It's the final table - you made it.

To play this game successfully you need to make some major changes to the way you have approached a normal SNG in the past. The way that you will play from now on involves a great deal of folding and often means folding the better hand.

If you can't do that then read no further, go back to taking your chances and doubling up or busting out every hand you play.

Yes you will often fold the better hand. You need to learn to live with this.

Playing this SNG is about survival and preserving your chip stack. It is not about multiple All In's and trying to bully the opposition into submissal. That way leads only to frustration and a broken bankroll.

Seat Four draws to his flush - oops he's colourblind.

The way this system works is to preserve your chip stack at all times and ideally to never face an all in until near the end of your heads up battle. It's tough to achieve this but once you get the hang of it you'll never want to go back to playing the way you did in the past.

Forget about bluffing. If you have a mindset where you think people are constantly bluffing you then you need to get this changed.

Instead of imagining that every bet at you is a bluff you need to believe that every bet is a bet because they say they have the cards they are betting for. If you start disbelieving these bets then you will always bust out of any tournament early, let alone this one.

You have to now start believing that on a flop of 273 your opponent has a 2, a 3 or 7. Can your cards beat that? If not you have to fold.

Now, whilst this may seem a bit extreme, you have to clean up your game totally to become a winning player and that is what this website is about. It's about crushing the $10 Six handed SNG and moving on up to the $20 once you are bankrolled for it.

If you play as you have done before by making continuation bets with nothing and calling when you don't have a card on the flop then you are introducing more risk to your game. The way we want to play now is with as least risk as is absolutely possible.

You have to remember that people do play trash hands because they "feel like it". You can't stop someone playing 23 suited. You just have to be smart enough to fold.

23 Suited is a hand that a No Limit cash player would limp in with and hope to hit the flop hard. Then they will get paid off big time. But it's not for this SNG.

Now don't get me wrong, continuation bets and raises with nothing have their time and place but they are not the norm. You can't play this SNG if you are constantly thinking you are going to make a move on somebody or try a risky all in to win the pot. The way we play now is to eliminate as much risk as possible and preserve our chip stack at all times.

Shorthanded Overview Part Two

Last update: 20-06-2008 12:28