6-seater SnG tournaments are a very profitable game to play. They take an average of around 40 minutes to finish, making for a very high hourly winrate if you are successful enough with them. They differ from full 9- or 10-handed games in that you are hit by the blinds more frequently (once every 6 hands as opposed to every 9 or 10 hands) and you have to adjust your game accordingly in order to survive. You no longer get to play premiums only like you would 10-handed, and will have to rely on good hand-reading skills for the final stages of play.

I use the same strategy for 6-handed games as I do with full table games: tight-aggressive early, loose-aggressive late. My level of looseness will depend on a few things: the blind level, their size in relation to your stack, and the numer of people left.

Blind structure varies from site to site; FullTiltPoker.com has more blind levels, but they rise at a quicker rate. Other sites have fewer blind levels, but they rise at a slower rate. In the first few levels of play (usually before the 25/50 blind level), there are generally 6-4 people still playing. Some maniacs go out early, or some bad beats might happen, and hopefully you got lucky enough to have had a premium pair or a big ace to take one of them out. My rule is that I won’t call an all in without AA, KK, QQ or AK (which is still a gamble) in these early levels. You want to make sure you’re ahead, and then and only then should you get your my chips in the middle; with AK, it’s more of a pushing hand than a calling hand. I definitely toss it if I see a raise, reraise and push in front of me. You should still be raising with JJ-88 and AQ-AJ, and firing continuation bets on non-scary flops. If you meet resistance and haven’t hit your hand, then just muck it. It’s not worth gambling with your tourney life vs. loose-aggressive players at this point - save your chips for later.

Occasionally, you’ll find yourself in a tough situation where either a tight player has busted the maniacs, or the maniacs have gotten lucky and you are now either 3-handed playing against tough or LAG players who have huge stacks. They most likely will be bullying you around and although the blinds will still be tiny in relation to your stack, you’ll have to fight back and get loose-aggressive yourself. These are probably the toughtest situations to find yourself in and you’ll just have to find a way to beat them; make sure you get aggressive though, as playing soft near the bubble is probably the worst thing you could do.

The reason you are playing so tight early on is not only to avoid sticky situations, but also to advertise a very tight table image. You want to advertise this image so that when the blinds raise to a level significant enough to steal, you can feel safe with stealing pots, blinds and antes without much resistance since your opponents will most likely try to find any excuse to fold.

In these early stages, I’ll be playing such strong hands, and people will be so loose, that I raise it 5BBs or possibly more every time. I do this to get full value out of my hand aswell as to make sure I’m not giving my opponents a cheap flop with QJ or other lesser hands.

Next we have the middle stages, in which the blinds have reached an almost-significant level. They are probably 25/50, 30/60 or 40/80. A raise at this point is large enough that it will generally scare a LAG opponent off, but if you’re playing versus a big stack, he’ll have no problem making a 200 chip call to see a flop. At this level, there are usually 3 or 4 people left, including yourself. The blinds will be hitting you even more frequently, and you’ll have to start getting aggressive with AT, KJ and 77 type hands. Observant opponents will start catching on to your raise, C-bet strategy at this point, and you’ll have to switch your play up some.

In these early stages, I’ll raise 3 to 4BBs. I’ll be raising more frequently, and with lesser hands, and so I don’t want to overcommit myself in any marginal situations.

When the blinds hit 50/100 you really need to start banging at the blinds and stealing pots, as at least 150 chips are up for grabs every hand. Your extremely tight image really comes in handy here as you’ll be using it to steal pots from opponents left right and centre. If it’s still 3-handed at this point (bubble time!) then you should be playing very aggressively; the medium stacks will be really tightening up, hoping that you or the other opponent will bust before he does so he can sneak into second place. Don’t fall into this trap yourself. If you have a medium stack, then don’t be afraid of getting your money in the middle of any pot that you feel you’re leading. One thing you should be weary of, though, is if you and one other opponent have big stacks, then try more or less to keep out of each others way. It’s fine to steal his blinds and play smaller pots with him, but don’t be trying to reraise him for all your chips with 77 - it’s just not worth the risk of busting out of the money to try and gain an even bigger - and unnecessary - chip stack.

I’ll be raising 3BBs and occasionally 4BBs at this stage. I’ll be raising with very marginal holdings, and definitely don’t want to be caught for too much of my stack if someone decides to push back. I can’t raise too little either or I won’t be getting nearly enough fold equity.

Throughout the tournament, specifically in the late stages, you’ll be stealing blinds a whole lot. While doing so you have to keep in mind who you’re stealing from. If you’ve noticed that the big stack is a particulary loose player who gets very aggressive post-flop, think again about raising his blind with 33. You don’t want to be faced with tough decisions against these types of players. I personally use PokerTracker with PAHud to identify how loose an opponent is, and how aggressive they are. It’s not essential to have this program, but it helps considerably, especially if you’re multitabling. 6-handed SnGs require more attention to reads, and as such I don’t even suggest multitabling without PT unless you have exceptional multitasking skills. I don’t personally play more than 2 tables at a time, with PT, and make sure that I’ve timed them so that as one is nearing the ending stages, the other is in it’s beginning stages. You’re faced with many more tough decisions late rather than early, and timing them like this makes sure that I’m not swamped with multiple decisions at one time.

Moving on to the later stages, it’s usually 3-handed at the 50/100 or 100/200 blind level, but you’ll also find yourself heads-up alot of the time. Heads-up, your opponent should by now have figured out that you’re not the extremely tight player you made yourself out to be earlier, but have now gotten very aggressive. He may or may not be disrespecting your raises, and although you should be playing most if not all of your hands at this point, you may have to adjust your play according to how loose your opponent is being. For a more detailed analysis of heads-up play, see the Heads Up NLHE Tournament Strategy article.

As for raising amounts heads-up, anything goes. I might be minimum raising, or I might have to raise 10BBs. Heads-up gets pretty wild, and you’ll have to use your reads to determine how much to bet.

So in a nutshell:

-Play very tight early (5/10–>20/40), and raise only with AK-AJ, KQ, and AA-TT. Call all ins with only AA-QQ, and possibly AK. Adjust your hand requirements accordingly vs. exceptionally loose or tight players. Don’t waste your time and chips with limping.
-Start getting aggressive in the middle stages (25/50–>40/80) with lesser hands. Add AT, KQ and similar hands to the mix of hands you’ll be raising with.
-Get very aggressive, and start using your tight image in the late stages (50/100 and up). Make sure you play aggressive on the bubble, especially if you have a shorter stack.
-Use PokerTracker + PAHud when multitabling to get reads you would otherwise lose while multitasking.