Tip #17: Introduction to Tier 1 and Tier 2 SNGs

Tier 1 and Tier 2 SNGs are a special type of tournament that works like a satellite, introduced by Full Tilt Poker. The idea is similar to double or nothing SNGs, with an extended prize-pool distribution. In the case of the tiers SNGs, there are 18 players per tournaments, and 6 of them are paid: the first five with a tournament token, and the sixth with a little less in money.

The tournaments have a fast structure, with blinds changing in 6 minutes for the regular ones, and 3 minutes for turbo ones.

Tier 1: 18 players, $8.8 buy-in, prize = $26 token for top 5, $14 to sixth place

Tier 2: 18 players, $26 buy-in, prize = $75 token to top 5, $57 to sixth place

For this introductory article, we will finish with some tips to play these tier tournaments on Full Tilt:

• Play tight aggressive – although the blinds go up fast, this game is not about finishing in first place, but finishing ITM! Save your chips!
• Avoid the chip leaders – why bluff against the ones that can eliminate you? Be careful with them.
• Find out who are the tight players – find out who are the ones not playing any hand. Pressure them, steal from them. But if they enter the pot hard, be careful.
• Exploit the bad players – if some player is playing a lot of pots, limping too much, he is probably a bad player in this format. Use it to your advantage. These players will usually play a loose-calling game, be sure to extract value when you have hands, and avoid bluffing them.
• Know when to change the pace – if you find yourself shortstacked, play the “all-in” game. No need to get fancy, unless it is bubble time.
• Understand the bubble play – you have to be careful when the bubble approaches. If you have average chips, simply don’t play. It may be right to fold AA pre-flop.

Tip #16: Rakeback for Sit and Go Poker Players

If you play poker regularly, you probably pay a good amount of rake to the poker rooms. That’s how they can operate, after all. But the truth is that online poker rooms need the regular players, that’s where most of their money comes from. Then you don’t know already you must learn what rakeback is and see how much money you can get from it. In this tip we begin explaining what is rake and rakeback, and then we go into rakeback options for sit and go players and how to choose a good room for rakeback.

What is rakeback

You do know what’s rake, right? Rake is the fee that poker rooms charge you. For example: in a $10+1 tourney, $10 go to the prize pool, and $1 is the fee. This means that you usually pay 5 to 20% in rake to enter a tournament. This is money lost, unless you have rakeback.

With a rakeback program, some of this fee is given back to you. Poker rooms offer this because they prefer to lose some of their profit if they can keep a good player for a long time. With rakeback you save 25-40% of the money you would pay in rake. And this may look small, but for regular players is really significant. Let say you play 7 sit and gos of $20+2 per day. That’s $100-150 you could get from rakeback at the end of one month.

Rakeback for sit and gos

You will need to sign-up to a rakeback portal to receive rakeback. There are many on the market, but we recommend SNG Rakeback, because they offer the best deals we could find on the Internet for SNG players. We actually have rakeback with them, as they don’t take any fees and their promotions are very good. You can check the percentages and offers on their site. They also offer rake races and special tournaments for their users, on top of what you get from rakeback.

Which are the best poker rooms with rakeback?

There are some factors you should consider before choosing your rakeback poker room for sit and gos. Let’s name some of them:

• SNG traffic – probably the most important one. How is the traffic for the type of SNG you usually play? If you play multiple tables at once this is even more important.
• Rooms you already have an account – you can only get rakeback for new accounts, so you should choose a poker room in which you still have not been registered before. There are some exceptions if you have never played for real money on your acount – check the support area on SNG rakeback for more details.
• Rakeback percentage – it usually range from 27 to 33% on the biggest poker rooms. The difference is usually small. Sometimes the best thing to do is to test some poker rooms and see which one gives you a better return. If you play hish stakes, the difference can be significant.
• Cash games – if you also play cash games regularly, you will also get rakeback from it. Check the SNG rakeback site for the differences between the rake calculation methods “dealt” and “contributed”.

You go and check the SNG Rakeback site for more details and see if this interests you. It probably will.

Tip #15: The Price Of Playing Against Good Opponents

Playing SNG tournaments against several other winning players can seriously impact your returns. This occurs whether or not you have a ‘winning edge’ against these opponents and is exaggerated by the nature of the sit and go bubble. This article shows how and why playing against winners can affect your returns and suggests ways to remedy this.

We start by comparing the average returns for a SNG tournament in which 4 other players are winners. We then look at a typical bubble situation to show how this effect can be compounded. Finally the solutions are covered.

Let us start with an above average sit and go player who enjoys a 20% ROI at the $10 level (we will ignore fees in these examples to keep the numbers simple). This return is against an ‘average’ (over a large sample) opponent mix. Now we add 4 winners to the 10 player game as ask what would happen to this ROI.

The obvious way of looking at this is to reduce the available prize pool by the average of the winning opponents return’s. Say each had a ROI of 10% in this case. Instead of a $100 prize pool before the first hand we are now looking at an average of $56 – each player will return $11 for $10 invested over a large sample. 20% of $56 is only $11.20c, a significant difference. Note that our player’s average return was higher than the other winners, the effect you are seeing happens even when we are ahead of the other winners in terms of skills.

Avoiding winning opponents can increase those returns, yet very few players actively do this. When you log on to your favorite site and see 3 or 4 players pre-registered for the next 5 games you can be pretty sure these are regulars. Note their names, look them up on database services and – most importantly – avoid the successful ones. Something as simple as taking 10 minutes to browse your favorite poker forum before returning to the tables can result in you having a better return for the time invested playing.

Alternatively you can find a site which has less winning regulars at the tables. There are huge differences between sites in this respect – with some attracting large numbers of pro or semi-pro ‘grinders’ and others being largely recreational. Check out our dedicated room reviews today to find a the most profitable site for your individual requirements.

Tip #14: Bankroll Management for SNGs

Sit and Go bankroll management is essential to anyone looking to make a long term profit at the tables. While this subject lacks the glamour of poker strategy tips it is essential reading for anyone serious about profiting from the game. This article shows how easily natural variance can affect your sit and go profits, and suggests some bankroll guidelines which should keep you making money in the long run.
We can demonstrate the effects of variance with a simple example of 100 SNGs. Imagine you have just completed 100 at the $10 level and have made a profit of $200 or $2 per game – a healthy return of 20% on your investment.

Now we take just 3 of these games and reverse the outcome of a ‘coin flip’ at the bubble, those common situations when 2 over-cards face off against a pair. Instead of winning these 3 hands we imagine you lost them, instead of coming 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 3 previous games you came 4th each time.

This represents a swing of $100 in profit, instead of $200 profit we now have $100, half of the previous ROI. By reversing just 3 hands we saw a huge effect, now adding in those times we suffer real ‘bad beats’ or run our kings into an opponents aces, and you can see how big an effect variance can have.

Because it is so easy to suffer swings we recommend that you keep at least 50 buy-ins for the level of tournament at which you play. This number can be raised to 100 for pro players who rely on poker for their income. Going lower than 50 buy-ins increases the risk of going broke in the long term, your ability to replenish your poker account is key to how flexible you can be with taking this risk.

Bankroll management is a great way of deciding when you are ready to move up levels, and indeed move back down. When you have 50 buy-ins for the next level up then take a shot – making sure you move back down if you run badly and lose several buy-ins. Conversely, losing at your current level may trigger a move-down when you go under 30 buy-ins, having the discipline to do this will give you a better chance of growing that bankroll again over time.

To summarize, sit and go bankroll management is essential for long term profits. The natural variance in poker means you will go on both hot and cold runs many times over. With strong bankroll discipline you can prevent yourself from going broke at the same time as being in the best possible position to move up levels as your profits increase.

Tip #13: 6-max SNG tips and strategy

6-man sit n go’s are great for players simply because they can be played at a much faster rate then the 9 man sit n go’s which of course results in more money per session. Not only that, but these games can be rather soft at the lower stakes since many players either do not adjust their game in order accommodate for fewer players or others tend to over adjust their game and find themselves either in sticky situations or busting out early.

So, to help those of you interested in playing better at 6-max sit n go’s we have provided some tips and strategies for you below.

Good 6-Max Tips

Starting Hands: Players will want to loosen up their starting hand requirements for 6-handed tables. This will mean playing more face cards such as A-Q, A-J, A-10, K-Q, K-J and K-10. Of course, these hands will be much better in later position then in early position, but more of these hands are playable at a 6-handed table. What player should avoid doing is being way to ‘nitty’ in their starting hand selection since the blinds come around much quicker than full ring games.

On the other hand, players should still consider the gap concept when deciding to call an early position raise. This will help avoid spots where your hand may be ‘dominated’ or out-kicked.

Lastly, it is important to remember that only 2 players generally get paid in 6-max sit n go’s, so there is still a need to play tight and still be selective. The adjustment made from 9 man to 6-max is very slight. Be sure not to over adjust and you should be fine.

Position: Be sure to play in position as much as possible since players will be playing a little bit more aggressive then in 9 man games. This will present multiple opportunities where your opponents will catch a small piece of the flop or miss it altogether allowing you to take the pot.

Also, when the blinds start to increase you will want to focus on stealing blinds where you are in position. Ideally, you will also have some sort of hand to play so that when called, you have a decent hand to play and are in position.

Blinds: Be sure to get aggressive while in the blinds. If it has been folded around to the small blind and the small blind elects to just limp in and you have a hand worth raising, do so. Do not allow them to see a flop for cheap in attempt to just out flop you. This holds true even more so if you are in the small blind with a decent hand. Be sure to raise the big blind because you have a good hand and you will be out of position when called.

Bubble Play: The whole idea of a sit n go is to win. When you make it down to the last 3 players, get aggressive. Raise players and take the blinds. The blinds will help to keep you afloat until the bubble bursts.

Now, if you happen to be short stacked, you will want to be prepared to push more often to try to win the blinds. By being the first one to push, you are forcing the other players to have a much better hand to call with. Most times, you will win the blinds with no resistance. Always be the first one to push, never be the caller.

The only exception to being super aggressive is if the other two players are aggressive. If that is the case, let them duke it out so you can coast into the money unscathed.

6 Max Sit n Go Tips and Strategies – final words

6-max sit n go’s can be extremely profitable especially when played properly. By taking caution and choosing the correct starting hands, playing in position and being aggressive in all the right spots, players can be sure to make it down to the heads up batter where you can really turn up the heat and go for the win.

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