Playing 6 max SnG's

Written by Bonno

Mostly I play 6-max sng’s and because there is a lot of interest in the question: “How do I play them?” I decided to write an article about it including hand histories. I’ll also give some tips about how to play shorthanded sng’s.

Starting fase

We assume that we play a standard turbo SNG on PokerStars The blindlevels are 5 minutes and our beginstack is 1.5k. The first two levels are 10/20 and 15/30, that means that we play between 75 and 50 BB Enough room to play our game and it isn’t necessary at all to set our minds to stealing blinds. Most of the time this are the two blindlevels in which you can easily discover who the donkeys are at the table. You can recognize bad players (in general) by seeing them open huge pre-flop, limp when they have the button or play by extreme weird guidelines. Obviously you can also see who they players play their hands. Someone who slowplays a set in the starting fase will most likely also do this in the ending fase. Here is my first hand, QJs a nice hand to open while you are on the button


This is only the fourth hand in the sng so I don’t have stats or any reads. Sergei calls here in the SB It is kinda difficult to give Sergei here a good range but I try anyways. A5-AJ,22-TT(JJ+ I always see him 3bet) and suited connectors.

This is an akward situation. Sergei flats preflop out of position(OOP) and donkbet almost the pot on a A rainbow flop I think it’s good to raise here because I rarely see him donkbet an entire pot, Ax is a possibility but I appear very strong by raising and he’ll fold it a lot in this fase. Pocketpairs, suited connectors could never have hit this flop because there aren’t any draws so he’ll fold So I decide to raise and it turns out good.



Normally I play extremely tight during the beginphase, because I mainly play extremely aggressive in the push/fold fase and my image from the begin fase helps me with it. This spot was so obvious for me that I couldn’t let it get away so I discourage bluffing in the begin fase of a sng

Mid fase 25/50 and 50/100

Now there are starting to appear differences in stacksizes and mostly the field holds around 4 to 5 players. Shortstacks are getting a hard time here and that is why the push/fold game begins. It is kind of difficult to name a standard situation by push/fold because every situation is one of its own. However, there are a couple of fistrules.

The opening with 2,5 BB

I still see a lot of players opening 3 BB Personally I think this is bad and I would start from 25/50 or 50/100 by opening 2,5 BB The reason is simple, you increase your edge and edge equals money. I have written this before in my previous articles and it is extremely important. You create a big pot while that is unnecessary. Because you will appear less deepstack and less deepstack means that fishes will increase their chances of winning. As I have previously said in an HU article: if someone who just knows the rules of poker is playing HU against Phil Ivey with both 3BB then he will win a slightly bit more than 50% of the times. But opening with 2,5BB has also another reason: you’ll bring yourself in easier spots, you will commit yourself a lot less which means that you can fold more easily to a shove. You might think those 50 points... it doesn’t matter. Thats right you aren’t a bad player if you open with 3BB but by doing something simple you can raise your ROI (return of investment).

Push/Fold

Most of the time this fase occurs by the 3 last remaining players 100-200 level. I see a lot of players making the mistake that they have a small stack and still open normally. This is a bad thing. I would a fistrule: by less than 13BB it is push or fold Opening with 2,5BB while having 13BB left is a thing you could do (you don’t have to be commited yet) but your stack is way too valuable to raise/fold during that fase. When the blinds are 50/100 and you make 250 and you fold eventually that will cost you 1/6 of your stack and ofcourse 250 points. But if you double it up it’ll become 500 etc. Also you don’t want your opponents to think that you have fold equity and that they’ll reshove you lightly

Some hands:

We are down to the 3 last players and both Villians are pretty tight/solid. I have seen Murmel stealing all my BB in the last 3 SB>BB situations with a small raise



I do find this a good reshove spot because like I earlier said Murmel is doing this a lot and I haven’t defended my SB yet. Murmel still has got fold equity, my hand is living against a optional call and you still have to look at the stack of the other Villian, Residence. Murmel would fold sooner when he knows that there is still a shorter stack next to him who’ll get the BB in a short time and the blindlevel will become 200/400.
HERO: raises 3270 to 3720 and is all-in
Murmel1904: folds

So I shove and Murmel folds. This situation also shows why Murmel could better shove. He still has got fold equity but this spot is ideal for me to reshove and I would stack him very tight here. I have got the table under control, I am the bigstack and I wouldn’t call with just a hand, I am just saying something, like AT.

Last hand:



I decide here to shove, you may wonder why? You just said that if you end up below 33BB you need to shove and you are shoving here with 18BB? You don’t need to look at that in this situation, I am the bigstack, the other stacks are both 14BB. The reason why I shove here is because I don’t think that I will get called light here. Most of the time you see that two smaller stacks are “choking” eachother to end up in the money. So I don’t think that villain would stack me here with anything below AT. And there is another reason to shove: by opening I am creating the ideal reshove spot for the two villains. I have got fold equity and I wouldn’t call light here because I have got the sng under my control and I want to keep the chiplead, both villains are tight and I will end up crippled with 4,5BB.

Eventually you’ll end up heads up Most of the time that is the 200/400 level in a 6max sng and the average will be around 11BB. The Sage System is very important here so my advise is to read that as well.

This is it for now, hope you learned something and up to my next arcticle.