Building a Poker Bankroll with Sit-N-Go Tournaments

Building a Poker Bankroll with Sit-N-Go Tournaments

It’s been awhile since I’ve played any sit-n-go poker tournaments, but I had cashed out most of my bankroll and I really do believe SNGs or STTs (Single-Table Tournaments) are one of the easiest ways to build a poker bankroll quickly. Poker players in this forum post think the same thing. So while I’m rebuilding my bankroll, I’ll be playing a lot of these during the week, and playing the multi-table poker tournaments on weekends. This is also partly because SNGs take about an hour to finish. MTTs take several hours making for very late evenings when I get deep in one, which has a serious impact on productivity at my day job.

As I said, it’s been awhile since I’ve played them but I’ve been playing quite a few lately, the Party Poker $11s in particular, and they’re fairly easy for any reasonably disciplined and patient poker player to beat. The strategy is simple:

Early in the tournament, say rounds 1-3, tight is right. Just play ubertight, and by that I mean play nothing out of position except AA, KK, QQ or AK. In late position, play other pocket pairs for set value only if you can limp in. If the flop misses you, fold. Forget suited connectors. Why? Because you don’t want to chase your ships away at this stage, and doubling up with a big hand doesn’t mean much anyway.

In the middle rounds loosen up slightly, but never put your stack in jeopardy without a very good hand. By very good I mean at least two pair.

In the late rounds go pushbot. Anytime your stack falls below 10bb, if you’re going to bet, you should push all-in. By this time the blinds will be significantly higher so unless you’ve gotten lucky and now have a very big stack, you’ll probably be pushing a lot, often with junk. Blind stealing is very important at this stage. Try to do it in position. Pay attention to which stacks you’re pushing against. Big stacks may not mind calling you if they can afford to lose to bust you, and small stacks frequently feel they have nothing to lose by calling with mediocre hands.

Once you’re in the money, play very aggressively. Forget about second place. Play for first and settle for third.

The reason this strategy works are simple. Most of the donks playing SNGs play all wrong. They play way too many hands, trying to double up early. Just stay out of the way. You don't have to double up early, and chances are over half of them will knock each other out trying. Then the survivors suddenly see themselves getting closer to the money and they tighten up. That's when you take advantage.

I’ll probably write up a more complete strategy guide sometime in the future, but this is really all you need to know to be profitable at the Party Poker $11 level. There are some more advanced concepts that will take your pushbot game further, and some tools available to teach yourself those concepts. I’ll probably discuss them in more detail at a later date. However, they’re really not necessary at this level.

There are a lot of good poker players making a lot of money playing these small tournaments exclusively. A good player typically finishes in the money better than 40% of the time in these $11 tournaments and has a return on investment of around 25-30%.

As I said, to win at these takes two things -- discipline and patience. Playing such a small range of hands early in the tourney gets boring. It can be easy to justify playing a suited two-gapper from the small blind when limpers are giving you odds. Don’t do it. Just sit on your chips. It’s easy to chase a draw for one more ½ pot bet. Don’t do it. Pay attention and stay out of trouble (this is a reminder to myself after blowing two SNGs out my a** last night).

For those who haven’t played these before, one thing I’d clarify is that SNGs tend to play unlike any other game. They’re not at all like cash games and they don’t really play like a multi-table poker tournament either. Some people have tried to imply they’re a good way to practice MTT final table skills. They’re not. They don’t play at all like a MTT final table. The reason is simple. When you get to a final table in a multi, you’re usually already in the money, whereas SNGs typically pay only three places.