As some of you know, last month I turned my focus to the turbo SNGs on stars. I played a few hundred and made some adjustments and experimented along the way. I had a modest ROI, but more importantly, I learned some key points to the game.

<span>Five things I learned:
</span>- Folding power is everything. If you allow yourself to get too short, you might as well go to a gang fight with a rubber band gun while wearing the Backstreet Boys tank top belly shirt that your grandma had made for you at that little kiosk inside the mall. You are at complete and utter mercy of the cards and getting walked by braindead opponents. The endgame is a massacre, and if you don't bring enough chips to fight with, it's not going to be pretty.

- The inflection points remain the same, they just sneak up on you a lot sooner. Paying attention to the structure is paramount. Multitabling the turbos can be harder than the regular SNGs if you aren't watching the blinds closely. Nothing like the big surprise of the 400 BB smacking into your 1200 chip stack out of nowhere.

- In the end, cards don't matter. Ok, they matter a little bit, but they are a smaller piece of the puzzle later in the tourney than they are in the beginning. Early, I basically just play my cards. In the end, I almost ignore them. Picking up pots preflop is a key necessity. You can't afford to be very patient. It might seem like reckless abandon if you aren't used to it, but in reality, waiting for a premium hand is truly gambling.

- The tournament can be won or lost from the bubble. Just like in all SNGs, the bubble play is where it's at. Embrace 4th place. Accept it. But do not accept 3rd place! 3rd place sucks, treat it like leprosy. Stay away from it all costs. Lately I've been more willing to bubble in effort to gain extra chips and prepare of the ITM war. It's been working well, and after all, 1st place is a lot more fun than 2nd or 3rd...even if I have to bubble every now and then.

- Don't overvalue Ax just because it's a turbo. I was making way too many reraises and all in calls with Ax late in the tourney. Being dominated still sucks, even with 5 min levels. This also goes for hands like 22... stop reraising and calling for your whole stack with them when it's not warranted.

What I mean is not to be afraid of it. I'll take 4th place a little more often if that ensures that I get 1st place a little more often. The point is to weed out that 3rd place finish. In the end, you will see a higher ROI by avoiding the "just make the money at all costs" attitude.

It was somewhat sarcasm. Come on, you know what I mean. It's common sense.

No, I think he makes a very valid point. In the long run, it's probably better to finish 4th x number of times by pressing on the bubble if that means you will get 1st x number of times instead of just cruising into 3rd.

First place is where the money is at. If you keep getting 3rd and then not cashing in a few, you will probably be losing money because of rake.

I REALLY enjoyed this post, great read, and good advice Hustlr. Excellent work.

-Brian

I play so many sit n gos its crazy. usually b/w 55's and 15's. I think if im in the sit n go it usually means im going out 4th doesnt matter if im chip leader or last place. short stacks are immune to knockouts if im in it.

"Nothing like the big surprise of the 400 BB smacking into your 1200 chip stack out of nowhere."
Lol hit the nail on the head.

It obviously depends on your stack and blinds, but a large majority of the time, optimal strategy is to make sure you get into the money and THEN gamble like crazy to move up a spot. This is of course opposite to optimal srategy in a multi, but I do not think the equity you gain by gambling on the bubble in SNGs is going to pay off long term by translating to more 1st places. Maybe if you are at a SNG where people are very very scared of the bubble and trying to just cash, then yes, go nuts and enjoy the FE, but that doesn't happen much.

well said hustlr. also, you should usually give the shortstack in the bb a walk if you have a 10 to 1 chip lead on him.

adam, cal whoever should sticky this for the strategy section, its very informative.

u think 5 minute blinds is fast, pokerroom has 3 minute, i mastered this and other turbo methods there, 4 tabling!

Great post. I think people might get confused with the 3rd an 5th points though. What I think you mean is to not press the call button with trash but raise with trash late in the game. I also think restealing is overrated in sngs because you dont have near as much fold eq. I've actually been not doing so great in the high buy in turbos and this post reminded me of a couple of things I've been missing...

Some other plays that's important to know about in the lower limit SNG's is the limp->fold to raise for 40% of your stack at 300/600. Also, the limp-> insta call all-in from the sb with hands like JTo, 86 & Q9 when the bb decides to push.

Good stuff.

awesome thread im really working on these as almost my sole means of poker playing and doing OK at the 16s so far

so do you really enter pots that infrequently first to act 4 handed ahhh snap ? one in 10-20 hands dealt just seems like not entering the pot often enough even if 3rd/4 and in push fold mode, but you would def know + EV plays in these better than most......i know apestyles is a demon in these, so hearing that he got something out of this is impressive. good work author

this is really all i was talking about in my first response to your post. people blow 3rd all the time in these by gambling for no reason on the bubble.