Improving SNG Strategy – How To Look For Your Leaks!

Spotting And Plugging Your Own Leaks Is A Sure-Fire Way To Improve Sit N Go Results!

Finding your own ‘leaks’ or sub-optimal plays can be a difficult task in any form of poker. This article looks at how to go about this profitable task for SNG players. The idea being that a little time spent at the end of each session to improve your play will pay off in future profits...

The first thing you need to do it get hold of the hand-history for one or more games from the site at which you play. This can be done in several ways depending on your site. Some will automatically put these into a folder for you, others will offer you the chance to have them sent by e-mail. Whichever site you play taking the time to get your hand-histories is an important step.

You now have a choice – either to go through your history manually or to invest in a program to do this for you. The rule of thumb that experienced players suggest is this:

If you are spending $50 or more on a session (or day) of SNG play you should really invest an additional $80 to $100 in a software tool to improve your game.

The logic is simple – tools which not only replay your games via hand-histories, but point out leaks and how to avoid them in future are widely available. By investing the equivalent of 1 days play (for example) you can increase your profits and move up levels much faster – meaning that the return on investment is potentially huge.

We highly recommended Sit N Go Wiz for exactly this reason, by showing you bubble maths for hands played you can begin to see patterns and make those positive equity time and time again - there is a 30 day free trial option to get you started.

Finding Your Poker Leaks - What To Look Out For?

Whether you use a tool or go through your hand-history manually the next question is what to look for? Here are some suggestions…

• Passive Play: Are you calling bets rather than raising yourself – particularly during the early stages? Where you find too many calls ask yourself whether a raise might have won the hand at any point – after all if you do not raise then how can your opponent fold?
  
  
• Playing Easily Dominated Hands: Hands such as Ace-X (where X = Jack or lower) are dangerous in early SNG play. If you see yourself playing many of these hands, particularly out of position then ask yourself whether these are really profitable opportunities.
  
  
• Limping High Blinds: Limping once the blinds get to 100 or more is rarely an optimal play, particularly if the table has become short handed. Look out for these situations and ask yourself whether raising (or in fact folding) could have been a better play.
  
  
• Bubble Play: Are you raising or calling? Calling bubble all-ins should not be taken lightly – you need to pick up blinds with raises. Also, when you do push all-in are you correctly estimating the range of hands your opponents will call you with… if those hands are weaker than expected look back through the hand history focusing on your opponent – was there any clue? Often the answer is yes!
  

Improving your bubble play will have the single biggest effect on your profits. Our Introduction to ICM will give you some valuable information on SNG bubble strategy concepts.

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