NL HE

Low Limit SNG Strategy - Mid-Game

Picking up where we left off last time (sorry for the delay, I was gambling). Here’s my take on the middle stages of low-limit SNG play, how to get near and through the bubble time.
Level 4-6 (3-6 Players) - Life on the bubble. Continue to stay out of the way. Dodge the big stacks. Don’t get pissy when they steal your blinds. The blinds are still cheap enough to not matter, and if you haven’t done anything stupid you’ve probably still got $1200-1300 in chips, which is 8-10xBB, more than enough to make moves in a tourney where there’s only a total of $13,500 chips on the table.

These are the levels, though, when you begin to switch gears and steal a few blinds. Button steals are strong moves here, as are strong raises out of either blind, as long as you stay away from challenging the big stacks. Also stay away from challenging stacks that are short, but still big enough to cripple you if you double them up. Yes, you should take any opportunity to knock someone out, but pay attention to whether or not a short stack is going to feel pot-committed if you re-raise them with A10 preflop. You don’t need to play a lot of hands. Actually, the fewer you play, the better. I typically play no more than 20% of my hands (including blinds) until I’m in the money. Don’t call raises and re-raises unless you’re holding the nuts, because someone WILL go all-in.

Note that I’m never even thinking about what my opponent has at these levels. While this is not a typically good strategy, half the time in these low-limit SNGs, my opponents barely are operating at Level 0 thinking, which makes my Level 1 thinking just good enough to win. And why think harder than I need to? Laziness is the mother of efficiency, after all.

When you get down to four players, if you’ve played solid poker up to this point, you should be 2nd or 3rd in chips, with one really big stack (about 50% of the chips in play) and one really short stack (about 5-8% of the chips in play). You should be able to time things right to pick off this short stack and then make the money. Once you hit four players, the short stack is wearing a target on their chest, so make sure if it’s you, the target is Kevlar. Don’t get cute. That’s my mantra on the bubble. Don’t overplay suited connectors, they’re not even worth calling a raise when you know the big stack is pushing with an Ace-small. It’s not worth being busted. So let it ride, and be ready to flip the switch when the fourth player is busted.