The importance of position in SNGs
Being able to beat SNGs is extremely important in my humble opinion. Everyone knows that SNGs are generally excellent bankroll builders and if you’re starting off 0, (having made a few bucks on freerolls) these SNGs are indeed the way to go to make that bankroll swell. Sure, the return on MTTs is much better, but there is a much bigger variance that comes with them, something that a lousy beginner’s bankroll just can’t handle, so stay clear of those in the beginning.
Playing in a SNG is like playing in a time-compressed MTT: all the features and the peculiarities of tournament play come at you almost at once. With less time to adapt, and quickly escalating bankrolls, the differences between SNG and MTT play are numerous.
First, the good: in a SNG, you only have to beat out 5-7 opponents to get to the money. That means you’ll be cashing much more often in SNGs than in MTTs. This difference alone is enough to keep you away from the MTTs for as long as you’re working on a feeble bankroll.
The bad thing about SNGs is, you need to be a complete poker player to be constantly successful at them. A SNG begins with a full table of players, goes into short-handed, and then culminates in a heads-up. As a poker player, you probably know that all those situations ask for different strategic approaches. To be a good SNG player, not only do you need to master all those different situations, you need to be flexible enough to switch back and forth between the different types of strategies you use.
Let’s take a look at how you should view your position at the table, through a SNG.
In the beginning, the table is full, play should be tight (if others go to town on each-other, stay out of their way unless you land a monster), and the blinds are small too. Before we go any further, let’s set this straight: position is important all the time, regardless of how many players there are, the only thing is, it sometimes becomes vital, while other times it fades away a little.
In the beginning, it is moderately important. You will not play hands you would from position when you’re out of position. You’re tight as a drum, but when you’re in position, you loosen up a little.
The most delicate stage of a SNG is when the blinds escalate to about 50/100, and there are around 5-6 players left in the game (yourself included). This is when it becomes vital that you steal blinds, as a matter of fact, this is the very key to surviving this stage. Guess what you need to be most efficient at stealing blinds: position, of course. If your opponents do not have a hand, it doesn’t even matter that they know you’re stealing their blinds. They won’t be able to fight it off, simply because you have position on them.
If there are good players around the table, one can clearly see as the money goes around the table following the blinds closely, in a clock-wise direction. Poker is never a more positional game than in the middle stages of a SNG.
As the final stage approaches, and one reaches heads-up, one interesting thing occurs: any sort of involvement from any of the players carries the potential of the all-in. What that means to you is, if you decide to act on a hand, you have to be prepared to shove.
Sure it’s still nice to be able to read your opponent based on what he does before you, but compared to the blinds stealing stage, its importance is much diminished, as your tournament life doesn’t directly depend on it anymore.
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