A Sit-n-Go dissected.

A couple of people have asked how i play sng's lately. I'm going to use one that i won yesterday. I haven't watched it again yet, so i get a fresh perspective to see if i played some hands good or bad. A few tidbits before i begin.

1) Value bets are few and far between in the lower sng levels. I would say about 80 percent of the time you can get all of someones chips if they hold TPTK.

2) I don't raise as often as i normally would because you're getting 3-4 callers no matter how you put it. I'll limp in with almost any hand except for aces or kings. That includes JJ and QQ. They are just a pair.

3) You NEVER want to get down to 5 bb's. You have the minimum amount of flexibility and fold equity when you get down that low. Often when i have 8-10 bb's and its folded to me, i'm pushing with any 2.

4) Bubble play is key. This is where you win and lose the tournament in my opinion. The big stack should be pushing almost every hand. The short stacks can't afford to call with a bad hand because they wouldn't get "paid".

This tournament only lasted 51 hands. So let's take a look at this sit and go.

1) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560732 - Ok, so we get As Qs in the sb with 2 limpers. kplunk mini raises to 40, pete calls. Normally if we were farther in the tournament this would be an easy over the top move for all my chips. We simply don't need to do that on the first hand of the tournament. If i flop an ace, ok i may have the 2nd best hand. If i flop a queen, even better i most likely have the best hand. The problem with this flop is that people LOVE to play ace rag. I decided to check raise in this spot because i belive it shows more strength than just betting out. If i bet out all 3 could possibly call and i would have no idea where i was at in the hand. If i get re raised here than i can easily toss the hand because im not invested at all. Our raise takes down the pot.

2) Jh 3h - Fold

3) 7d 2s - Fold

4) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560746 - We get KK in cutoff+1. I make it 120 to go here. Players at this level don't respect raises what so ever, so it has to be a significant raise for them to fold early on. Brad48 calls and we see a flop. Not a good flop for Kings. We dont need to try and outplay him, we check and he bets right out. Ill fold here almost every time. You just don't need to get involved this early unless you have an absolute monster.

5) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560750 - Now I'm dealt JJ. I had just raised the previous hand. Like i said before i'm usually going to limp here hoping for that 3 J A flop so I can get all my chips in. We didn't hit and there is an overcard on the bored so we fold.

6) 5c 9s - Fold

7) 2h 7h - Fold

8) Jh Tc - Fold

*Blinds are up to 25/50. Now we have to start watching where our stack is in coherence with the blinds. This is VERY important*

9) Kc Qh - In the big blind and we get to see a flop. We miss and fold. 31 BB's

10) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560764 - This is one of the main reasons why i rarely complete in multiway pots like these. Once the jack on the turn comes, it would be difficult for someone to get away from that hand. The 9d Td limp utg is bad and the Jh 5h call from ep is even worse. We lose a person here and we go 8 handed. 29 BB's

11) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560772 - Typical stuff. Virum is actually the only player that i recognize at this table. He knows what hes doing in these sng's and if i dont hit i have to give him respect for a hand. 26 BB's

12) 9h Ts - Fold

13) 9s 5h - Fold

14) Ac Ah - Raise to 300 with blinds 50/100 and everyone folds. 15 BB's

15) 7h 8s - Fold

* So the blinds have snuck up on us pretty fast. We've gone from 26 bb's to 15 very quickly.

16) 2c 6h - Fold

17) 5c 2c - Big blind and we fold - 12 BB's

18) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560780 - I make a 2.5 times raise to get him in the pot. If he has a queen here than gl to him. We don't want to get cute and let cards rattle off. 15 BB's.

19) 3s 5s - Fold

20) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560783 - A key hand in the tournament. My thoughts here were that if he had AJ he would have been all in pre flop. Any ace in the blinds and there is a raise in late position and people love to just throw their chips in. This is as good as a flop you're going to get with 10s here. He doubles us up, and we're in the clear for now. 31 BB's

21) 7c 6c - Fold

22) 4d 6d - Fold

23) 9h 5s - Fold

24) As 3c - Fold

25) Kc 3s - In the big blind. The flop comes Qc 9d 6s, sb checks i bet 150 he folds. If he calls there, im usually done with the hand. In these spots its the first one who bets at these pots usually wins. 33 BB's.

*Ok now blinds are at 100/200. This is one of my main goals to get to this level. If i get to here unscathed(spelling) we have a good shot atleast cashing. Somehow we're still 8 handed. Usually 2-3 people are gone by now.

26) Qd 6c - I mini raise and take the guys blind 18 BB's.

27) Tc 6d - Fold - and we lose 2 players on the hand. 18 BB's.

28) 9s 2d - Fold

29) 9c 6h - Fold - guy to our left doubles up to 800.

30) 6h 5d - Fold - Guy to our left wins another pot

31) Ks Kc - utg and we make it 700 to go. I don't like being utg witht his type of hand so we make it 3.5 times and take the pot which is fine. 21 BB's

32) 8h 5h - in the BB and fold.

33) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560803 - You only need to make it 2 1/2 times the blind here. If he comes over the top, you could argue both ways for a call and a fold. He only has 1520 more behind so it would be getting 2.5-1 to call. But it is half hour stack. How much would me taking his chips help me in winning the tournament. Probably a good deal. But if i lose im down to 2k in chips and pretty much in push fold mode. He folds and we're at 21 BB's

34) Jd 4d - Fold

35) 10d 6c - Fold

36) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560817 - We luck out for once and catch a 4 on the turn to take out probably the strongest player other than me at the table. He could be pushing with any 2 there and KJ qualifies as any 2. It was 700 more to win 2805 so it was a very easy call. Now we're at T5635 and have 28 BB's.

* At this point we're down to 5 players. We really have to start punishing the smaller stacks at this point. Then when we get to 4 players, we could be going all in every hand with any 2. They want to cash so they aren't going to call with bad hands.

37) Ad 3s - Fold

38) As 3c - Fold - We lose another and are on the bubble.

*Lets look at the stacks right now. To my left there is T2245. 2 to my left is T610. 3 to my left is T1715. And to my right we have T3520. This is the ideal chip position you want to be in. The biggest stack other than you on your right and all the small stacks on the left.

39) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560832 - Personally i didn't like the play here by either player. They both are in push fold mode. Even if you have a monster like KK you have to play like you have any 2. Say I'm in the bb here. I call with 36 and the flop comes 3 6 T. You're getting your money in either way with KK and your game is over. If you raised i wouldn't have entered the pot and you would have lived to see more hands. This is one of the biggest flaws i see in these sng's.

* Now we're 4 handed and the bubble play begins. We have Pete with 3520 to our right, debt with 4120 to our right and road with only 585 chips. This is looking like a poor bubble. What i would normally do is double up roadking so i can really abuse the bubble and be set when we get 3 handed. Blinds have also got up to 200/400 so we only have 13 BB's

40) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560839 - Ok so here we go. debt CAN NOT call my all in with a shortstack to his left unless he has Aces. That's the only thing he can all with in that spot. Roadking pretty much has to call with any 2 here considering 90 percent of his stack is in the middle. I was hoping he would win the hand just so i could get more chips from the bubble. 15 BB's

41) Qc Td - In the BB, we still play the same way we always do. No need to get crazy and be calling all ins with overs. UTG makes it 1600 to go with 3s and has 2285 behind. It would be a race but a race we dont need to get involved in. 14 BBs

42) Jc 5d - In the sb, i push because he sees pete has a lower chip stack than he does so hes going to try and stall to get more money. 15 BBs

43) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560854 - We are the big stack, so we're going to be the aggressor. I'm raising every hand until they figure out what im doing. It doesn't have to be a big raise because we arent calling an all in with 10c 5h. You want to be able to get away from the hand if you want to. With smarter players you would have to switch it up every time, but at this level they dont know any better. 17 BBs

44) We get a walk in the big blind with Q7. Thats what you get when you're big stack.

45) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560865 - No reason to call here, we move on to the next hand.

46) 8d 3d - Fold - I give them a break to show that i wont be pushing every hand even tho i will be. Good thing i didn't because debt doubled up pete when pete's A6 flopped a 6 against deb'ts A5.

47) Jh 2h - Fold - 2 all ins in front of us, easy fold. pete flops a set and we're now heads up.

48) All we do here is watch his stack and ours. Under Ten and its all in any 2. Same for him. Right now we're outchipped 7330 to 6145. Not that big of a deficit.

48 - a) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560879 - I'm gladly getting my chips in here. We have 16 outs and not going anywhere. We hit 2 times and the sng is pretty much over. We just have to avoid being unlucky.

49) T7 vs Q7 he wins. My stack is at 10,265 he has it 1210.

50) He folds for some reason my stack is at 12290 hes at 210. That was a really bad fold by him. He has to be pushing with any 2.

51) http://www.pokerhand.org/?560885 - And thats the end of that.



Well we got lucky once and the bubble was easy. I will try and find one of these where i really attack the bubble and get up to 9 or 10k when we get 3 handed. If you have any questions leave em in the comments section or shoot me an email.