Guide Part One

Beating the 6.50 Turbos on Stars

Part One : Introduction to SNGs and SNGPT


Hi there,

I’m a fairly experienced SNG player. I currently play the 25+2s on Stars, but have played all the stakes up ‘til there. I’m going to be writing a 4-part article on playing and beating the low-stake turbos, specifically the 6.50s on Stars. I’m not sure how much this’ll apply for Party because of the structure difference.

The first part, this one, will explain the various elements of a SNG, along with a rather indispensable tool - SNGPT - whose functions I will explain later on.

What is a SNG?

A SNG, or Sit’N’Go, is a type of tournament. They’re usually single-table tournaments, and they start as soon as they fill up. The difference between a tournament and a cash game is that in a tournament, the blinds go up as you go along. Turbo, or "speed" SNGs, have blinds that advance rapidly. On Stars, they advance every five minutes. This has a major effect on how the game is played. In essence, a SNG is all about blind-stealing and pushbotting (see 'SNGPT and pushbotting'). We'll see this in the middle and late stages, or parts 3 and 4.

SNGs vs Cash

The main difference between SNG and cash games is simple: cash games are poker; SNGs are not. There's a big difference between deciding whether or not to value bet on the river, or push (donk) the turn, and figuring out whether or not to push with your 2.5BB stack. SNGs are a hundred times easier to make money at in the lower-stakes. Once you hit 50-60$ buyins, cash games become much more profitable.

Roughly:

3.40s - 5/10NL
6.50s - 25NL
15+1s - 50NL
25+2s - 100NL
55+5s - 400NL

Why I play SNGs

I play SNGs for a very simple reason: they're easy. They're easy to learn and make money at. As TwistedEcho once said, 'It's like printing money.' The same could be said for 100NL, of course, but even that requires a greater amount of thought. Another thing I like about SNGs is the greater amount of donks there. Even winning cash-game players will be losing turbo SNG players if they don't know what they're doing. I like the fact that there is a beginning, a middle, and an end; this helps me end a session. You are much less susceptible to tilt while playing SNGs.

Finally, there's something cool about playing at 1000/2000. Go laugh at your friends and their pathetic 10/20NL.

SNGPT and pushbotting

SNGPT is an acronym for Sit'N'Go Poer Tools. It is a program that, based on information such as the blinds, your hand, and calling ranges of your opponents, will tell you whether or not a push or preflop all-in move is profitable. Reducing most of your pre-flop moves to folding or going allin is called pushbotting. When you've pretty got no other option to going allin, you're pushbotting. We'll see this especially in the late stages of a SNG.
You can get it here.

That's it for Part One. Part Two will be up shortly.