$16 Per Hour SNG Blueprint – Part #1

The SNG Planet Guide To Building Your Poker Bankroll

Planet Mark’s Course Intro: “Welcome to the SNG Blueprint, in just 12 days I will teach you a straight-
forward system of playing online poker which can be used to build up your bankroll by $16+ per hour.

I strongly believe that anyone with average or better intelligence, a little discipline and willingness to
move around to find the weakest (most profitable) games can quickly beat
the $16 per hour in my headline… What this depends on is your willingness
to understand and implement the concepts – and a focus on finding the
most profitable games.

This 4-part course will focus on single-table SNG tournaments. It starts by

giving you a solid understanding of where your profits come from – and
then outlines how you can best adjust to benefit. We will gradually increase
both the number of games you are comfortable playing simultaneously and
the buy-ins levels that you play. At the same time we will sharpen your
game with strategy insights that improve your returns from each stage of
the game.

Remember, poker is about more just how you play the cards you are dealt –
the most profitable players are those who take the time to find the games
where their edge is greatest!”

Good Luck At The Tables, Mark

Copyright Notice: The contents of the $16 / hour SNG Blueprint are copyright Planet Corporation Kft
and may not be reproduced without express written permission. We proactively protect this text, and all associated websites using
rd
Copyscape TM, and have a “no exceptions” policy of always reporting infringements to ISPs, Search Engines and any 3 party sites our
material is used to promote.

1
$16 / Hr SNG Blueprint – List Of Contents

1) 12 Days From Now… Where You Can Be After Completing This Course

2) SNGs Introduction, Why These Games Are Great For Building A Bankroll

3) Bankroll Management, ROI Definition And The Effects Of Variance

4) Starting Bankroll, Get Off To A Flying Start By Finding The Most Profitable Games

5) Multi-Tabling, Introducing Hourly Rates + Strategy Changes

6) Strategy Introduction, Starting Hands And Position

7) Strategy Introduction, Objectives, Stages And Stack Sizes

8) Strategy Insights, Early Stages Strategy Tips For Multi-Tablers

9) Strategy Insights, Mid-Stages Strategy Tips For Multi-Tablers

10) Strategy Insights, The Bubble, Equity And Aggression!

11) Strategy Insights, In The Money + Heads-Up Play

12) Summing It Up – Key Take Away Points And Tasks For The Next 3 Days!

Additional Content Note:

I have created resource pages to go with each part of the Blueprint course and strongly recommend
you take advantage. This contains links to articles which add extra value to the topics discussed here,
and will also keep you up to date with major changes at poker sites (both US and Non-US).

Here is the resource page for part 1: http://www.sitandgoplanet.com/blueprint-resources-1.html

2
 Chapter #1 – 12 Days From Now
Where Will You Be After Completing This Course
With the skills and knowledge to earn an average of $16 per hour (or more!) from the tables your
bankroll could be starting to grow very fat indeed after completing this course. Let me be more
specific, by introducing the main concepts.

I expect that in 12 days from now you be logging on to a poker site which features significantly softer
(more profitable) games than you are used to (see below for more on this important aspect), firing up
6 to 8 turbo SNG tournaments, while following our simple guidelines to avoid having too many multi-
tabling opponents. You will be making many fairly ‘automatic’ decisions, based on a clearly defined
strategy designed to minimize difficult decisions – without leaving too much ‘value’ on the table.

You will be cashing and winning at a rate which sees their bankroll move up and up and up with more
games played. Busting out will not be a problem, you’ll simply fire up more games – focusing on the
‘bubble’ where the skills and knowledge to take advantage of opponents mistakes can be used to
again and again.

In 12 days you will have the tools to grow your poker bankroll at will. Whether your objective is to
move to the high-stakes tournaments, transition over to cash games or even just to generate some
useful extra money for non-poker uses – you’ll always have the ability to come back for more.

I have broken the course into 4 separate areas, each building on the last – these will arrive one every 4
days:

Part #1 – The SNG Blueprint:

This part of the course gives you the ‘big view’, showing you how SNGs can mean big profits and giving
you a new perspective which will quickly boost your win-rates, along with strategy and profit-making
advice and insights which I will build on as the course progresses. I outline the principles of push / fold
poker and ‘prize pool equity’ which you can start to use immediately, and also introduce the reasons
why a disciplined early game is key to long term profitability.

Part #2 – Becoming A Bubble Ninja:

This part will arrive 4 days after part #1; it will break down the bubble of a 1-table SNG tournament
like you have never seen before. By the end of this section you will know exactly what mistakes your
opponents are making at the bubble, and possess an effective counter-strategy for each one. You will
also be provided with the ability to identify your own bubble leaks between playing sessions – and of
course the knowledge to quickly plug them!

3
Part #3 – Turn Up The Volume:

Once you have a winning strategy, it is time to make the best possible use of it. This part will teach you
how to gradually increase the number of games you are playing – while maintaining that profitable
edge. You will be amazed how quickly playing 6, 8 or more games can become as simple and routine as
playing just 2!

Part #4 – SNG Profit Booster:

In many ways this is the most important part of the course, arriving a further 4 days after Part #3.
While I would love to share the insights and advanced strategy tips with you earlier – they become
even more valuable after you have a solid grasp of the principles and core skills from the earlier
sections.

If you are prepared to put in effort to learn the key concepts and seek the most profitable sites and
games then read on, mastering SNG tournaments is easier than many people think!

4
 Chapter #2 – SNGs Introduction,
Why These Games Are Great For Building A Bankroll

Sit And Go Tournaments are usually defined as a poker tournament with no fixed starting time. When
enough players sit down, the game begins. These can range in size from 2 players to more than 300.
This course focuses on 1 table tournaments (sometimes referred to as STTs or ‘Single Table
Tournaments’) featuring 9 or 10 players, you can think of this as the ‘standard’ SNG, with the many
size, structure and betting variations coming from this base.

Payouts for 1-table SNGs are usually for 3 places in a 50% / 30% / 20% of the prize pool format. This
has a huge effect on the ‘correct’ strategy (from a mathematical perspective), which many of your
opponents will not understand – this is one key reason that SNG tournaments are so profitable.

There are actually several reasons why SNG tournaments are a great choice for players looking to build
their bankroll. Firstly, these games are attractive to inexperienced players. If you think about when you
first discovered online poker, the 1 table games looked like a great way to learn without spending too
much in one go…

A second reason these are good bankroll builders is the speed of the games make them ideal to divide
up into short and sharp sessions. Add to this the fact that (with the right strategy) they are the easiest
games of all to multi-table and you have a situation where you can increase the volume of games to
turn on that ‘money tap’ any time you please!

My final reason is that your opponents simply have more opportunities to make mistakes in SNGs than
in other poker formats. The shift in strategy from one stage of the game to another is not obvious, and
errors can get expensive (I’ll explain these changes below!). Good players do not stay playing SNGs for
long – the lure of cash game profits or the big-prize multi-table tournaments soon sees them leave,
making these games a consistent profit source.

5
 Special Note – The Most Profitable Place To Learn SNGs

(US Readers Scroll Down!)

For non-US readers I strongly recommend that you choose Titan Poker as the place to go through the
SNG Blueprint course. This is for a couple of important reasons:

- The SNGs At Titan Are Very Soft, And So Are Easy To Profit From.

- $20 Extra Cash Exclusive Blueprint Course Bonus Deal, Which Gives You A Big Initial Bankroll Boost

Here is the special deal for Blueprint course members: First, a 200% matched 1 st deposit bonus up to a
max of $2000 - then $20 in free cash on top of that, which I will ensure is paid direct to your player
account within 48 hours (usually sooner, outside of holidays!). You need to use bonus code
SNGPLANET when you register to claim this deal,.

If you have not yet seen how easy the SNGs are at Titan Poker, which is part of the excellent iPoker
Network – then this is a great opportunity to check them out. Click This Link To Visit Titan Poker Now!

I’ll return to the subject of finding the weakest opponents many times during this course. Moving away
from tables filled with ‘regulars’ and seeking soft games is just as important a poker skill than
understanding the finer points of strategy!

US Players: You have a choice of 3 networks, with Bovada, Merge (Carbon Poker) The Winning Poker
Network (America’s Cardroom) being the largest.

Things change fast for US players (hopefully regulation will be spreading soon!). At the moment
America’s Cardroom stand out, with a 27% rakeback deal which is handled in their own cashier + the
awesome Sit N Crush promo. I recommend you keep an eye on the Resource Page for the latest news
and special Rakeback link, things change fast and I keep that page updated – while this document will
be outside of my control.

6
 Chapter #3 – Bankroll Management + Return On Investment

This is a critical chapter, so please make sure you understand it!

‘Poker Bankroll Management’ is kind of dull, I know it, you know it, everyone knows it… but get this,
those who do not use it are very unlikely indeed to ever be consistent winners in poker. Yep, it is that
simple, use it - or eventually you’ll lose.

The reason is ‘Variance’ which describes the natural swings in the game due to the chance fall of cards.
I am not going into the chance vs. skill debate in too much depth here. It should be enough to say that
the result of one bubble ‘coin flip’ (for example a pair of Queens vs. Ace-King’) can make the difference
between being $100 down or $100 up at the end of a session of SNGs. Add to this runs of missing the
flop and you can see that it would make little sense to have too much money riding on a small set of
games.

Pro SNG players often ensure that they have 100 (or more) buy-ins for the level they are playing at.
While I’m are not going to be that strict, I do recommend starting with at least 20 buy-ins – and
ensuring that you could top up should the natural variance of poker deplete your roll. It seems
impossible to many newer players for a ‘proven winner’ to hit a 30 or 40 buy-in downswing – trust me,
it is far more common than you think… and things can get even worse!

Return On Investment is known as ‘ROI’ and is how we measure success in SNG tournaments. If you
are playing the $5+50c games and have a 20% ROI then your profit is $1.10 per game. When you play
many tables you will knowingly give up some ROI in exchange for a bigger hourly rate – this is
explained in chapter #5 below.

Bankroll Management is so important for SNG players that I have written several articles looking at
different aspects of this subject – find them in the SNG Section over at
http://www.sitandgoplanet.com

7
 Chapter #4 – Starting Bankroll For This Course
+ Choosing The Easiest Games

Ideally I would like to see readers start with a minimum bankroll of between $75 to $150 to achieve
the results within 12 days. If you can’t raise this much then do not worry, you’ll just need to start at
slightly lower buy-in levels and work your way up. If you have the time and motivation this should not
be a very long delay in reaching the $16 per hour goal!

This will involve starting at the $5+50c SNGs and working up as you win money and clear the great
bonus and cash boost offered at Titan Poker (or US site of your choice). While this is taking a small
‘bankroll management risk’ from the perspective of established pro players – I believe that the smaller
games are profitable enough that you will be able to build a safety-zone into your bankroll reasonably
fast! Remember; never play poker with money you can’t afford to lose.

I mentioned bonuses for a good reason, you need to get to the $11 to $22 levels as quickly as possible,
and grabbing a new bonus will make this significantly easier.

Non-US readers can grab my $20 extra on top of your 200% match at Titan Poker (bonus code =
SNGPLANET)

US Readers can take advantage of 27% rakeback at America’s Cardroom (you’ll need the right link!),
which is on top of your 100% welcome bonus.

Don’t ignore these kind of deals, just a couple of bonuses early on in your bankroll building phase can
propel you to the next level and the bigger profits – a small bonus can have an outsized effect.

8
 Chapter #5 – Multi-Tabling, Affects Both Your ROI And Strategy

This course will teach you how to multi-table SNGs, as well as to ‘own the bubble’. Before you get that
far, here is an explanation as to why multi-tabling is key, and some of the strategy adjustments you
will have to make. The 3rd part of the course ‘Turn Up The Volume’ will go into a lot more detail on this
subject, and also include some killer tips and strategy ideas which will help you maximize your returns
while feeling more and more relaxed playing multiple games.

Key to understanding the effect of playing many tables on your returns is this:

More tables will give you a lower profit per game played; at the same time as significantly increasing
your hourly rate overall.

Let us take a simple example we’ll make the game cost $10 for simplicity with a 20% return, and take
10% from the ROI for each table added to account for faster decisions, less reads on opponents and
requirement to fold some marginally profitable hands to focus on other games, each game will take 40
minutes (turbo SNGs) – so we get the hourly rate by multiplying the profit per game by 1.5

- 1 Table – $2 Per Game – 1.5 Games / Hour = $3 per hour

- 2 Tables - $1.80 Per Game - 3 Games / Hour = $5.40 per hour

- 3 Tables - $1.62 Per Game – 4.5 Games / Hour = $7.29 per hour

- 4 Tables - $1.46 Per Game – 6 Games / Hour = $8.76 per hour

- 5 Tables - $1.31 Per Game – 7.5 Games / Hour = $8.85 per hour

- 6 Tables - $1.18 Per Game – 9 Games / Hour = $10.61 per hour

- 7 Tables - $1.06 Per Game – 10.5 Games / Hour = $11.13 per hour

- 8 Tables - $0.95 Per Game – 12 Game / Hour = $11.40 per hour

Remember, this is just an illustration to explain the relationship between ROI and Multi-tabling. My
personal belief is that the negative effect per table diminishes over time (once you have got used to 4
the jump to 6 and then 8 is actually comparatively small). I probably started a little too high with 20%
here – though choose the softest games on an easy site like Titan - and play during the evenings and
weekends, and this might well be achievable!

9
You will have less decision time per hand when multi-tabling. I recommend that you treat hands which
might have been marginally profitable when playing just one table as 'folds'. Particularly if they are
easily dominated hands such as unsuited high cards, where your post flop action might have depended
on knowing something about your opponent’s tendencies or more advanced hand-reading.

Getting reads on opponents will be somewhat trickier while you get used to multi-tabling, with only
the craziest of them becoming visible. This requires some adjustment to your strategy too – you’ll
need to play in such a way as to maximize your advantages and make the most money from an
‘average’ opponent. The next part of the course explains the best way to do this – starting with the
basics and going from there.

One of the exercises I recommend that you to practice at the end of this part of the course is to add
one more table to your current comfortable limit. If you play one table at a time then two is just fine.
You will be surprised how fast this becomes ‘normal’ and how easy it is to watch multiple tables – and
best of all, adding another table now will help you when it comes to the 3rd part of the course.

10
 Chapter #6 – Strategy Basics - Starting Hands And Position

I grouped starting hands and position together for a good reason – these two poker concepts can’t be
properly looked at separately. There are two more factors we need to consider, the blinds going up /
player numbers going down as we run through the stages of the SNG. And the fact that we will be
multi-tabling, and so want to avoid those hands which might require tricky post-flop decisions or
specific opponent reads in order to play profitably. For now I have covered the early and middle
stages, the charts you see below really do depend on what happens at the table before you act. I am a
very strong believer in the ‘gap concept’, which states that you need a much stronger hand to call a
raise from another player than you need to open the betting with a raise yourself.

Understanding this concept is key you successful multi-tabling of 1-table SNGs. When you are the first
to raise you take control of a hand, show strength and put yourself in the position of being able to win
the pot either immediately or after the flop if your opponents miss. When you call a raise your hand
no longer needs to be ‘better than average’ it needs to have solid chances against the much smaller
group of hands your opponent might be raising with. For example, if this opponent only raises the top
10% of hands you need to be holding something which can win a big pot against this range, either a
top 5% hand or something that could spike a well hidden ‘monster’ on the flop and win a big pot.

There are only a small percentage of hands which are good enough to call a raise, but not good
enough to re-raise with. Get into the habit of folding marginal ‘raising hands’ when there is betting
action ahead of you, or when you are one of the first players to act in an hand. This will save you a lot
of chips over time!

New players often think that these starting hand requirements are unnecessarily tight, trust me they
are not – learning to fold all but the best hands from early position at the table or when you see a raise
ahead would make many marginal losing players profitable extremely fast, it really is that important.

EP = Early Position
MP = Middle Position
LP = Late Position at the table

11
Yes, I really am saying you should fold a pair of 9’s when first to act, instantly muck ace-jack to any
action ahead and re-raise with only the top few hands in the early stages. There are two linked reasons
for this. Firstly your main profits will come from the later stages of SNGs. Secondly any chips you lose
during the early stages are ‘worth’ far more than any chips you win – this will be covered below. I
would only ever limp hands at those tables where raises are being called, while people are not re-
raising often.

One more thought, if you are considering whether to call a raise, whether your call closes the betting
should be one of the factors you assess. If you are last to act, and your call will ensure you see a flop –
then you are sure of the price and can make a ‘good’ decision based the odds you are getting and hand
you hold. If a limper entered the pot, someone raises and then you call then the betting is still ‘open’.
In this case the limper could choose to re-raise. Here you can’t be sure that calling the initial bet will
get you to the flop, so you should be more cautious with the number of hands which you call with.

Starting Hands And Aggressive Opponents

It is not just the number of opponents yet to act that you need to take into account when selecting
playable hands. If you have identified one or more ‘light raisers’ who have yet to act, this can change
your strategy considerably. Of course, at a table where many players usually limp or are all ‘super-
tight’ the opposite could be true. Aggressive re-raisers who will act after you for the remainder of the
hand mean you have to tighten your own opening requirements. While this can be frustrating at times,
bear in mind that you will often have the opportunity to build a big pot those times you do hold a
premium hand against these types.

Starting Hands Are Not Rigid

I suggest any starting hand chart should be used as a guideline only. As you gain experience in SNG
tournaments the appropriate times to play more hands or tighten up further will start to become
clear. Once you feel comfortable that you are disciplined enough to fold that small pair if you miss
your set, then you might want to add a few more pairs to your range as one example.

Folding easily dominated hands such as Ace-Ten or King-Jack off suit is probably the fastest ‘win’ new
players can achieve from starting hand discipline. With a tight range you will take full advantage of
those opponents who can’t fold their easily dominated hands when they do hit part of the flop!

Finally for this chapter - position, that is acting last after the flop, is huge in all forms of poker. Simply
by playing more hands when you act after your opponents than when you are first to act after the flop
you will have a profitable edge against them. I will return to position again and again in this course –

12
for now it is important only to understand that this simple concept is far more important than most
beginning players believe. Stay tight when first to act and open up when last. The dealer button
position (who acts last after the flop) is valuable enough to be worth protecting.

13
 Chapter 7 – Strategy Basics – Objectives, Stages And Stack Sizes

I need to be crystal clear in the overall objective for our strategy for the $16 per hour SNG Blueprint; it
is to get to the bubble, preferably with enough chips to make some of our opponents fold. Of course,
the more chips the better, however, if we play a game where we only break even in chips before
arriving at the 4-players left stage then this can still be counted as a success, here is the reason why:

You can make good profit in SNG tournaments simply by taking advantage of the mistakes your
opponents will make at the bubble.

Yep, you do not need to out-play, out-think or out-read your opponents, simply putting them on
reasonable hand ranges (I will show you how) and then playing a ‘mathematically unexploitable’
system will bring in the money. You do not even have to learn the math (though I recommend you do),
simply understanding the ‘rules’ laid down by equity models such as ICM and how this applies to each
situation is enough to make you a tidy profit at the lowest limits.

Of course, if you can accumulate chips on your way to the bubble that is even better, in fact there are
few things more pleasurable in SNG poker than being the big stack with 4 to go and picking up all
those extra chips from opponents who are scared of busting out in 4 th! Let me repeat one more time,
our primary objective is always to get to the bubble with a reasonable stack, anything else is a bonus. I
suggest playing Turbo SNGs in this course for two reasons. First that you get to play more games per
hour – but more importantly you get to reach the bubble fast!

SNG tournaments are divided into 4 stages, Early, Middle, Bubble and ‘In The Money’. I’ll go through
each stage below – complete with a list of mistakes your opponents will make for you to profit from.
You must stay aware of where what stage your game is in, as your opponents will make different
mistakes as the game progresses.

Stack sizes are mentioned a lot below, in SNGs these are usually measured in terms of the number of
Big Blinds you have. Poker is a betting game based on odds, you will need to be careful to account for
‘Implied Odds’ (again, explained fully later) as well as pot odds and equity when you make those plays.
Many of your opponents will make errors with these concepts; we will include stack size
considerations and odds-errors as we go through the stages below.

Remember, The Resource Page Contains Links To Articles Which Add Even More Profits To Your Game!

14
 Chapter 8 - Strategy Insights, Early Stages Strategy Tips For Multi-Tablers

In my very first SNG course, the eBook “A Comedy Of Errors” I coined the phrase ‘tight is right, but
tighter is righter’ to sum up the early stages of SNG tournaments. This advice is as strong today as it
was 4 years ago, with the added advice that we need to stay focused enough to exploit those huge
errors that our inexperienced opponents are likely to be making in the initial stages.

A Quick Reminder: Our key objective when multi-tabling is to get to as many ‘bubbles’ as possible –
where we can maximize our profits by taking advantage of opponent errors.

At the same time some of the errors your opponents will be making during the early stages are just too
big to ignore. These include:

 Playing Too Many Hands, Especially ‘Easily Dominated’ Hands

 Chasing Flushes And Straights Against The Odds
 Over-Valuing Hands
 Playing Passive, Horrible, ‘Calling’ Poker!

Let me start with an example of playing easily dominated hands, we will take the example of Ace-
Seven off suit, in middle position, with a raise from an active player in front and several players left
behind. In this example our player calls the raise, thinking that the hand is not good enough to re-raise
with. One more player enters the pot, also by calling – note that if anyone had put in a further raise
here then our player would have been forced to fold, a waste of chips!

Before we get to the flop, let us think about what our player hopes to see? An Ace? Well, this is
potentially a problem, since two more players are in the pot and either of them could have a better
‘kicker’ with their own ace. How about a seven? This might work, but what if there are higher cards
too, for example a king and a jack? Where will we stand, even if this is the highest card how can we be
sure an opponent did not start with a higher pair such as Tens or Jacks?

This hand is easily ‘Dominated’, that is to say that the majority of hands which will willingly play
against it are 70% or more favorites to win the pot. In this case this includes aces with better side cards
(kickers) or pairs seven and above. Playing easily dominated hands without position in a situation
where your opponents do not play predictably is a problem in poker – you will not know whether or
not you are ahead without committing many more of those valuable chips to the pot.

15
Back to our example - unless our player flops a big hand of 2-pairs or better, things are going to
depend on guess work after the flop. In a low level SNG your opponents are going to play
unpredictably at best, getting the information you need, will often cost chips that could have been
saved for the all-important mid-stages and bubble. Get into the habit of folding these marginal hands
to a raise, especially with players still to act. A key part of our strategy is to seek easy decisions, and
avoid ‘close things’ whenever possible.

This same thing happens again and again in poker, players call with Ace-Nine, King-Jack, Queen-Five
suited and all sorts of trash… only to find they have no idea where they stand after the flop comes…

Early Stages Tip: Choose hands which are unlikely to be dominated (big pairs or big aces) or hands
which will give you instant feedback on the flop* – get in the habit of folding those tempting but
expensive ‘in between’ hands.

*Hands like this include small pairs, with which you are basically trying to hit trips or fold to post-flop action is you miss.

Chasing Against The Odds is a common mistake, especially at the lower limits. Many of you will have
suffered the horror of watching an opponent call half of their stack with only a flush draw, only to hit it
on the river. Compounding this type of error is that many opponents will simply call-call-call with their
draws, not raising until they hit their miracle card… Often followed by an overbet all-in, forcing all the
hands they beat to fold!!

Learn those basic odds and outs before you play another game. There is a section of articles in the
‘Tournaments’ page of SNG Planet dedicated to exactly this. Instead of calling you should often be
making big raises if you find yourself with a strong draw – giving your opponent the chance to fold. If
someone ‘chases’ then be thankful, offer them a bad (but callable) price to continue and think of it in
terms of the chips you will make over time, and not the individual hand. Whether you opponent hits or
misses if they take current odds of 2/1 from the pot on something that will happen only 1 in 4 times
they will lose money… and actually lose it very fast. Without these types of players poker would be a
more difficult game by far – so make sure you identify them and take their money gracefully.

Over Valuing Hands… I already covered this a little when talking about domination. However, over-
valuing hands goes even further. Aces, Kings and Queens are seen by novice players as through-tickets
to a guaranteed double up, and are often horribly slow-played, allowing opponents with small pairs or
drawing hands to catch up. This mistake is easy to counter, just wait until you can beat one pair and
get those chips in.

An even bigger mistake when over-valuing hands is to be too stubborn after the flop. Some players
treat a flopped middle pair like a certain winner and will resist all moves to get them to fold. Over

16
playing one-pair hands is a killer in most forms of poker, make sure you keep a close eye on your own
reaction to these hands and are capable of folding them when the action gets heavy – particularly if
there is more than one opponent in the pot.

Playing Passive, Calling, Horrible Poker: Calling too much is often the single biggest ‘leak’ lower limit
SNG players have in their games. The way to look at it is that you only have one way to win a hand
when you call call call – you have to show your opponent the best poker hand at showdown. Now,
more than half of hands never get to a showdown, someone wins the pot before any hole-cards are
revealed. Think that passive ‘callers’ prosper over time? Of course not, those rare times they do bet
rather than call, everyone realizes that they have a monster and quickly folds!

Playing positive, aggressive poker not only gives you more ways to win, it saves you chips when you
are beaten too. Raising that mid-strength hand and getting re-raised allows you to fold (or see a flop
and then fold when you miss depending on the situation) for only the price of the initial bets. If you
call with these hands you will never be sure if your opponent is bluffing, since you showed weakness
which encourages many of your opponents to continue betting.

17
 Chapter #9 - Strategy Insights, Mid-Stages Strategy Tips For Multi-Tablers

While the exact transition between the early stages and the middle stages of SNG tournaments are
fuzzy, I like to define this as having 6 or so opponents where the stack sizes range between 10 and 25
times the big blind. Blind increases are going to be significant now, and you will need to fight just to
keep ahead of them.

Of all the mistakes your opponents will make in the middle stages, failure to adjust to the smaller stack
sizes compared to bets is the biggest. This significantly affects your starting hand selection. An
example of a small pair will illustrate:

In the early stages section I pointed out that small pairs were playable in SNGs, since you can
potentially spike a big hand (a set of trips) and win a huge pot. In the middle stages you can’t usually
call a raise with those same cards. For example, I will give both you and an opponent 3000 chips with
the blinds at 200 and 100. You have a pair of 4’s and see an opponent raise ahead to 600. Here you do
not have the odds to call. You will only hit the flop one in nine times (odds of approximately 8-to-1
against doing so). This is not enough to justify the cost, looking at the math, you will lose 600 chips
eight times (8 * 600 = 4800) and win 3000 chips (plus the blinds) once! A huge loss, even before we
factor in the fact that you will sometimes hit and still lose (for example to a flush), and other times see
your opponent fold on the flop when you bet! Whether you reraise all in or fold depends on your
opponent and the situation, I will look at situational factors that affect this choice in the very last part
of this course – which details how to fine tune your profits.

In fact, in the mid-stages there are very few hands with which it is profitable to call with at all! In the
middle stages it really is a ‘raise or fold’ game. Anyone re-raising is showing a lot of strength, unless
you have been raising every hand, in which case they may be ‘making a stand’. If you follow this logic
you should be opening a lot of pots with a raise, especially when there are comparatively few players
left to act behind you. People will call you occasionally, and the pot will be big compared to your stack
sizes – I advise keeping up the pressure unless you have a known slow-player on your hands. Most
people will not be able to take the heat!

Mid Game Tip: You should not generally be calling raises, get into the habit of re-raising or folding
when someone else bets! Steal the blinds of your opponents, but do not defend yours every time (you
need to defend sometimes of course, otherwise they will be taken at will).

Limpers are another big source of revenue during the middle stages of SNG tournaments; I wrote an
article in SNG Planet especially dedicated to a move called the ‘Push Over Limpers’, (click to open it
up!)

18
In the middle game the tendencies of your opponents are key, you must get aggressive when folded to
and steal more than your fair share of blinds and antes. By noting who are the players more likely to
call you (or fight back ‘light’) and targeting the tighter and more cautious players you can add to your
chip stack without taking on too much risk.

Part #4 of this course contains many mid-game tips – for now playing positively when folded to and
tight when there is action ahead will get you safely to the bubble more often than not!

19
Chapter #10 – Strategy Insights, The Bubble, Equity And Aggression!

Ah the bubble, we now come to the part of any SNG tournament which will make you the majority of
your profit. In fact the bubble is so important that the next part of the course is totally dedicated to
helping you become a bubble ninja. This next section brings strategy based on ‘prize pool equity’ into
play – for now I will gently introduce the key concepts and give you some (extremely) important pieces
of strategy advice you can start profiting from right away.

Play To Cash? Play To Win?

Before we start I’d like to address a debate which appears in forums and so called ‘strategy articles’
again and again – whether you ‘play to win’ or ‘play to cash’ in SNGs? While both strategies seem
plausible, both are actually incorrect and understanding why will help you to profit!

At the bubble of a SNG decisions are not based on whether you are ‘going for’ first or 3 rd and then first
– they are based on the best way to maximize your equity – or ‘average return’ if the same game were
played 1000’s of times.

If you take mathematically ‘correct’ decisions which increase your equity over and over again, it will
not actually matter whether your intention is to play for 1st or not, you will simply take home more
money in the long run. Unless there are extreme situations in terms of stack sizes or huge blinds the
best decision is the one which will increase your average winnings the most. Get into the habit of
thinking in these terms instead of justifying expensive mistakes with ‘I was going for 1st’ and your
profits will improve fast! I’ll explain this fully in the next part of the course along with several examples
– so do not worry if it is not yet completely clear.

All-in Or Fold – Why The ‘Poker’ Appears To Disappear At The Bubble

Many people unfamiliar with SNG tournaments think that the ‘skilled’ poker disappears at the bubble,
and to an extent they are right, with post flop play gone from the game! What they fail to notice is that
there are good reasons why players push all-in instead of making normal raises. These reasons are
nothing to do with complex equity formulas or equilibrium models; they concern the simple concept of
poker Pot-Odds.

Let me use an example of an ordinary enough bubble, blinds are 300 / 150 ante 25 and all 4 players
happen to have a stack of 3300 chips, 11 times the big blind. Now if player A chooses to play a hand he
pushes all-in every time… and here is why:

20
If Player A were to raise 3 times the blind to 900 and player B were to re-raise all-in then the Pot-Odds
Player A sees when deciding whether to call are huge. The total pot = 900 (the raise) + 550 (the blinds
+ antes) + 3300 (Player B’s call + re-raise all in) a total of 4750 and it costs Player A his remaining 2400
chips to call. This is just under 2-to-1 odds, meaning A only has to win the hand 35% of the time to
show a profit. Let us be honest, how many hand combinations which legitimately raised here are less
will win less than 1/3rd of the time against the entire range B could have re-raised with?? Not many!
This example is with 11 blinds, as we get to 10, 8 or even less the logic for pushing all-in gets even
stronger – were we considering raising 2.5 times the blind, continuation betting and then folding to
resistance with 1500 chips left!!

Of course, with many of the hands A is legitimately raising he would be happy to pick up the blinds, so
pushing all-in has the effect of getting many of the hands which might have re-raised to fold. The key is
this:

If The Pot-Odds You Receive After Raising Mean That You Will Be ‘Forced’ To Call Any Re-Raise, Then
You Should Usually Push All-In To Start With.

If you would like to look into this subject in more detail, I have written a dedicated article explaining
‘Why All In? over at SNG Planet explaining this key concept with more examples.

Bubble Mistakes, Where Your Cash Will Come From!

Now you understand the premise behind all-in poker I can start to cover at some of the major mistakes
your opponents will make at the bubble of SNG tournaments. Again, these errors are covered in far
more detail in Part #2 of the course, which will turn you into what is commonly known as a ‘Bubble
Ninja’!

For the time being the concept I would like you to understand is that doubling your chips at the bubble
will usually only increase your average win in dollars over 1000’s of tries by 50% and not 100% as you
might expect... that is to say the relationship between your chip stack and your winnings is not linear.

Here is a simplified example – it is important that you understand the dynamic here.

There are 4 players left each with 3000 chips, we will ignore the effects of the blinds for now (they are
300 / 150 for the record!) and imagine that every player is equally skilled and experienced in the
game. While in the short-term, chance will affect any individuals results, over 1000’s of games each
player would end up winning an equal share of the pots. Again keeping things simple we can assume
$25 of a $100 total prize goes to each player, on average and over the long run.

21
Now we take an all-in confrontation between players A and B. Player A wins and her chips go to 6000
with player B getting nothing at all for busting in 4 th place. Now, with a 20% / 30% / 50% prize pool
payout each player is guaranteed at least $20 (the 3rd place prize money), and all have a chance of
coming in 1st or 2nd too.

Having more chips always helps! I want to show you that the average winnings for player A have not
doubled along with her chips stack. For this to happen she would have to win every single time… and
with the other players still having 3000 chips each that is simply not going to happen. So, doubling
chips does not increase the ‘average winnings’ of this player from $25 to $50… the chips won are not
as valuable as the ones already held.

Incidentally, players C and D were not involved in the ‘All-In’ hand, yet their average win in this
particular game just shot up, they are now guaranteed $20, one of them will definitely win $30 and
both have a chance of $50!

If we look at the average winnings once again, we will see that if the situation with one 6000 chip stack
and 2 * 3000 chip stacks were replayed 1000’s of times A would win an average of $38, while C and D
will average $31 each (to choose approximate examples). This is calculated using the Independent Chip
Model (ICM), more on this later.

Key Point: Player A risked $25 in average winnings to win $13 extra in average winnings by calling
Player B’s All-In At The Bubble.

The risk is twice the reward, and this has a far bigger effect on bubble strategy than many players
realize. Here is why:

When you call an all-in on the bubble your risk (in average winnings) is almost twice as big as your
potential gain from winning the hand. This means you do not just need a ‘better hand’ than your
opponent, you need to adequately balance the risk / reward by having a hand which is better than a 2-
to-1 favorite against the range of hands your opponent could be playing.

If your opponent has a reasonably tight range there are actually very few hands which make it worth
risking $25 worth of equity to win an additional $13 – we are often talking in terms of premiums such
as aces, kings and queens only. Even against a ‘loose’ raising range your King-Jack or Ace-Ten is not
going to be a 2-to-1 favorite, if you take a ‘only’ a 60% edge when you need 66% to show profit you
will go broke over time… the fact that many of your opponents do not understand this is exactly where
your profits will come from!

Instead of thinking about the bubble in terms of chips, start to think of how much ‘average winnings’
you are risking compared to how much more ‘average winnings’ you might gain – and then choose

22
hands where you increase that average profit only. The word to describe these average winnings is
‘prize pool equity’. Once you get this concept you are already on the road to $16+ an hour or more,
the rest of the challenge is simply learning how to adapt this knowledge to different opponents and
situations.

Good players understand this and know the ranges of hands they can profitably push and call with at
the bubble, bad players do not and will make horrible errors – such as the following:

Calling too much, for example calling with Ace-Eight is a horror at the bubble in most circumstances
using the math explained above. While the caller feels smug when his opponent shows King-Ten, all he
is doing is spewing prize pool equity over to the players not in the hand – at his own expense and that
of the player who pushed all-in.

Not Pushing All-In Enough. You see, any opponent who understands prize pool equity will be reluctant
to call all-ins. This creates situations in most games where your opponents will fold so often that you
will win money just from the folds. Since those times you are called any hand has some winning
chances there are often situations where it is correct to push ‘any 2’. I will teach you to spot them in
part #2 of this course.

Not Accounting For Stack Sizes: A simple example is people who fail to use a big stack to their
advantage, especially when the other players have ‘medium’ sized stacks. Since they are all trying to
avoid busting 4th you can literally own the bubble in these circumstances. A great trick is to keep the
bubble alive when a mini-stack is at the table while you steal from mid-sized stacks. I explain this
advanced concept in the SNG Planet Article: Keep That Bubble Alive and will cover the concept later in
this course.

Calling less and pushing all-in more will instantly improve your bubble results. Once you get a handle
on the type of players who will call you and those who ‘raise light’ you can use the math to your
advantage. Again, part 2 of the $16 / Hour SNG Blueprint is dedicated to helping you become a master
of the bubble. For now understanding the ‘chips are not equal to average winnings’ concept, and
thinking in terms of prize pool equity risked against prize pool equity gained - will give you a profitable
edge at the lower levels.

23
 Chapter #11 – Strategy Insights, In The Money + Heads-Up Play

All the focus on bubble play can often lead to players not appreciating the significance of a solid
strategy once you are in the money. Again we are playing to maximize equity, only this time the buffer
of 3rd or 2nd places mean that the risk is lower, meaning we can play hands closer to the ranges of our
opponents (though still slightly ahead of them!).

You will often see players turn into Maniacs once the bubble bursts, pushing all-in with almost every
hand in a wild bid to regain some of the chips they gave away desperately trying to get to the last 3!
This creates profitable situations for those who are able to judge a profitable calling range against the
crazies. While the exact math depends very much on stack sizes (not just your own, those of all the
players in relation to the blinds), you can often profitably call with a range of top 33% of the cards your
opponent is playing. For example if they are pushing all-in with the top 20% of hands you can call with top
6.7%, if they push the top 60% then you can call as wide as the top 20%.

Unexploitable Play And SAGE

Did you know that when you get heads-up it is possible to play in a style which is ‘Mathematically
Unexploitable’, this means whatever your opponents do they will not be able to take advantage of
you, if you hold 60% of the chips heads-up and play an unexploitable style then you will win 60% of
the time, period. Once thing I should note is that the best players actually deviate a lot from an
unexploitable style – in order to exploit the tendencies of their opponents and win more than their fair
share.

This concept is known as as ‘Nash equilibrium’, I believe that the best way for a new player to take
advantage of this is to learn a simple point-counting system called SAGE. This takes into account the
size of the blinds, stacks and your cards and gives you clear push all-in / call / fold advice… it is simple
enough to be memorized too.

Here is an adaptation of an article I originally posted over at SNG Planet on how to use SAGE. I strongly
advise that you learn it!! When you are heads-up at the end of a SNG Tournament with just one prize
on offer the SAGE poker system can be used to ensure that your play is ‘mathematically un-
exploitable’. The system itself is very simple – it involves assigning ‘power rankings’ to hands and
comparing them with a table showing your optimal push / fold ranges. SAGE works best with less than
15 Big Blind stacks; with more than this you have some room to play a little poker.
Before we get into the math and discuss whether using SAGE would be a good option a quick note on
copyright. This is © 2005 Lee Jones and James Kittock. Lee Jones is former PokerStars card-room
manager and author of the best-selling book ‘Winning Low Limit Holdem’.

24
While this article is part of a course on SNGs, it can also be used for high blind play in normal Satellite
tournaments or larger multi-table tournaments. SAGE works with a single prize, when you are heads
up at the end of a SNG you are guaranteed 2nd prize as a minimum. You can thus think of SAGE as
being for the difference between 2nd and 1st (usually an additional 20% of the prize pool). Adding a
3rd player would add complexity to this simple system – we point readers to our ICM articles for more
information on this.

Introducing The 'Power Index' Score

The SAGE system’s benefit is simplicity. There are 2 key factors, both of which are very easy to work
out – then a simple chart for deciding on your action. The keys factors are ‘PI’ which stands for the
‘Power Index’ of your current cards and ‘R’ which is the ratio of the smallest stack to the big blind. For
each ‘R’ there are then numbers given for the SB to push all in and the BB to call based on PI.

Working out PI is done like this: Each card is given a ‘power number’ based on its rank. Ace= 15 / King
= 13 / Queen = 12 / Jack = 11 and the others at face value. To get the PI of your hand take the highest
card’s power number, double it – then add the number of the smaller card. For example – Queen-Eight
would be (12*2)+8 = 30.

For suited cards you add 2 points to the total and for pairs you add 22 points. So the highest PI is for Ace-Ace
(15*2) + (15+22) = 67 and the lowest PI is for 3-2 off-suit (3*2) +2 = 8.

So, based on the value of ‘R’ here is a list of what PI you can push and call with.

R Push from SB Call From BB

7 PI 26 PI 30
6 PI 25 PI 29
5 PI 24 PI 28
4 PI 23 PI 26
3 PI 22 PI 24
2 PI 21 PI 17
1 PI 17 ANY*
* One of you is all-in at this point in the chart.

Those who want an even more simple strategy to get them started with heads-up play with less than
10 times the big blind can simply call with the top 50% of the range of hands their opponents are
pushing all-in with, and push all-in with just under double the range they believe their opponent will
call with. Though you will need to be capable of adapting to very tight or crazy loose opponents! In
Part #4 of this course I will show you how to move from an unexploitable heads-up game to one that
can actively exploit the tendencies of your opponents.

25
 Chapter #12 – Summing It Up
Key Take Away Points And Tasks For The Next 4 Days!

You can be earning $16 per hour with SNG tournaments in 12 days, with the right approach, right
attitude, an easy poker site and of course the information in this course.

Here is a quick summary of what we have gone through so far. I have summarized the key points into
single short-statements. My advice is to go through your own games and see how these points can
relate to you, with these as a solid foundation you can move on to the more advanced parts of the
course soon!

In addition to the strategy adjustments I hope you have added 1 more table, switched to turbo-speed
tournaments and found some easily beatable games (along with a new bonus!).

Key Points:

- Chips you lose are worth more than chips you win in a SNG tournament. This is due to the payout
structure, and has an effect on your strategy at every stage of the game.

- We do not ‘play to win’ or ‘play to cash’, instead we play to have a greater average stake in the
prize pool each time we make a decision.

- Your opponents will make huge errors at the bubble. Simply by playing to get to the bubble, then
playing a solid ‘mathematically correct’ strategy, you can make a nice profit in SNG Poker.

- One of the biggest mistakes you will see is opponents who over-value hands such as ace-jack and
unpaired picture cards during the early stages. Take advantage of these players with a tight and
aggressive early stage strategy.

- Position at the table is extremely important, as is your position in relation to particularly active or
aggressive opponents. Learn to fold reasonably good hands when out of position and loosen your
raising requirements when you are in position after the flop.

- During the middle stages you should very rarely call raises, instead you re-raise or fold. If you have a
chance to open a pot by raising yourself this is even better.

26
- At the bubble chips you win will often only be worth half as much in terms of average winnings as
chips you lose. Instead of asking whether your hand is better than that of your opponent – as
whether your prize pool equity risked is adequately compensated by your potential gain.

- When heads-up at the end of the tournament, employing a simple system such as SAGE will make
your play ‘unexploitable’, ensuring you get your fair share (or more!) of 1 st places!

One of the most significant aspects of profitable poker is finding the best games. This is a matter of
getting the sweet-spot between easy sites and generous bonuses.

Find out where the big profits are, and get links to some great articles which will build on your
knowledge here with the Blueprint Part 1 Resource Page – check it out now!

27