Sng 6 max turbo strategy. Learn to drag the CIS: a winning strategy

Hello, today I want to tell you about the peculiarities of the short-handed SNG game.

The value of the chips. Unlike the 10max tables, the value of the chips in the 6max CIS tables is slightly higher than on the 10max tables, since there are only 2 prize places, they are 70/30 65/35 60/40 percent of prize fund (depending on the room), as a result, the price of each chip in a $ 100 tournament (rake is not taken into account) with the number of chips 2000, the number of participants 6 people and the distribution of prizes 70/30 will be equal to $ 0.035. Whereas in a typical $ 100 10max tournament with 2000 chips, the cost of one chip will be exactly $ 0.025. The difference is obvious.Conclusion: in the CIS 6max you need to play a little more loosely compared to 10max, due to the difference in chip value, but tighter than in a cash game, since there the value of the chips \u003d money.

Blade speed. In the CIS 6max, the blinds pass through us almost 2 times faster than at 10max tables, due to the number of participants, which is almost 2 times less, therefore, when playing at short tables, you need to try to steal opponents' blinds more often, you need to do it more loosely. than when playing long tables. Since our opponents also know this, or intuitively guess that when playing on short-handed games, you should steal the blinds more often, we can safely expand our restealing range a little, making it a little looser. This is the 2nd difference.

Bubble.When moving from 10max to 6max and vice versa, you should pay attention when playing the bubble and prebubble, as they have significant differences. Special programs, for example, SNG Wizard, will help you to understand this.

Importance of Heads UP. Headsups play a very important role in short-handed games! First, unlike long tables, you will play more heads-ups on short-handed tables. And therefore the skill of playing heads-ups will be critical. Second, the percentage difference between 1st and 2nd place is different on long and short tables. On the short tables for the first place, you will get 5-10% more money than on the long ones, due to the fact that there is no third place on the short tables and the winnings for the first 2 places are more.

Many people neglect the ability to play well heads, so I will give 1 example.

This is an example of how important it is to play Heads up. Let's say you play 6max (70/30) SNGs at $ 22, of which $ 20 goes to the prize pool. For the first place, the player receives $ 84, the player who takes 2nd place will receive $ 36. A plus player will play one heads-up in 3 tournaments on average. IF HE INCREASES HIS ABILITY TO PLAY HEDZAP by only 10%, then at a distance of 100 CIS he will earn 160 $ \u200b\u200bmore, and if we take a distance of 1000 CIS, this is already 1600 $, but if we take a distance of 5000 SNG and a greater percentage? Count yourself ...

I think that I have described all the important features of the difference between 6max CIS and 10max.
The only thing I want to add is that if you play with the same ROI when switching from long tables to short tables, then you will receive more profit and will clear up bonuses faster, gaining more rake, since you will play per unit of time more tournaments, because short tables are played in time almost 2 times faster than long ones.

Play SnG!

Do you want to win fast? You can make a lot of money in 6-max hyperturbo tournaments - Christy Keenan explains how.

For those who are not in the know - hyper are like regular 6-max turbo tournaments, only on amphetamines. Instead of the standard 50 or 75 big blinds in the starting stack, players are given 25 big blinds and the blinds grow faster. Tournaments often do not last even ten minutes, and the class advantage is so small that you are amazed. For those who like to quickly resolve the conflict, this is just right. Therefore, hyper is a suitable option for those who love huge action and want to quickly cut the dough. At least in the short term, hypers are just a feast for risk-takers, despite the huge variance.

Hyper turbo tournaments are not for the faint of heart, but they are not a simple lottery game as many claim. You can find an edge in them and make big money if you know how to control tilt and deal well with short-term downswings. Learn to accept variance. Being a sit-and-go player who can't handle downswings is like being a surgeon who's afraid of the sight of blood.

Finding the edge

In standard sit & gos, most of a good player's advantage comes postflop. The more hands a fish plays, the more mistakes it can make. In hyper turbo tournaments, where there can be no games with deep stacks, and indeed it rarely comes to postflop, the advantage of good players is extremely limited. Certain techniques of advanced players such as isolation, float and barreling are virtually impossible.

Why, then, does this format attract top-end regulars? Simply put, where there are fish, I will be sharks. The advantage is not that great, but it certainly is.

One of the common mistakes that many believe is that a small margin creates only a small profit. However, in sit and go, the edge is always small and incredibly important, especially if the intensity of the game is not a problem. With fewer decisions after the flop, a good player can keep track of more tables. And often the "long term" will not be so distant.

Think of it this way: a player with a 2% edge at a hyper table will earn significantly more in a week than someone with a 5% edge over a turbo table, assuming they will play 1,000 hyper versus 350 turbo tournaments in that time. The average duration of hyper is around 9 minutes, these numbers seem logical. In the short term, the variance can be large, but here the distance is gaining much faster, and everything will level out very soon.

The rake should also be considered, usually around 4% of the buy-in instead of the standard 10%. Given the lower rake, it is easy to see the attractiveness of hyper for good players.

Early game strategy

As the game is on on huge number tables, it is easy to assume that everything will be done automatically - push or pass. After all, constantly keeping up with ever-increasing blinds and antes to maintain fold equity is a challenge in itself. However, the 25bb stack has a certain amount of agility, and if you get chips early on, it allows you to constantly sting opponents towards the end of the tournament, rather than sitting down to second place with a short stack.

Logic dictates that weak players will make more mistakes than regulars. If so, create an opportunity for yourself to exploit their game and take their tokens before other sharks do. The beauty of hyper is that, with low rake and ever-decreasing stack sizes, putting your tournament fortunes in jeopardy early on is not a tactical mistake, as it would be in more traditional sit-n-go formats.

You need to take balanced risks in order to quickly build a stack. Here's a quick example: The hero in the cutoff is dealt 77, the blinds are 15/30 antes of 3. All six of them have approximately 500 starting chips. The UTG player folds and the hijack goes all-in.

Usually hero needs to fold to all-in 15bb from early / middle position without too much thought. However, in hypers, the ranges are wider, and aggressive play in the early stages is rewarded later. If a hijack shoves with 20% of his hands (3-3 +, A-2s +, A-4o +, K-10s +, K-Qo) and the players behind him will only call with 5.5% of his hands (9-9 +, A- Qo +), you need to be ready to be pushed onto the stack.

In the early stages, you also need a smallball approach, where you hit consistently with minraises and continuation bets. And don't be afraid to exhibit when you see the right opportunity.

Bubble strategy

In my article on the standard 6-max SNG bubble, I talked about the importance of hitting the prizes. After all, you need to take at least something from the prize fund in the structure of 65-35% and in the ratio of the payment of the second place to the first 2.8: 1.

In rake-adjusted hypers, the ratio drops to 2.7: 1. In other words, payments are smoother. The difference may seem insignificant, but in such conditions of using the slightest edge and frenzied intensity of the game, there is nothing more important than constant EV + moves (be it all-ins or folds).

In another popular form of sit-n-go, things change a lot. I'm talking about hyper satellites. With a payout structure of 50-50%, calling all-in on the bubble is very expensive on ICM. After all, this is a satellite, and the second place gets paid the same as the first.

It doesn't matter if you make it to the prize area with 2,999 chips or just one. This is emphasized in the next hand, played by one of my students. Hero has 1,480 chips, sees AQ in the big blind, blinds 50/100 ante 20. Button (475 stack) folds, small blind goes all-in with 1,045 stack. In standard hyper, where Villain would push 22% of the time, hero would call with A-Qs and still give five to the monitor.

His calling range would be somewhere around 6-6 +, A-9s +, A-10 +. Calling brings in 3.69% of the total prize pool and is definitely a plus in EV, an opportunity not to be missed. Hero is way ahead of our opponent's all-in range, and calling gives a great opportunity to go heads-up with a chip advantage. If he calls and loses, then just join the short stack for survival.

Now let's look at the same example in a hyper satellite. Against the same 33% all-in range, A-Qs are required to fold. Hero can only call with J-J +, A-Ks, and even then this call is considered loose. Calling with A-Qs would result in a loss of 0.50% of the equity prize pool and would expose the seemingly straightforward road to money in equal shares.

Only when the Hero knows that the opponent is going all-in with more than 50% of his range can he call, and that expectation will not exceed 0.25%. In short, you can't make a good call here, but a catastrophic call is quite. Remember, when playing satellite with the same prizes, a big stack cannot destroy the bubble by any means. He has to play very tight, allowing the other two players to fight for a spot.

Knowing how structure relates to ICM and how ICM influences decision making is vital in hyper.

Heads-up strategy

By the time it comes to heads-up, the stacks are usually so small that there is rarely a big advantage. However, you don't need to worry about ICM anymore. Both players have already secured 35% of the prize pool, heads-up will determine who will get the remaining 30%. If so, then the EV chip \u003d $ EV, and everything that has a positive expectation should be used to the maximum.

With all but the most blatant garbage, folding from the button is a mistake, as the loss of chips that have been in your small blind is quite significant with such small stacks. Everything in position deserves at least a limp. Remember, with such short effective stacks, you have to strive to win any pot and fight for it fiercely.

Let's look at the last example. Heads-up. The blinds are 75/150 ante 15. Hero has 1,300 chips and sees 74. A lot of people would fold right there. It's trash, but there are 255 chips in the center of the table, roughly 20% of the hero's stack. It's too good a situation to be neglected.

Independent of ICM, Hero can go all-in with any two cards if his opponent's calling range is 35% (any pair, any ace, any suited king, K-5o +, Q-8s +, Q-10o +, J-9s +). And with a (relatively) strong hand like 7-4o, our opponent needs to call with at least 41% of hands for the all-in to be negative in EV. Limp will also be preferable to open-fold due to the fact that position advantage appears postflop.

Strongest poker players prefer 6-max tables to 9-max tables because

• At short tables, they have the opportunity to play more hands per hour;
• The average pot size in 6-handed is higher than in 9-handed;
• They get the opportunity to play more often against weak opponents, since the game lacks UTG, UTG + 1 and UTG + 2 positions.

By the way, recreational players are also more likely to choose short-handed because they can see more flops at them than at full tables.

Opening ranges 6-max

A solid poker strategy involves having good open-raising ranges from every position. The better your ranges are designed, the easier and more profitable your postflop play will be. Below are the opening ranges at 6-max tables:

As you can see, our spectrum expands as we get closer to the button. This is due to the fact that with the decrease in the number of players who will act after us, the likelihood that we will take the blinds already preflop increases. In addition, the fewer players left in the hand, the less likely you are to face a strong hand.

Our range reaches its culmination in the aspect of width on the SB because there is only one opponent separating us from winning the 1.5bb pot. Be careful, however, as playing a loose SB range against a competent BB player will present us with a lot of problems: the regular encounter with 3-bets preflop and floats postflop.

Factors affecting the frequency of openings

It is necessary to understand that the above-mentioned ranges of open-raises are only a certain basic setting, and not immutable rules. In other words, you will need to edit these ranges depending on many factors. Here is some of them:

• Game tendencies of your opponents and reads on them;

Your opponents' gaming tendencies will have a huge impact on your opening ranges. For example, if the composition of the table is conservative, then we should open more loosely; if opponents play loosely and are ready to often 3-bet our openings, then we, on the contrary, should open-raise more tightly to be able to resist their re-raises.

• The level of your advantage over your opponents;

The higher your edge is above the field, the wider you should open up because more hands being played means more opportunities to exploit your opponents' weaknesses. Likewise, if your opponents are strong players, then you will have to narrow your ranges to compensate for your lack of skill level due to the strength of the range.

• Rake.

The higher the percentage of rake charged, the narrower our ranges should be. Keep in mind that those marginal hands that you play at zero become negative because of the rake.

Bet-sizing discoveries

Our short-handed open-raises should be 2.25-3 big blinds. Smaller open sizing will give our opponents a great call price, which will create multiway situations that we want to avoid, of course, as our hand equity will decrease with each additional player. On the other hand, if we raise more than 3bb, it will force us to open tighter, as our pot odds will be worse.

An exception in terms of sizing open raises will be playing from the small blind (3-4bb). The increase in the size of the open raise with SB is due to the fact that BB has position on us, and his 1bb is already in the pot, which will stimulate him to defend relatively loosely. We, in turn, want to discourage him from wanting to defend on a wide range, so the only thing we can do is give him the worst pot odds by increasing the open raise sizing.

Sit & Go tournaments have long been one of the most popular formats for playing online poker... Thousands of these tournaments take place every minute on all poker sites, and many players have become poker professionals thanks to the CIS.

As you most likely already know, the main difference between the CIS and MTT is that the sit-and-go does not have a specific beginning, the tournament will begin when a certain number of participants are registered. The most common SNGs are heads-up, 6-max and full ring (9 or 10 players). These tournament variations are commonly referred to as single table (STT SNG) variants. But there are also multi-table SNGs, so in this format any player can find a tournament variant to their liking.

Based on the rate at which the blinds grow, SNG tournaments can be standard, turbo or hyper turbo. And of course, each format has its own specific strategies for the best game.

Popularity of the CIS

Why have such tournaments become so popular? The main reason is undoubtedly their frequency. To combat variance, one good option is to play more poker. SNG tournaments are running all the time, and you can play several at the same time. Once you have mastered the basic winning strategy, you can quickly gain experience by playing dozens of these tournaments in a session.

Another advantage of the SNG is that the session will be shorter than when playing MTT. Poker players love to plan their time, and with the SNG, you can almost accurately predict how long your tournament will last.

Of course, in poker there is no single answer to the question of how to play to win consistently. But SNG tournaments have a rather detailed winning strategy, since they have a clear structure - the amount of prize money and the amount of prize money are usually almost the same for all SNGs. So it's entirely possible to think mathematically the right gamebased on the ICM model when the tournament reaches the bubble stage.

The most common CIS strategy

The most common SNG strategy is to play tight early on and then build up your aggression when the blinds start to rise and the stacks get short. When the stacks are around 10bb, it's time to push / fold. At this time, you have almost no opportunity for postflop play, so you need to master the correct and timely putting all-in.

This strategy is followed by most of the CIS regulars. But there is another option - from the very beginning to play in a loose-aggressive style in order to quickly fill up a large stack, and then not be afraid of the bubble stage and crush opponents. This strategy can lead to confident victories, but it is also more risky, which means that such a game will be more volatile.

Perhaps you should start with the first strategy and play tight early on. Then, when you feel confident and show a good win rate, you can try the second strategy and start a more risky game.

To play AWG confidently, you need to have a good understanding of the ICM model. Once you have mastered this pattern, you will see that there are times when you should fold even a hand as strong as AK. And there are situations when you need to go all-in with any two cards.

A the most important thing in CIS tournamentsas in any other field of study, it is practice. If you drive a car, try to remember your last trip now. I bet you are no longer paying attention to turning on the turn signals, looking in the rearview mirror and shifting gears. All these actions you perform automatically, without being distracted by unnecessary thoughts and without straining. And all this is due to practice.

You should achieve the same confident gameplay in poker. Playing with the right strategy should become an integral part of your personality. Play SNGs all the time and remember that distance is the main thing. It is she who will show you what kind of player you are, and also it is the distance that will teach you to make the right decisions. The main thing is to be able to learn from your mistakes.