This is the first post in this forum, and I choose to cover the first issue a person will encounter if he/she decides to play NL SNGs online. What SNG should you sit down at? This is a unique type of table selection because all opponents sit down at almost the same time, so you have less information availible to you than you have at ring games.

However, there is still lots of information avaiblible. First, what site should you play at? In my opinion, there are a couple of answers to this question, depending on your stakes level. If you have an online bankroll in excess of $200, I would recommend playing party poker. This is a result of the easy accessability of Party SNGs, and the lower than standard quality of play. However, if your bankroll is smaller, DO NOT play the Party $5+1 SNGs -- the rake will eat into your profits and make your risk of ruinmuch greater. For small bankrolls, I recommend sites like Royal Vegas Poker. These sites offer $5+0.5 SNGs and even $2+0.2 level SNGs. Another viable option is Pacific Poker. Pacific is your best option if you are the kind of player who will only play one SNG at a time, because the quality of play is terrible. Be prepared to wait quite a while for your SNG to start.

NL holdem SNGs are very profitable, but I think your edge can be maximized at the limit holdem SNGs, because at these tables your edge as a result of tight play is much greater than in NL in my opinion. More mistakes are made at the $10+1 Party limit SNGs than the NL SNGs.

Some sites offer SNGs with 5, 6, 10, 20, or 30 players. Excellent strategy posts abound in other forums about the 10 player SNGs, so these are most often played by good players, along with 20 and 30 person SNGs to a lesser extent. However, I think that at sites like Pacific, it's worth looking into shorthanded SNGs. You have more time to make decisions, and the players are often "action" players who are playing shorthanded simply because full tables are too slow for their tastes. You can eat these guys up.

However, Party 10 person $10+1 NLHE SNGs are a safe bet. They are beatable for 45% ROI, meaning that after you play 1000 of these SNGs I believe you have the possibility of having $5000 of net earnings (45% of 11,000 is about 5000) if you are an excellent and experienced player. A realistic target for your first 100 SNGs is to try to earn $300. This is always going to be a great place for a beginner to start.

In case you are just starting right now and there are no strategy posts for you to look at, remember to play TIGHTER than you would in a ring game until it gets down to 5 players. At that point, steal blinds as necessary to survive. When it gets down to 3 players, become very agressive and don't worry about whether you finish 2nd or 3rd -- play for the win.

Excellent post Nashvegas.
As far as point your point about "limit" SNGs, I stumbled into a limit SNG on Party once by accident and although I hadnt played limit Holdem in quite a while, I won the thing. I played very tight and just pounded the pot when I hit the flop and it worked.

I agree, excellent post with several points that often are overlooked.

A friend of mine found the profitability of limit SnG's almost by accident. He had more experience and was more comfortable playing limit so he sat in a few SnG's on PokerRoom. Much to his suprise he found that there was usually 1-4 people who registered by accident thinking it was a NL table. Needless to say those players weren't on their best game. I've also seen this phenomenon (more than I thought I would) on other sites as well and it's just another small edge a better player has in a limit SnG.

But I do love my NL games...

Another significant advantage to playing limit SNGs is that when the maniacs actually catch a hand against you, you are more likely to survive. Especially in the first 30 hands, it is unlikely that you're going to put yourself all in without the best hand in limit, wheras in no limit you are putting your survival on the line more often when you're not sure if you have the best hand. This is not a reason to avoid NL ring games at all because the math evens out in the end. However, in SNGs survival is KEY, its value should be put at a premium.

This survival edge doesn't apply to your opponents as much because they are playing fast and loose early, by the time they get to level 3 or 4 many of them are going to be nearly committed on every single hand -- for them it might as well be NL as far as their survivability is concerned.

Thanks for the useful tips, Nashvegas. I have been doing well in the Party $5+1 no limit SNG's, but realized that the rake is quite high. In your experience, are the $10+1 SNG's much harder to beat? Can I expect similar results in those games?

One thing I was surprised about is the fact that you mentioned that limit SNG's are more profitable for skilled players. I am not at all very skilled, but I know that I am a better at limit than at no limit. Still I do much worse in the $5+1 limit SNG's than at the $5+1 no limit SNG's. (As opposed to ring games, where I do better playing limit.)

Last night i tried another $5+1 limit SNG. I did not get many playable hands the first levels; I try to limp in with volume hands with the idea of seeing the flop cheaply and collecting a big pot if I hit a set, straight or flush. That did not happen, but after a while I had KK in MP. When it gets to me there are already three limpers. I raise, but the flop is seen 7-way. The flop is Q76 rainbow, so there is hope. UTG bets, I raise, Button calls, BB calls, UTG calls. Turn is a blank, it is checked to me, so I bet. River is a blank too, and I lost to Q7 on the button (well, it was suited).
I had a similar hand, also with KK, two orbits later, and then I was already down half of my stack.

When I play a limit ring game I know that in the long run I make money with these hands, but in an SNG the long run is not relevant. So, should I change my strategy here?

Any advice welcome,
Pieter

$10+1 SNGs are not much harder to beat at all, but remember your bankroll considerations. I would recommend having $200 put away in your bankroll before making a permanent move to $10+1.

In my experience, the key to all kinds of SNGs is to play alot tighter than you would in a ring game. I would not recommend limping with tons of hands in a limit SNG, because saving chips is critical to your ability to play well later on when the blinds get bigger. You're partially right in saying the long run doesn't matter as much -- the long run DOES matter in that eventually these hands will even out, but the other side of the coin is that long run profitability in terms of chips does not necessarily make limping a good move in an SNG -- its effect on your stack in terms of EV doesn't matter, it's more important what the move does to your chances of finishing in the money. Try thinking about things that way, and you'll see that it pays off to fold sometimes when calling would be +EV in a ring game, but only when you are short-stacked does it ever pay off to make a -EV call in an SNG.