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My SNG Play

Saturday, September 13th, 2008 by Phil

So I mostly play sng’s but earlier this week I put in some time at the pot limit Omaha 8 or better tourney’s. I managed to win one and finish 4th in the other. They weren’t huge scores, I think combined I cashed for 400. I’ve always been competitive. So it felt really good when I won the tourney. Even if it was kind of small with only about 110 players in it. Omaha high/low is quite a fun game with plenty of action and these days I find myself playing a lot of it.

Anyway, today I’ve been playing the six handed sng’s and wanted to share some things from my play. I usually don’t get involved in the first few hands for reasons I’ve stated before. Once the blinds increase a little I start to become more active. For the most part I look for good situations to play. It will mostly be in  late position, and whenever I do enter a pot it will typically be with a raise. Now all of this depends on the table I’m at of course. If I’m playing at a table with very tight players I will usually raise more often and with much inferior holdings. If you play against tight players and they call your raise then you should know that they have some sort of hand. Unless they hit the flop however, they will be very hesitant to either make a bet or call a bet so keep that in mind.

If I raise in position and a weak tight player calls, I will almost always continuation bet if we’re heads up. I mean if he had anything he would of bet right? I’ll typically bet just under half of the pot or two thirds. That’s standard play for me but not by any means am I married to that type of play. Remember that I play tight at the beginning so when I come in with a raise most of the time my raises receive respect ,so when I make a continuation bet it doesn’t look like a bluff but more like a convincing bet that says” hey, I have a hand”. I usually bet like this when I hit the flop or miss it if I’m heads up. Playing different hands the same way adds plenty of deception to your game because your opponents will have a tough time putting you on a hand if you always make the same play or bet.

There will be times though that I don’t always bet half or two thirds of the pot on a continuation bet. I’m always looking to win the pot with the least amount of chips put at risk. That’s why in the first few blind levels I’m looking to see who folds to small bets, who calls huge ones, who chases, etc.. It’s always important to know who your playing against. If I know my opponent is going to fold to a small continuation bet then why would I risk more chips than necessary. If your playing against complete novices who just thought it would be fun to try online poker then keep it simple and play straight forward poker. Bet when you have it, fold when you don’t.