SnG newb has a bunch of questions for SnG sages.

[SkippingGoat]

I've played NLHE quite extensively (and relatively profitably) and recently began trying my hand at SnG tournies on Party. I've played about 20 10+1's and have barely stayed even. I was hoping that some charitable souls could answer some questions to speed my progress.

1) How profitable can SnG's be when played well? (At what entry fee are they simply not lucrative compared to simply playing ring games.)

2) At what level does the quality of play on Party substantially increase? (20, 30, 50? Where am I going to maximize my profit?)

3) What are the bankroll requirements relative to the entry fee? What's the variance like?

4) What are the major strategy points I should consider including starting and raising hands early and late in the tourny? (I first began applying my general NLHE strategy by limping a lot of drawing hands like low pocket pairs and suited connectors but realized I was generally just pissing away a lot of chips I would need later.)

5) Any general advice on timing aggression and passiveness? Often I feel like I sit on my chips too long or try to make a play too early. Maybe this is just a result of 20/20 hindsight.

6) Any suggested reading either online or in the printed poker literature?

I immensely appreciate the advice.

Thanks,
Goat

[Dominic]

First, there are plenty of threads relating to your questions already out there...just do a search for them and I'm sure you'll find some of the answers you're looking for...

But I'll help u out on one or two of them:

Your bankroll for SNGs should be roughly 25x your limit...so, $250 for the $10 games...I've found a BIG leak in SNGs is playing with too short of a bankroll or bouncing up and down between limits... so make sure you're really disciplined about this...make yourself build up your bankroll to $450-$500 before going to the $20 games, and so on.

And a book for you to look at is Tom McEvoy's Satellite book...great strategy for one table games.

[Beck]

I can't find that book. Do you happen to know the exact title?

[PITTM]

Tom McEvoy's Championship Satellite Strategy.

rj

[Beck]

Ahhh, it hasn't been published yet?

[Mr. D]

I'm fairly new to SnGs myself, but I've been doing a lot of reading here and I'll summarize for you (and possibly oversimplify):

1) A party poker SnG takes about 45-60 mins to win. Some people play up to 4 at once, I can't handle more than 2, staggered so one is early levels and one late. From what I've heard the best players can sustain an ROI of 40%, even up at the 50s and beyond.

2) The level of play pretty much goes up with the stakes in my experience, but I've read others saying 10,20,30 are similar and then it takes a jump. This probably depends on your playing style.

3) I've read you need a bankroll of 30X buy-in. Seems right to me. Steaks of not making the money can exceed 10 games even for excellent players.

4) Play really tight early (as tight as throwing away AQ-off if you're not on the button) and use your image to steal when the blinds get up to 50/100. If your stack is 10X blinds or less, go all-in to steal.

5) You'll go from rock to raving lunatic if you're playing it right. I'm stealing from Ciaffone's essay on 1 table sattelite's here, which demand a similar strategy to SnGs.

6) 3 best poker books ever (for NL tournies at least): The Theory of Poker - Sklansky, Pot-Limit & No-Limit Poker - Reuben & Ciaffone, Tournament Poker for Advanced Players - Sklansky. None of these are specifically about SnGs, but if you can digest them all and apply the knowledge to the quickly rising blinds I don't think specific advice is really necessary. That said, I've read all 3 several times and still haven't absorbed them completely (nor do I expect to anytime soon). Here is some good specific advice:

http://teamfu.freeshell.org/tourname...limit_sng.html

Here is an interesting chart to help with all-in decision making (which is EXTREMELY important for level 4+)

http://home.earthlink.net/~craighowa.../matchup2.html


Now, I've done my good deed for the day, can I please win a couple SnGs?!?! [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[slogger]

Post titled "SnG FAQ v.0002"


[And could one of you tech-savvy vets please tell me how to link to other posts so I can stop bumping old stuff like an idiot. Thanks!]

[Hood]

To do a link:

[URL=http://www.someurl.com]this is a url[/url*]

Like that, but without *.
Or use the 'instant ubb code' bit at the bottom.

to link to another post... the format is

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...ber=IDofThread
Or
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...ber=IDofThread

[HUSKER'66]

Beck,

You can find the book that Pitt is refering to here.Scroll down, it's like the 11th one down.

https://secure.cardplayer.com/shop/i...c1277074960350

It's been out for a while now.

Play well.

Husker

[Beck]

OK, thanks. Looked for it at Amazon, though. They stated it woldnt come out till Jan 2005. But maube that was just the paperback version.