Poker Articles

Recently, I have had a lot of people ask me the same couple of questions – so rather than repeat myself dozens of times, I will just say what I say to everyone in this article.

“I have this amount of money in my account – what buy in SNG should I be playing?”  

What I recommend for people looking to build their bankroll through SNGs is to first realize that your bankroll isn’t going to be built overnight.  It is a grind.  It takes a lot of SNGs to see noticeable results – not just 20 or 50 or even 150 for that matter.

I think that a couple hundred SNG’s are necessary to get an accurate view of where you statistically stand.  You should really shoot for more, but 300 is generally a good number to see where you stand – but of course the more you play, the more accurate your stats will be.  So before you get all bent out of shape, or overly excited about your ROI% - you should probably have at least 100-200 done to be anything near accurate

So… what should you be playing?  Well, that is kind of up to you.  The only way you should be playing in any poker game is if you feel 100% comfortable in that game.  Now for online play, you generally never have the choice of who you are going to play with in a SNG – so that would mean you need to feel 100% comfortable with the stakes you are playing.

I don’t like using specific numbers – in terms of what you need to play at a certain buy in.  However, if I absolute had to - I would generally say that you should have 30-50 buy in’s at that level.  Meaning, you should have about $300-500 if you want to play $10 SNG’s – just in case you do go on a bad run, you are not going to be broke.  You never want to play outside your bankroll – EVER.  Bad things will happen. 

The reason that I don’t like using specific buy in guidelines, is that some people just can’t play a $5 SNG because it just doesn’t mean anything to them.  On the contrary, some players could never risk more than $50 on a single table.  Are either of them “wrong”?  No – but they need to recognize where they stand.   Finding that buy in level that you are comfortable losing the buy in – where finishing first still feels nice is exactly what I would recommend.  If you are just playing to cash in third, than that buy in is probably too high for you.

If you can’t play a $30+3 because you don’t want to lose $33 – drop down.  If you don’t seem to beat a certain level – drop down.  If you don’t feel comfortable – drop down.  If your bankroll is going through a rough patch – drop down.  Always err on the side of caution.  Only move up when you feel like you are ready – there’s no rush.  Poker is not going anywhere.

Play poker at a comfortable level or the swings will eat you alive – financially and emotionally.