What's the difference...

[ddubois]

... between snigle-table SNGs and multiple table tournaments? How does the game change? What skills become more important? Less important? What pitfalls will I encounter if I play as if I was in a SNG?

[wilkcards]

Multi-table tournaments are marathons, and sit and goes are sprints.

[durron597]

The biggest problem I had when I started playing multis was I started to play high blinds like I was on the bubble in an SnG. The key is patience. Read all of eMarkM's posts on this board. There are others who's advice I really find useful but eMarkM had a really good long one recently that I don't feel like finding now (it was a reply to a thread, not a new thread).

[Percula]

2 and 3 table SnG's tend to be more volital in the first couple of levels with people trying to get chips quickly, and then get tight thru the mid levels with people trying to keep their chips and let other people battle it out, then get desprate at the end when people feel pressured to keep from being blinded off and out of the money.

With a single table, the blinds will play less of role than in a multi table, just because they take more time/hands to get it over with. So if you would normally expect to have say 400/800 blinds on the bubble in a single, expect them to be 1-4 levels higher in a multi. So being able to steal and take advantage of people feeling desperate is critical to winning. It is amazing what people will push with when they feel they are short stacked and what they will fold when they are scared of getting out before the money.

There is an excellent SnG FAQ in the single table forum, well worth the read!

A couple of tips that pay well for me...

1) Play very tight and aggressive during the first few levels, take advantage of the people trying to double up. With really solid tight play here you can catch the people playing TPTK and cream them with sets, straights, flushes, and boats.

2) Play a little less tight during the mid levels, steal more, raise more, when you have a solid hand and a solid read put people to the test.

3) In the late levels near the bubble, get aggressive, but not stupid. People are getting really tight near the bubble, the blinds are getting big, people get desperate. This is the time that solid, tight agression really pays off.