Guest Post – Micro-limit SnG Notes

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

With the introduction of micro-limit tables on FTP, I brought you a guest post yesterday from Gracie with some tips for the small ball cash tables. It only took a quick look yesterday evening to see these new tables chock full of players grinding away, gambling, or maybe a little bit of both. In addition to the micro-limit cash tables, there are also smaller limit SnG’s and MTT’s.

Okie-Vegas blogger GCox25, not coincidentally named the Low Limit Grinder, has been spending most of his time pounding away at the lower limit SnG’s and has a unique insight approaching these one table tournaments.

Comments are encouraged.

Micro-Limit SnG’s
by GCox25, the Low Limit Grinder

Playing the lowest limit SNG’s offered can be a rewarding and, often times, mind numbing process. Some of the play that you encounter on a regular basis will leave you scratching your head in disbelief. But remember, those are the exact people that you want to be playing with on a regular basis.

Here is a short list of things to remember when playing the lowest limit SNG’s being offered:

1. Differences in level of play

I have noticed there is hardly any difference in the level of your opponents’ play at from the lowest limit SNG’s available and all the way up to the $11 buy-in variety. The players don’t get that much better when you step up one level, they just have a bigger bankroll and, in some cases, they are not as good as some of the lower level players I’ve encountered.

2. Sets are “Golden”

This has been said everywhere on the internet, but bears repeating here: Sets will make you money. I will gamble my whole stack nearly every time when I flop a set. The only exception being when I have very specific notes on the player I am playing against. If he has earned my respect in the past, he will probably continue to get it, however, I can count on one hand the number of times I haven’t gotten all my money in the middle when I flop a set.

3. Fish are everywhere

The fish are plentiful. Granted, there are going to be less and less fish the higher you move up the ladder, but there’s always 1 or 2 (sometimes more) people who are there strictly to gamble and will nearly always pay off your big hands.

4. Patience

Patience is a virtue. A patient SNG player can almost fold to the money a large portion of the time at the micro-level SNG’s. It’s not uncommon for me to check my stats late in a SNG and find that I’ve seen less than 10% of the total flops. This strategy can be extremely boring but extremely profitable for a patient player. Trust me when I tell you, most of the other players at these levels are not paying attention to your “flops seen” stats.

5. Position

It’s been said in real estate that the three biggest factors for purchase are Location, Location and Location. I think the three biggest factors to being a winning SNG player is Position, Position and Position. Raising and calling raises from the correct position at the table is imperative to being a winning player. You can never steal the blinds enough from the button. Sooner or later, someone is going to play back at you from the blinds, but if you’ve already stolen his blinds a dozen times, you will have no problem laying down a marginal or even a poor hand when they do fire back at you. I will often fold marginal hands pre-flop from under the gun, but raise to 3x the big blind with the exact same hand from the button. The key is recognizing where you are at the table and the recognizing who might play back at you.

6. Heads Up play

Heads up play is crucial to beating SNG’s over the long haul. When it gets down to 4 or 5 people, you will not see many “family” pots. Most of the play from here to the end will be heads up. If you aren’t aggressive enough or good enough at heads up play, you will bubble out more than you place in the money. I am relatively tight/aggressive(some would say weak/tight and I wouldn’t argue) for the first half of a SNG. If I come into a pot early, I will have a large hand. When we get down to 5 handed though, I will play much more aggressively. I tend to get more respect late from my raises, because I’ve played so tight for the first half of the SNG. You have to constantly change up your play because someone out there is paying attention and will make you pay.

7. Short-stacked

You have to learn when and how to push with a short stack, because at some point you will become short-stacked. In order to survive the bubble syndrome, you need to be able to push around the other players, even though they have double or triple the chips that you have. My simple rule is that I GO all-in, I don’t CALL all-in. I had a player ask me one time why I would push all-in under the gun with A-A and take a chance on not getting any action. My answer is very simple, at least to me. If I’m short-stacked, I want to determine when all my chips go in the middle. I don’t want someone else dictating to me when to push them in.

8. Note-Taking

This is something that I didn’t pay a lot of attention to when I first began playing online. Since then, I hardly play a session without making notes on at least a couple of dozen players. If somebody outplays me, they get the red warning light and a quick note, “be careful with this guy.” If somebody shows continually that he is playing poor cards pre-flop, he gets the green light and a short note like “raises light from the button.” You can customize your colors and note-taking, but that is something that will definitely pay dividends in the future.

9. Falling in love with a hand

Realize when you are beat or behind and get away from the hand. It happens on a regular basis where I’ve raised the pot pre-flop with pocket Aces only to see a raggedy flop with other face cards or straight or flush possibilities. After I fire out my obligatory continuation bet (I’m a big believer in the continuation bet, see below) to see where I’m at, my opponent moves all-in. At this point, I should decide that I’m probably behind and get away from my Aces. I’m not very good at it yet, but I’m working on it.

10. Continuation bet

You have a big hand, say K-K, and raise it up pre-flop only to find two callers. The flop comes out A-x-x and the two callers check to you. I will always fire out a pot-sized bet here, just to find out information about your opponent’s hand. Just because they called a pre-flop raise doesn’t mean they have an Ace. They might have an Ace with a weak kicker and determine that your strong continuation bet means that you have an Ace with a bigger kicker. Give your opponents the opportunity to fold in this situation. If they are trapping and come back over the top of you, then you know to lay down your Kings. Remember #9, don’t fall in love with your hand.

11. Discouragement

Don’t get discouraged. Keep a positive mental approach to every SNG you play. Sure, everyone is going to get sucked out on. Sometimes it seems like you can go days without your dominating hands holding up. Just remember, over the long haul, your dominating hands will hold up. Tell your opponent NH and move on. That’s the guy you want at your table.

12. Time Management

Don’t try to do too many things while you are playing a SNG. At least at first, try to pay strict attention to your opponents. Look for on-line tells: betting patterns, speed of response, etc. Watch what cards they show down and learn what hands they will play. The more information you can learn about someone, the better for you in the long run. You never know which of the 10 or 6 will be heads up with you in the end.

13. Have fun

Finally, have fun while you are playing. Don’t be that bitter (insert your own noun here) that hangs around berating everyone for their poor play. If you take a bad beat and feel like you might be headed for tilt, log off, walk around, watch TV or make yourself a sandwich. Take a break and come back to the game when your mind is clear and ready to focus again.

Those are just a few very basic things that I like to focus on when things aren’t going as well as I’d hoped. Hope they help you in your SNG’s, I know they’ve helped with mine.

Low Limit Grinder
GCox25

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