the pushing range.

Hopefully thats helpful, its a few thoughts kinda thrown together. Over my next few posts i will show some HH where i play the bubble (correctly or incorrectly), i'll show some pushes and the sngPT stats that accompany the push, and show some 3 handed/HU play