Handselection early in SnGs
 

I made this point in another post, but didnt get any feedback on it. I have been wondering about how to play early in SnGs (specifically party, but this should apply to all tournament play). The general philosophy is to sit back and play nothing but premium hands. I am noticing however, that in cheaper buyin tourneys, the pot is very rarely raised before the flop.
This provides an opportunity to play marginal draw hands cheaply: middle connectors, both suited and unsuited, low pairs, Ax suited to be specific. The one big thing about them is you HAVE to tighten up if you face a raise before the flop, or you miss your flop (dont put any more money in in those cases).
But if you do hit your flop, those hands tend to pay off big, building a big stack early, thus allowing you to pursue whatever strategy you wish.
So my question is do you guys think its sound to play a bit looser preflop in unraised pots and tight after the flop early in these tournaments?

Defendant

read russ g's article about this at pokermafia.com. it works.

basically he says that the logic of limping with non-premium hands with the hope of hitting the flop is a losing strategy. instead of bleeding off your chips at the beginning, let others bust out and wait for a premium hand.

just play tight at the beginning, then try to steal blinds once it gets to 75/150 and higher. you should still have enough chips to get people to lay down hands in he blinds, and then you can open up your game.

I found russ g's advice to be a good strategy if you are just trying to limp into the money....There have been many many times where the best hand ill see in a sng is JJ or lower..... And by following Russ's strategy, you would be in a battle for 3rd with 2 other people almost everytime. Granted I'm talking about the higher limit sng's, 100 or 200 on party namely.

If you just really sit out and watch, like russ advises, ive found that you ususally end up against 4 or 5 other players, all with bigger stacks than you, who normally attack you. And that point, you better find a hand...and they dont always come....and even if they do come, they are not guaranteed to win. Odds are you will get AA,KK,QQ once every 55 hands or so....sometimes you are pretty far along in a sit and go at that point, and blinds are coming fast....and you are under attack....

Ive also found the best way to win a sit and go is to pick up AA 3 times and win every pot....just kidding. But seriously, you are always on an uphill climb if you sit and wait the first few rounds, and the cards wont always come...and they dont always hold anyway. Getting in for cheap early and selectively is always something I look for. And besides, just because you limped in for 20, doesnt mean you cant end up winning a 300, 400, 500 pot or higher.....either by hitting the flop, or finding an oppourtunity to outplay someone and earning the flop.

Like any tournament, it is always nice to be on the top of the mountain looking down...instead of trying to fight up it. I'm not saying taking stupid chance just to try and double up...i mean i disagree with Russ's advice to be ultratight the first few levels

i dont have the experience at the higher buy in sng's, so this was really only focused on experience at the 30+3 level and below. the players in these are weaker, and obviously as you get more experience in these you can open up your game, but the tight strategy has worked for me. i dont do the sit out for three rounds route, but i do tend to only play top ten hands.

i would not be surprised at all if these same strategies do not work at all at the higher levels. i would assume that better players would punish this strategy, and limping with speculative hands would have a higher value.

I really just sit and wait for good hand, and then I slow play it and make sure I have at least top pair or a good 8 out draw. When blinds are low near the start, the pots tend to be smaller and more insignificant. Plus, it always helps to see what types of players are at the table before you get involved in a pot with them. On UB, it is not uncommon for me to watch 3 people get knocked out before I even play a hand, and by that time the table is shorthanded and loosening up a bit is justified.

See, thats exactly what I mean. You can either rely on luck to catch the right hands, or you can make something happen with less than premium hands. Watch Danny N play some time for example: he plays the kinds of hands that make you shudder in disgust but pulls off just enough pots to make it profitable. Of ourse, the big premise here is you have to be able to outplay your opponents after the flop.

Defendant

If you have a bunch of callers and you are in late position, you can take a flop with the nice drawing hands ie: anything suited, possibly connectors, and see if you hit the flop. If you miss, no big deal as long as you haven't paid too much for it.

This is exactly why I like Stars setup better with 1500 chips to start with, you can afford to wait for good hands and still have plenty of chips to battle with. The manics will still be gone in the first 20 hands no matter how many chips you give them.

My SNG strategy is to play fairly tight the first few rounds when the maniacs will be going all in on crappy hands. I will limp into pots if I have position but I will not get committed to the pot unless I have a strong hand.

Just to clarify, Im not talking about seeing flops with J6off or anything like that, even Kx suited (if I draw, I want to draw for the nuts, played too much omaha to feel comfortable on a king high flush)

Defendant