Let me first introduce myself. I post under the name “KEVBO” on the ITH forums and have been playing poker for over six years but only seriously for the past two or three. It was the fall of 1998 when I started playing hold’em on a computer video game. Then, in February of 1999 I went to Las Vegas to get married on a planned elope. While there we stayed at the MGM Grand and they had one table. That’s it! Well that was my first live experience and I was hooked!

When I arrived back home I decided to see if it was possible to play online. I did a search and found a site called Paradise Poker. I was amazed when I saw that there were 2,000 people online playing poker! I deposited $50, played for a while and lost it. A few months later, did the same thing. A few times I would cash out but no real winnings to speak of. This went on for a while and during this time I was playing in live games here and there and doing well. What I couldn’t understand was that I was winning thousands in home games, but losing at $1/$2 online. My wife kept letting me play online though, after all, I was playing with money I had won in the home games. However, I was finding out just how expensive it could be to learn how to play poker.

I finally decided that there must be some adjustments I needed to make, so I went on Amazon and bought five or six books then devoured them in quick fashion. I deposited $50 online and told myself that if I lost it, that was it. No more internet poker, only live games. I ended up building it up slowly, then six months later this guy named Moneymaker wins the World Series of Poker and all hell broke loose. Before his win, the poker site I played on had grown to 5,000 players – wow! I couldn’t believe how much it had grown up to that point. I still find it funny looking back on it. Anyway, I continued to slowly build the bankroll, but it wasn’t until the fall of 2003 when I found SNG’s, that I started to make some serious headway. I played the $5 SNG’s on Party Poker, then $10, then $20 SNG’s and so on until I eventually found myself playing the $200 tables. I now have played over 1500 SNG’s having won thousands of dollars. Many times I have heard the question “Can Sit “N’ Go’s be used as a way to build a bankroll?” to which my answer is a resounding YES YOU CAN!

Texas Hold’em Sit ‘N’ Go tournaments are becoming increasingly popular and are a nice change of pace from the daily grind of playing ring games. For a skilled player, they can also be an exciting and profitable means in which to increase their bankrolls.
You are not going to become an expert SNG player overnight. Mastering SNG’s takes hundreds, maybe even thousands of hours playing. When I started playing SNG’s in 2003 I had mixed results, I soon began to show profits, and over time my results continued to improve to the point where I consistently achieve high win rates. If you are a solid limit ring game player, you should be able to become a winning SNG player as well, but to accomplish this, there are many adjustments you must make. The reason many players fail to become successful at multi-table and SNG tournaments is because they neglect to make the necessary strategic adjustments to their game.

The initial objective of my monthly column is to provide a basic set of strategies that will give even the novice SNG player the ability to cash in these tournaments a high percentage of the time. The main focus will be one table NL SNG’s, but we will also discuss strategies for other types of SNG’s such as limit, turbo, and two and three table tournaments. Many of the strategies used for NL SNG’s are applicable to the other type games as well, but there are some very important adjustments that must be made in order to be successful. The strategies discussed will be those used by winning SNG players including myself and have been battle tested and proven to be successful. Many SNG players are already familiar with what I call “basic SNG strategy”. This implies that one should play extremely tight in the beginning and then as the tourney progresses and players are eliminated, become more and more aggressive. I firmly believe this to be the best overall strategy for the beginning to intermediate player in terms of playing profitably. There are several SNG guides posted online that do well in terms of providing a general set of guidelines for players to follow, however, we will be going into much greater detail. In order to accomplish this, we will be breaking up the SNG into its many different stages to discuss proper strategy and will look at several hand examples for each stage of play.

The first few articles will include such topics as bankroll management and expected earn rates, followed by which sites to play and why. We will then dissect the SNG and discuss each stage in detail. We will cover play at the beginning and middle stages of the tournament and then focus heavily on bubble play, and “endgame” play (1-3 players). The idea here is to develop a solid foundation for winning SNG tournaments so that you are armed with the necessary tools to become a successful (and profitable) SNG player.

Once we have discussed a roadmap for “basic SNG strategy” we will then dive into more advanced material. Basic strategy will help you develop a solid earn rate, but in order to truly maximize your potential earnings, you must learn some advanced concepts. Topics will include: profiling players, playing small cards, inducing bluffs, maximizing pots, complex scenarios, and of course there will lots and lots of hand examples.

Next month the first article will look at bankroll management and expected earn rate. I think you may be surprised by what I believe to be a sustainable earn rate.