SNG Reading list

A very studious friend who is very good in physics and accounting, and who is also good at playing Risk, Monopoly, and MTG, asked me for a reading list that he could study in order to be a good 1-table SNG player. He has never played poker but he is very disciplined, very computer literate, great video game player and close to genius in IQ. I gave him the following instructions (please critique and tell me how this can be improved):

Week One - Read Getting Started in Holdem by Ed Miller. First, study part one of the book twice. Then read the book in full. Take 3 days to do this then play 20 1-table SNGs (5+.5) to gain experience. Then reread parts 1, 3, 4, and the chapter that starts on page 195. Gain more experience by playing 20 more 1-table SNGs.

Week 2 - Read McEvoy's and Daugherty's Nolimit Texas Holdem Beginner Series. Take four days to do this while playing 10 1-table SNGs every night. After reading the whole thing, read the entire Poker and Emotions section in John Feeney's Inside the Poker Mind. Have this done within 24 hours. Then reread the McEvoy/Daugherty book. Gain some more experience.

Week 3 - Read Phil Gordon's Little Green Book twice this week. At the same time watch his last table DVD three times. Continue to get more experience.

Week 4 - Read part one and the nl Holdem section ONLY of Ciaffone and Reuben's NL/PL poker book. Do this within 24 hours. Then read David Sklansky's Tournament Poker for Advanced Players. Get this done in five days. Play at least 8 SNGs per night. Listen to the CD version of Phil Gordon's Little Green book while playing and while driving. Try to listen to it twice this week.

Week 5 - Study Theory of Poker this week. Continue to get experience. Reread Poker and Emotion section of John Feeney's book.

Weeks 6, 7, and 8 - Read HOH1. When done, read Sun Tsu's the Art of War. When done read HOH2.

Week 9 - Read S/S 2 nolimit holdem section.

Graduation day!

Is this an adequate reading list? Is the order in which I recommend he reads the books appropriate? Should McEvoy's and Daugherty's NLH book be read before Phil Gordon's Little Green book or should they be reversed? Would the Kill Phil book be appropriate reading material?

I'd skip Cloutier and McEvoy and spend more time reading other stuff and playing. Read Tales from the Tiltboys instead.

[Gunny Highway]

So you basically have him reading something different everyday w/o enough time to really learn any of it. I think these are fine readings, but better to stick with one or two for 10 days IMO.

I can't help but to smile ... you are killing the poor chap :-)

Getting started in Hold'em is properly a great place to start, I haven't read it, but it sounds about right (anything that teaches the basics of pot odds, starting hands and reading the flop, something SSHE does so well)

I tend to dislike anything written by McEvoy and Daugherty .. I only own A new players guide to texas NL holdem, but exept for a chart introducing something vaguely resembling inflectionpoints, I gained nothing from it. (I also by mistake bought Tournament Poker by McEvoy and have flicked through some of his other books, and they repulse me .. seems like there is a new one out with Vines, winning no limit tourneys or something, flicking through it .. I found that I couldn't see how it differed from the Cloutier and Daugherty book ... Reprint, Reprint and then again Reprint)

Haven't read Phils book, but great reviews



Basically I would say, start with something light like GSH by ED ... Let him play for a couple of weeks, then give him Harrington

SNG's are not really about playing proper poker, it's more about blood, guts and stealing a lot of blinds and not being afraid to push all-in with trash. (need to find a site, where you start with 1500 in chips and blinds that only go up every 16 or 20 hands to get a tiny opportunity to play some poker)


As an anecdote, My Girlfriend enjoys to play SNG's, She finds them relaxing. Off course she refuses to open any book, so she plays it totally by ear

She won't her any of my advice, but she likes to watch me, when I play MTT's ...(not the first hour, but when nearing the bubble) ... and the first couple of times she looked in horror as I pushed all in preflop with trash like 42o or 93o

I explained, that if my stack is smaller than approx 10 times the blinds it's the only way to survive

To armed with the knowledge that, If you are in danger of being blinded out, then you just push ... and experience she is actually winning at the 2-5$ SNG's (and a 2nd place in a 110 player MTT as well)

Starting hands and everything else is learned the hard way ... by experience


Why does your friend want to win at 10 players SNG's ?? (I would find more pride in playing MTT's or beating the ring games)

This is overkill, and overly ambitious. And it takes numerous readings and lots of playing to learn and implement the strategy in a good book.

I would start out a new player learning to play poker, as in very low limit HE. Miller's book is a good start, or Jones, Hilger, etc. Then SSHE, until he becomes a winning LLHE player. Then start into SnGs.

Also, none of those books are SnG specific, so someone would have to first know how to play poker, and then have some SnG experience, to be able to read a book like HOH and decide what in there applied to SnGs and what did not. SnGs are unique, and there is no book that can teach you how to play them.

BTW, there's more good stuff on the STT forum here than in any book on the market.

I'd probably get rid of Mcevoy's book. Maybe replace it with TPFAP.

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I would find more pride in playing MTT's or beating the ring games.

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Pride?? We ain't got no stinkin' pride.

Show me the money [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Daliman]

[ QUOTE ]
Why does your friend want to win at 10 players SNG's ?? (I would find more pride in playing MTT's or beating the ring games)

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Glad to hear you play more for pride than money. What is so shameful abount SNG's?

[Crispy86]

[ QUOTE ]
SNG's are not really about playing proper poker, it's more about blood, guts and stealing a lot of blinds and not being afraid to push all-in with trash. (need to find a site, where you start with 1500 in chips and blinds that only go up every 16 or 20 hands to get a tiny opportunity to play some poker)

[/ QUOTE ]

In other words, play at a site such as PokerStars (for example), where he'd start with 1500 chips and the blinds go up every 10 minutes, rather than PartyPoker, where he'd start with 800 chips and the blinds would go up every 10 *hands*.

Albert

fair amount of good stuff on the web about SNG's (good stuff on here and on a competing website, for starters).... almost all of it says play very tight in first few rounds... and then loosen up slowly. obviously play postion really hard.

definite need for a SSHE book for no-limit cash, tournament and SNG.

i think these authors need to spend a month or two and play in the tournaments that many of us play in... and then write about their experiences... i thought it would cool to take a seasoned pro and a beginner celebrity and put them in same computer room playing SNG's (not against each other).

always wonder if lindgren, negreanu, hanson aggressiveness would work at lower levels, or whether people just don't care that much about being eliminated... i definitely think at their level they are taking advantage of fears of being eliminated.

lastly, all those books are good but they don't really focus on the style of play on low limit SNG's or the rapidly escalating blinds (and only some similarities to final table of large MTT's)