Sloe Times

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That's a heck of a claim to make don't you think? Me, telling you, how to beat SNGs. It's not like I have a super stellar win record or bankroll to reflect the sage advice I'm claiming to have. Regardless, I do know how to beat them; this is really great advice, now if I can just convince myself to pay attention I might also be cracking them regularly. Beating an SNG I think boils down to playing it in three distinct phases. Through practice and strict adherence, the following approach has put me into the final 3 of any SNG that I've ever played in. Deviations from this approach have cost me more than I'd like to think about so for crying out loud Sloejack, pay attention!

Pre-Play Ritual
Get rid of all the possible distractions that you can. Figure that playing just one SNG is going to take about one hour to play through and you need to focus. Find a place where you can get away from the people and things in your environment that may cause you to stop thinking about the game for even a few seconds. Get yourself something to drink, something to snack, and please pee before starting a game. With the preliminary activities out of the way, lets move on to phase one.

Phase One: Pre-Bubble Play
Class, repeat after me, "I am a tight, tight, folding machine." SNGs are freeze out tournaments, so survival is the key. During this phase of the game, you should only be playing premium hands, and more importantly watching all of the other players. Premium hands means any combination of cards from AA - TT. You can play other hands if you can do it cheap (SB call or BB check) but playing anything else should be done with caution. Aside from surviving, you have two other objectives during this phase. First is observation, you need to pay close attention to the other players at the table. You're trying to identify who the weak/strong, tight/loose, passive/aggressive players are. You're second objective is to build a solid table rep. This rep will provide you with additional strength in later phases, especially if you play and win with a few premium hands.

Phase Two: The Bubble
The bubble is the point in the game where there are 4 or 5 people left at the table. Placing in the money is within your grasp if you can avoid losing your nerve and chips to the other players. Remember, you are a tight, tight, folding machine. You're looking for reasons to preserve your chips. Busting someone out is important but not at the risk of being mortally wounded or eliminated yourself when you call someone's all-in with something as marginal as top pair or a four flush. Yes, your odds may be pretty good, but if you're busted out, you don't get to recharge and make a comeback. Now, because you've been a tight, tight, folding machine and have hopefully played and won with some premium hands up to this point you can loosen up just enough to exploit the weak and passive players still remaining at your table. You have been paying attention and know who they are right? Remember though, at this stage in the SNG the short stacks love to go all-in, hoping to get lucky, or hoping someone will double them up with their strong hands. Be careful that you're not calling an all-in just because you think the bettor is just trying to steal your blinds. They may very well be, but is your hand worth risking doubling someone up, or getting busted out just to try and catch someone at a bluff? If the answer is no or maybe, do yourself a favor and fold. Keep watching the other players; you're going to be up against two of them in a few minutes.

Phase Three: You're in the Money
At this point it's down to two or three players and the rules change. Now your only thought should be eliminating your opponents so that you walk away with that 1st place prize money. Depending on where you sit in terms of chip stack, you need to determine if it is better to be somewhat passive and let the other two players beat each other up until you're heads up against one of them, or possibly to play aggressively and try to push your opponents around. Regardless of how you play at this point, you're going to walk away with something so I recommend playing the best, most aggressive game that you can because if you are too passive, the blinds may force you into playing bad positions as they build up to that 500/1k and 1k/2k level.