Poker News

Ashley Adams

On line one or two table tournaments, commonly called “Sit and Gos” or “SNGs” in the parlance of the Internet poker rooms, are a relatively inexpensive and fun way to play our favorite game. I’ve won about 65% of the ones I’ve entered. So let me share some of my observations. Players begin with a modest stack of $800. The game begins at $15/30, with $2 antes and a $5 bring and progresses rapidly, reaching $300/600 within an hour and a half or so. The Stud tourneys go up in stakes every ten hands.

The quality of players is typical very poor. They are pretty easy pickings if you play carefully. Here is a very, very abbreviated strategy.

Be aggressive in the early rounds, but be more selective than you would be in a ring game with similarly loose and passive players. That is, during the first three or four stages when the game is full, stay out of hands where you don’t have both a large advantage with a Premium Pair and the ability to narrow the field. If you’re in late position, for example, and find that your completion doesn’t knock out all but one or two players because so many players have already called the bring-in when the bet gets to you, consider folding your 10s, Jacks and Queens if they don’t have an Ace to go with them. But if you are in position to make it a double bet to go, or think for some other reason that your raise can knock everyone or all but one player out of the game, then make a raise.

Do not play drawing hands for the most part - unless you can play for just the bring-in — even the ones you’d typically play in a loose low limit affair. Though you will have the best of it with all of the loose callers, your finite stack can’t take the gamble.

Consider the stack size of your likely opponent before you enter the hand. It’s often more important than the cards you hold. Be more aggressive against the shortstacked player who is just hanging on and likely to fold to your pressure - or likely to just fling in his remaining chips out of desperation. Stay out of the way of large dueling stacks. With such a finite field, and money for the last three places, survival is much, much more important in this type of game than in a ring game.

Good short-handed play is critical. Remember that knocking players out is the key to your success. Stay out of pots where two or more players are already engaged. Be more likely to call a very short-stacked player if you think no one else will - even if you’re a slight underdog. With (3 3) A against a raising (x x) K, if you’re last to go and the King has a very small stack and you are pretty deep, call the raise. The opportunity of knocking them out if you catch good and they don’t improve (or catching them in a bluff) is often worth the potential small hit to your large stack. Use the knowledge gleaned during the tournament to exploit your heads up opponent in the last stages. Typically, opponents tend to be too impatient, trying to steal antes and buy the pot with overly aggressive raising. You be patient, waiting for hands with at least two high cards or a pair. And bully the players whom you’ve learned will fold too often under pressure.

Played correctly, you should turn these SNGs into Play And Wins!

Ashley Adams is the author of Winning 7-Card Stud, (Kensington Press 2003). He has been playing 7-Card Stud for 40 years-and profitably in casinos for the past 10 years. He has played in casinos all over the world, including England, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Canada and the United States, but plays most frequently at at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard Connecticut. Professionally, he is a union organizer and an agent for broadcasters.

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