SNG Cheat Sheet

SNGs and MTTs require very different playing styles. Nine-player SNGs are about making it into the top 1/3 of the field.  There are nine players, and the first three places are paid.

MTTs are a different animal.  There can be hundreds, or even thousands of players.  Usually somewhere between the top 10% and the top 20% make the money, and getting a minimum cash barely covers the tournament buy-in.  For example, in a $10 MTT with 1,000 players and paying 150 places, places 150-140 might win $12 after playing for three hours.

The real money in MTTs is at the final table.  That same 1,000-player $10 tournament would pay something like $3,500 for first place and $2,100 for second.  The serious players aren't trying to get in the top 10% of the field.  They are trying to get into the top 1%, even if it only happens a few times a year.

I am a former SNG specialist, and I've been studying two of Johnathan Little's Books so that I can learn how to play the looser game that works best for MTTs.  I got to the point where I couldn't think about playing any other way, at least as my default style.  When I switched to playing SNGs full time,  I was trying to play a hybrid style that some MTT specialists use when they play SNGs.  A few of those players make it work, but not many.  I certainly didn't.

I knew what I had to do to change back to a good SNG style--play fewer hands, especially in early position (first or second to act in the hand.)  So I started looking at hand ranges and percentages, and fooled around with it for a while.  For example, if I decided that I should play about 20% of my hands from the cutoff (second-to-last to act), I took a look at how Poker Stove quantified the top 20% of hands, which are: 66+, A4s+, K8s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, A9o+, KT0+, QTo+, JTo.  ("+" means that the lowest card is that high or better, "s" means suited, and "o" means offsuit.)

So, I tried different hand ranges, seeing not only if the hands from each position made sense, but if they worked together. For example, was I adding too many, or too few, hands when I figured out my requirements when betting in second position compared to first?

It took me an hour to get something that I thought would work.  I was sure it would need some adjusting, but after working on it for an hour, then playing a few SNGs, I think I nailed it.  I'm sticking pretty close to what's on the paper, and it's been working well.  A month from now I hope to have my bankroll back above $100.

Once I'm there, I can consider some other options, such as mixing in some 2-tabling, or moving up to $3 SNGs.  I very badly want to play MTTs.  There is nothing like the excitement of getting close to the final table, knowing that a first prize of around 100 buy-ins is waiting.

I have to keep my head in the game and know what the goal is, and why.  It's about using SNGs to build my bankroll so that I have at least 100 buy-ins for MTTs.  Then it's not a big deal when (not if) I fail to cash ten straight times.  In his book Treat Your Poker Like A Business, Dusty Schmidt explains that every business needs inventory.  For poker players, money is our invertory, and we have to keep plenty of inventory in stock.