Collin Moshman on Beating Low-Stakes SNGs (video)

We're loving Collin's breakdowns of our strategy articles, and there's no better one for Collin to go through than our "Beating Low-Stakes SNGs", since he is our resident SNG poker expert!

In this video Collin goes over everything you need to know to beat the SNG. From early game to late game strategy, it's all here. Watch the video and let us know your strategies for SNG poker, or what you learned from watching.

Some great tips! If an of you have questions for Collin on this I know he will be happy to answer them.

These are the advice of our friend Colling Moshman

• Raise your strongs hands fou value during the early game

It is a great advice, following this advice avoids mistakes when playing a hand

• Position is crucial for playing pots

It is always very good to have the initiative in the game, is also to have advantage

• Be selective entering hands in the middle stages

This advice also seems very good, especially when the tournament is at a very advanced stage

• Shove wide in the late game

Following this advice would help you win chips to shy players

• Play many hands after bubble has burs

Very good !! So we would take the opportunity to win chips to players who desperately want to win chips with speculative hands

- Play valuable hands more often against weaker players, especially hands that have the potential to win a lot of chips.
- Be selective as you go through the blinds, and often adapt to the scenarios.

- Position is important for playing pots and especially big pots, evaluate the depth of the stacks and also the positions of the players.
- It's always great to have the initiative in the game, it's also to have a range advantage when opening and still being aggressive.

We can try to explore moments when players feel pressure and so we adjust our range to the table we are at.

Thank you very much for the video, right now I am playing sits and go at 888poker, and this video has helped me a lot.
The main advice that has helped me the most, is to be more aggressive in the advanced stages, to take advantage.

Tammy said:

We're loving Collin's breakdowns of our strategy articles, and there's no better one for Collin to go through than our "Beating Low-Stakes SNGs", since he is our resident SNG poker expert!

In this video Collin goes over everything you need to know to beat the SNG. From early game to late game strategy, it's all here. Watch the video and let us know your strategies for SNG poker, or what you learned from watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk8wDtIh-D4

Click to expand...

Good video but it all the advice is just general advice that can be applied to just about any game. Hand selection, playing in position, ect. are always good strategies. I thought it could go further, like: players tend to tighten up leading up to the bubble and it is a good place to get aggressive and pick up chips from the tight players to strengthen your position for when the bubble does burst and give you a better opportunity to win.

I really didn't learn anything new from the video, but I could see how it would be valuable for those who are new to the game.

It's always good to get a mentorship from an expert and someone who understands the subject. I just hope that i can put this theory in practice for better results in my games.

Thanks Tammy! Great comments/notes so far from everyone -- really glad you guys are enjoying this video!

Like Debi said, if anybody has questions, please feel free to ask right here in this thread -- or anything else in the AMA that Katie and I are doing


And XOneCoolHand, I definitely appreciate your feedback as well, and I'd be happy to talk with CardsChat about making a slightly more advanced video that's specific to 9-man strategy as part of our upcoming content.

Thank you, this video is a good opportunity to recall the basics of the SNG and MTT tournament, as well as the advantages of the position at the table. When I watched this video, I remembered how I readed Your book.

Difficult to disagree with any of this. The first advice about using staggered bet sizing preflop like limping with baby pairs and overraising with very strong hands can work well in very soft games, so I guess, it depend, what you mean by "low stakes".

At 1$ or lower traditional 6 or 9 man SnGs are indeed very soft, but from around 3$ and up maybe there is one of two soft players at a 9 man table, and then the rest will be grinders of some variety. And the grinders will for sure understand, what it mean, if you suddenly limp or raise to 5BB first to act.

All in all these traditional one table SnGs are my least favourite kind of poker. They are nice for practicing your final table play or for just chilling out now and then, but its difficult to find enough edge to beat the rake in the long run, and for grinders the lack of scheduled breaks is a big drawback.

Thanks Tenek!

Fundiver, for sure varying pre-flop play like that based on hand strength is a very exploitive approach. At reggy tables, I agree it's usually best to play all hands in your range the same way. I also agree that scheduled breaks would be nice!

I think it's very doable to beat the rake in 9man SNG in micro and low-stakes games, or higher than that with a little table selection. If you prefer grinding other formats I understand that! But for me they're one of my absolute favorite to play.

To be honest I have not played enough single table SnGs to say for sure, what my winrate is. I had a period of a few month, where I tried to make it my main game format, mostly because I was tired of cash games and dont have time to play big tournaments on week days. I think, I played around 200 of them at limits from 3,5$ to 7$ on Stars, and it was about a wash. But so is cash games sometimes over just 10.000 hands, or whatever 200 SnGs amount to.

There are two things about the game format, I find annoying. The first is the rake structure on Stars, where you pay 31c for a 45 man 3,5$ SnG, but if you play a 9 man 3,5$ SnG, they charge you 39c. So you pay more rake for a faster structure with less upside potential. To me that is just bizarre.

The other thing is the lack of breaks, which make it very inconvenient to mix MTTs and SnGs in the same session. When the MTTs are on break, the SnGs are still running, and when the SnGs are finished, the MTTs are not on break, so you never to rest or make a pee. Without these issues I would for sure by playing more single table SnGs.

xOneCoolHandx said:

Good video but it all the advice is just general advice that can be applied to just about any game. Hand selection, playing in position, ect. are always good strategies. I thought it could go further, like: players tend to tighten up leading up to the bubble and it is a good place to get aggressive and pick up chips from the tight players to strengthen your position for when the bubble does burst and give you a better opportunity to win.

I really didn't learn anything new from the video, but I could see how it would be valuable for those who are new to the game.

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Collin Moshman said:

Thanks Tammy! Great comments/notes so far from everyone -- really glad you guys are enjoying this video!

Like Debi said, if anybody has questions, please feel free to ask right here in this thread -- or anything else in the AMA that Katie and I are doing


And XOneCoolHand, I definitely appreciate your feedback as well, and I'd be happy to talk with CardsChat about making a slightly more advanced video that's specific to 9-man strategy as part of our upcoming content.

Click to expand...

Yep - he gave us what we asked for.

We can get a more advanced ones - I have an idea I need to work out in my brain.

It is worth paying a little more attention to adjusting to the particular style of players, especially at low limits, where many do not have strong knowledge of the strategy of playing in SnG. This is especially important to consider when playing freely and partly bluffs, from a late position.

However, I often play not quite standard SnGs, but I prefer to play DoN tournaments, where the strategy is somewhat different.

Great and critical tips for the sit n go tournaments. If they are included in the player`s strategy, things get much more simple!

I have Collin's SNG book. Excellent for improving your game and eliminating leaks.
His input on Cardschat, is appreciated.

In the distant past for pokerstars was such an action as battle of the planets, after a certain number of tournaments to mine 100 out of 20 of your best results, tournaments 27;18;9 max. Oh, how would have helped me at that time a 4 minute video, but in my case all of this knowledge came through blood sweat and tears))). Great video is briefly clear and to the point.

very good video, excellent, you learn a lot from these things, and I think that as members of this forum we must also show our strategies, if you learn to see others showing their skills in Sit & go, I am 9 player or 18 player turbo, and I think that one of the best ways to know how to play it is to be somewhat aggressive with premium cards and study the players since in these sit & go you will always see the same player

TY for the video!
It'g great that CC brought some great players to vids like these.
Does make me wonder thou, will it make player poole a bits stronger thoug?
And that stuff abaout bubble play... that=жэы some gold mine there! the amount "ill guess i'll se the flop" plays you can see some times =))
TY agian

Thanks Asedu, Ivansito26, Syltan, Okeedokalee, and Makisaa -- really appreciate these nice words on the video!

Andrew Popov, nice point -- I definitely agree that exploitive play is very important in low-stakes SNGs, both DoN and standard payout structures.

Very good video.

I would say that raising the monsters and other strong hands early in the game is the most crucial advice for getting good at the low stakes SnGs. But also shoving wide after the bubble. SnGs are the first poker format I played back in 2011 on play money tables.....awesome days....!!

I would like to see more videos from Collin Moshman.

Thanks Luvart!

I really agree on shoving wide after the bubble being vital to winrate and a good finish distribution. The only exception is when your opponents are maniacs who call much too wide even on the bubble. But usually this is a great skill to have in the late game!

Inspired by this thread I decided to give the SnGs at 888 poker a shot, and it has not exactly warmed my heart to the game format. I mainly played the 3$ variety, and after entering 26 of these, I have only cashed in 5 for an appallingly bad ROI of negative 51%.

I know, I know, small sample. But honestly next after Spin n Gos or simply lighting a match, SnGs are the fastest way to burn up your bankroll. They are just an endless series of coolers and bad beats mostly in all-in preflop pots, and because they are so fast, you end up buying into one after another. End of rant

Hello very good video. well explained and managing several important concepts to improve the game Sit and Go. Very good advice to achieve win in a tournament of this format. I will apply my game to improve.

many good practical points made

• Raise your strong hands for value during the early game

this is usually my plays until I feel I have seen some hands played from the opponents I'm facing

• Position is crucial for playing pot

As heard and read by many pro's, this is so crucial to winning and growing ur game

• Be selective entering hands in the middle stages

I often become more aggressive in the mid-stage knowing the weaker players who will fold and more so the oh so loose players trying to steal, its good to build my stack here

• Shove wide in the late game

have played here many times and find many will fold or limp in to reach the money. A great time to add chips but I don't go overboard, so easy to lose a lot also

• Play many hands after the bubble has burst

depending on my stack, I will play much wider and more hands if I am the bigger stack on my table. If I have the smaller stack I often play stronger hands and shove them. l
Limping with a small stack will always see a shove hoping you will fold