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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.

Introduction

A lot of poker players wonder: "How do I become a good PLO 6max player?". NL Holdem players tend to find the transition very challenging. This series is intended as a guide for these players.
Some basic knowledge about NL Holdem, PLO and poker statistics is required to fully understand the concepts in this article. If you don`t know much about these subjects yet we suggest that you read the basic material on this site first.

Preflop

In PLO, position is more important than your actual hand. That doesn`t mean you should play any four off course, but the player in position controls the hand, more so than in a Holdem game. This is because much more scare cards can come down, which creates a lot of good bluff spots.
As a consequence, its very important to take advantage of your position when you`re on the button (or the cut-off). But even more importantly, you should never play marginal hands out of position! Low pocket pairs, bad suited aces etc. should be folded! They look nice, but its impossible to play these type of hands out of position. Tighten up in the blinds!

Because position is so important, you should choose your seat on the table accordingly. You don`t want to have a descent player to your left. If you can`t avoid this, adjust your game by raising a tighter range and by limping the small blind. This will prevent you from getting into a lot of tricky situations when called or reraised. Against tight or weak players, you can open 40% on the button (open every double suited hand for example). Against opponents who 3bet a lot you should play tighter or limp more hands.

As opposed to NL Holdem, its hard to say what the optimal VPIP/PFR percentages are. Instead, take a look at the following guidelines:

VPIP

< 15 too tight
15-25 tight
25-35 normal
35-45 loose
> 45 too loose

A VPIP outside the 15-50 range is not playable. You can (and should) play more hands compared to NL Holdem.

PFR

< 5 passive
5-10 normal
10-15 loose
> 15 loose aggressive

In NL Holdem its very important that the gap between your VPIP and PFR is very small. This is not true in PLO. Some winning players hardly raise at all! Its ok to play 20/10, but 45/5 is possible as well.

Holdem Manager is currently the only software that supports Omaha. It can be purchased separately or as add-on.

3betting

You should never 3bet bluff, as your opponents will always get the odds to call your 3bet. There are three valid reasons to 3bet: value, isolation and deception.
PLayers tend to disagree on whether you should 3bet out of position at all. Some say its never profitable to do so, others say you should do it a lot. In any case its better to 3bet out of position with a marginal hand than to call, as this gives you initiative.
When you`re up against a bunch of short stacks, its obviously a bad idea to 3bet other than for value.

Postflop

In general, postflop play is more difficult than in NL Holdem, because your opponents ranges are much wider. We recommend this site to get an idea of your equity in certain common postflop situations.
Its very important to pay attention to the way your opponents are playing and to make notes! For example: Does the betsize correspond to the strength of the hand? Does a player bluff missed draws on the river?

You can bluff occasionally, but most of the time you should bet with the nuts and with strong nut-draws. If you have a weak draw to the nuts, you should generally call. Occasionally you should call with a very strong nut hand. Fold everything else!
Note that this means you should never draw to a non-nut hand, especially multiway!

One last bit of advice: a nut flush draw is a very strong semi-bluff hand in PLO, because you have more equity than almost any combo!

Good luck!

Basic info about sng’s

The benefits and disadvantages of sng’s

Every game has its benefits and his disadvantages. The variance by sng’s is pretty high. At cashgames you are able to sit with 100BB constantly and by sng’s that is not the case. Because of that you cannot exploit your edge a lot. The result of that is that the variance will get higher. Another disadvantage is that you will need an hour (at minimum) for a sng. Most of the time a STT takes about 50 min, calculate the time which it takes to start too that and you are over an hour. You can play a cashgame for 30 minutes if you want to. Another one is that you can’t grow that much with playing sng’s. The biggest online winners are all cashgamers. Ofcourse sng’s do have their benefits. If you master a solid standard then it is quite easy to beat. You can learn this very quick and in cashgames you won’t. In cashgames you will come across a lot more difficult spots and therefore it takes more time to learn it. Most of the time the players who are good at sng’s are also good in MTT’s and also the end game of it. Sng-players are used to play with stacks who aren’t deep and therefore they are experienced in it. If you can’t decide what to play then just make some decision. Choose for the thing that pulls at you the most.

Bankroll management

A frequently asked question is: “what kind of bankroll management do I need to maintain?” If you are playing cashgames then that’s an easy question. You only have to look at the limit. If you are playing sng’s then it is a different story. You need to keep the ITMER, buy-in, if it is a turbo or not all in mind. You can imagine that you need less buy ins for a deepstack 9-players sng then for a 180 players turbo sng. If you keep yourself to the below scheme you can are able to play pretty safe.







Volume

It’s important to play with a lot of volume because the variance is high. If you beat $16 (9 players) sng’s with a ROI (return of investment) of 20% (which is good) then you still only win $3,6 for every sng you play. Assume that one sng takes about an hour you still only earn $3,6 an hour and that is not an hourly salary which will make you rich. It is important to attempt to reach the maximum from your profit(highest possible hourly salary). Let’s take another example. If you have a 15% ROI at $3,25 while playing 10 tables at the same time that will earn you more money. You, yourself need to figure out what is the highest profitable point. You need to learn to play a lot of volume, it is a process that everyone has to go through. If you are only able to play 2 tables at the same time then that is also a sign of level. You still have to think a lot about situations and that takes time. If it takes time the result is that you aren’t able to play a lot of tables. As you grow in your skill a lot more “standard situations” will occur and that allows you to play more tables. A commonly used method to play at more tables is to constantly add one table to your amount. For instance you keep yourself to it that you will add one table each week. At PokerStars you are able to choose between tiled and cascade. The benefit of tiled is that you will see a lot of showdowns and it gives you a good overview. The disadvantage of it is that you cannot play that much tables (12+). The benefit of cascade is that you are able to play a lot of tables. The disadvantage is that if you respond too late you will wind up siting out which can lead to a loss in stack and you are completely unaware of it. Also you don’t have a lot reads and it’s not the best option for a nice overviews. There is also a difference between playing constantly or playing sets. The benefit of playing sets is that you are constantly in the same fase from your sng(early stage, midstage and endgame). The disadvantage is that you are playing a lot less sng’s then if you were playing constantly. The disadvantage from playing constantly is that you are different blind levels all the time. If this doesn’t bother to you then it’s recommended to play constantly. You will play more games an hour which means that your hourly salary is also higher.

The use of Holdem Manager and PokerTracker in sng’s
HM(Holdem Manager) or PT(PokerTracker) were actually designed for cashgames. During these days it is also used in a lot in sng’s. An important thing to keep in mind is your HUD(which is aimed at cashgames). You won’t have that much on the 4bet percentage in sng’s because it is rare. Look at the VPIP and PFR percentages for a guess at the level of your opponent. A BIG disadvantage is that stats are able to deceive you. Your opponent will always play a lot more aggressively in a HU then at the beginning of a 9-max sng. 36/26 looks like a donk to you then maybe but 40 hands could possibly be played in a HU sng.