does anyone have any advice for me on playing sng's. I seem to have a monopoly on finishing 4th, and as all of you know, a sng only pays 3 spots.
it doesn't seem to matter what strategy I go in with, I finish 4th more often than any place else.

Well, how do you play to when you get to 4 people left? Are you slowing down too much and losing slowly or are you playing too agressive and getting involved in many hands. If would suggest to keep playing like you had during the first part of the tourney until you cash. Then you can change up your style to maybe a little more agressive. Get back to me so I can try and help you out.

[iceberg]

More often than not, If I have a big stack I'll lay back, until I get into the money. If you have a small stack (getting down to 3BB-4BB), you're going to have to try and isolate a player with decent card and hope to steal the blinds or that the cards fall in your favor.

Definitely do not wait to get blinded out because you options diminish when your chips fall below 3BB-4BB, plus all the players may call to stack the odds against you.

play tight aggressive in the beginning. do not enter lots of pots. all the fish who dont know what theyre doing will be entering way too many pots in the beginning, and getting knocked out early...

once there is 3-4 ppl gone, start loosening up a bit. play a few more hands than you wouldve in the beginning to try and build your stack.

when there only 4 ppl left, start playing aggressive! and looooose! steal those blinds! take that sucka down!

[godlikev]

i play sng's very tight...because if 7 players are out I WIN...i only play big starting cards or suiteded...i play agresive in the start...(try to become chip leader) and the i chill and w8 for other to loose...

[fasteddy1970]

The fact that you're getting to the bubble so often says you're doing something right. Don't get too hard on yourself regarding bubble finishes. Remember that the bubble lasts for about ten minutes/15 hands and if you're luck fails you during that short period of time, you lose. Sometimes it's as simple as catching or not catching the right cards during that short time period.

Originally Posted by fantasizer

does anyone have any advice for me on playing sng's. I seem to have a monopoly on finishing 4th, and as all of you know, a sng only pays 3 spots.
it doesn't seem to matter what strategy I go in with, I finish 4th more often than any place else.

Pushbotting is what SnGs are all about on the bubble. Stay away from bigstacks and steal from the smaller stacks that you have covered if your in the SB WITH <3BBs range J2+ is what you go with it if folded to you. Unless there are other small stacks around you all you hope for is A) two live cards i.e. 67s or B)a higher 2nd card then theirs. If you have a commanding chip lead on the bubble and its a turbo I HIGHLY recommend stalling even if its 5 left.

-ad

[ScottMc]

Bubble finish sucks! I will bow down to the advice of the great Howard L. his tips and several more can be found at

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/proLessons.php?lesson=1

Lesson: 1
Sit N Goes Made Easy
Howard Lederer
March 14, 2005

The Sit N Go (SNG) is online poker's great gift to the aspiring tournament player. Prior to the SNG, final table experience was hard to come by. You could enter a dozen multi-table tournaments and never find yourself at a final table. Or you could make one or two, only to get knocked out in 8th or 9th place. Adapting to an ever-diminishing number of players at a single table is a crucial skill in tournament poker, and it's a hard experience to find offline without investing a lot of time and money. Online, this experience is a mouse-click away. The SNG's advantages are many. For starters, it's low-cost, or even free. It's also fun, and convenient: You don't need to schedule it -- a SNG starts every time the table fills up -- and it's usually over in less than an hour. It is the flight simulator of Final Table play, and mastering it should be considered mandatory homework for the serious student.

Now that you know why you should play, let's look at how:

The most obvious difference between a SNG and a multi-table tournament is that when someone goes broke in a SNG, there isn't someone waiting to fill their spot. Multi-table play consists mostly of full-table, ring game poker. But as players get eliminated from a SNG, the table gets shorter- and shorter-handed. This reduction in players basically serves to artificially raise the antes. For instance, say you are playing five-handed and the blinds are 100-200: You are paying 300 in blinds for every five hands, or 60 per hand. As soon as someone gets knocked out, you're four-handed. Now you're paying 75 per hand -- a 25% increase -- despite the fact that the blinds have remained the same. Accordingly, you're forced to gamble more, or risk getting blinded out.

Since the size of the blinds relative to your stack size should always play a major role in you hand selection, I recommend starting out with pretty conservative starting hand requirements. This serves two functions: First, the blinds dictate that you play fairly tight early; the blinds are small and you are nine-handed, so they don't come around as often. Second, this helps you establish a tight image, which you hope will pay off later when the blinds are high and you might really need a timely ante steal.

But there is another not-so-obvious reason to play tighter earlier and looser later: The payout structure rewards tight play. Most SNG's pay 50% to first, 30% to second, and 20% to third. This payout structure dictates that you play for third. Why? Looking at the payout structure another way might help. Basically, the payout means that 60% gets awarded once you are down to three players, 20% gets awarded when you get down to two players, and the final 20% gets awarded to the winner. If you can just get to third, you get at least one-third of 60% of the prize pool, or 20%. You've locked up a profit, and you have a chance to win up to 30% more. It's only now that you're in the top three that your strategy should take an abrupt turn. Now it pays to gamble for the win. Let's look at the numbers again: 60% of the prize pool is off the table, and moving up one spot is worth only another 10%. But move up just one more spot and it's worth a whopping 30% extra -- that's three times more for first than it is for second. And with the blinds going up, gambling for the win is even more clearly the correct play.

I see many players employ a nearly opposite strategy. They figure they have nothing to lose, so they go for the quick double-up early. They take chances too soon when, in their view, there's "nothing on the line". Then, once they're in the money, they tighten up, thinking about that extra payout for moving up a spot. If you start to rethink your SNG approach and adopt a "slow early, fast late" strategy, you will see an almost immediate improvement in your results.

Best of luck and see you at the tables,


Howard Lederer