PLO8 SnGs

So I feel comfortable with PLO8 cash, and now I’m comfortable with NLHE SnGs. I didn’t really see why I couldn’t combine the two games, and profit. Although PLO8 doesn’t really have the player pool to play MTT Sngs, Pokerstars does indeed have a sufficient numbers to grind STTs and maintain a solid win rate. I’m not saying I’m looking to make them my bread and butter, but I feel it would be beneficial to add these games to my arsenal should I ever need a fall back.

I jumped straight into the $6.50 level with varying results. Although I felt that my cash game background was useful in knowing the basics of the game, it was definitely apparent that I was missing something vital if I were to beat the game consistently, so I turned to 2+2. Time and time again, this uber useful resource has been a goldmine of knowledge and advice. I read a ton of posts on STT game play, especially the turbo form which is more popular on Stars, and I learnt quite a bit on early level strategy, specifically how tight and passive I should play in the early levels, for example, limping premium hands in position then playing them slowly if I hit the flop in order to build a pot for later streets. It then struck me, that through the contacts I had made on the site, I was on good terms with some excellent Sng grinders who had crushed the $16 level and beyond. It would have been foolish of me not to have asked for advice.

Angribob came back to me with some premium strategy on pretty much all aspects of the game. I’d like to thank him for the long post he wrote for me and no doubt the time and effort he put into jotting down his thoughts on (virtual) paper. One of the funnier things he mentioned was that he believed most players at thee $6.50 were droolers, hell bent on getting their money in the middle with less than premium holdings. I’d always worked on the principle that all players are solid until proven otherwise, I believed this was the best way to go around cash games as it meant I didn’t lose a lot of money to the better players before I’d properly analysed their game. However, the more Sngs I play, the more I’ve come to see how right he is. The players in the games are unbelievably bad, even the regs. They’d either bust out in the first 2 levels by making absurd plays with for example, top pair on a low board and frequently calling 3 bets with middling cards or they’d play ridiculously tight, even in the latter stages where more often than not they had less than 10 big blinds. Some of what I’d considered previously to be the better regs turned out to be so predictably weak/tight when the blinds got steeper, that I could abuse them effortlessly.

Like I said before, I’m not planning on playing these games for a living, but while the games are this soft, it would be a good idea to steal some dead money now and again, and it makes poker less of a grind if I’m not constantly playing the same games.

That’s it for another Grim rant about a subject no one other than myself cares about. If anyone reading this suddenly gets the urge to play a Sng or 2, look out for me and we’ll have a bit of banter at the table. Later y’all.