Heads Up SNG Strategy. Heads up sit and gos are a unique game in which you can win a lot of matches or lose a lot of matches in a short period of time. When playing heads up games you should study your opponent from hand one. The blinds will be small and you should be opening a number of different hands to see how your opponent will react. General Poker Strategy Beginners Questions Books and Publications Poker Tells/Behavior Poker Theory Psychology No Limit Hold’em Medium-High Stakes Micro-Small Stakes Med-High Full Ring Micro-Small Full Ring Heads Up NL Live Low-stakes NL Limit Hold’em Mid-High Stakes Micro-Small Stakes Tournament Poker STT Strategy Heads Up SNG Mid-High.
Hi everybody! Taking the cue from the interesting video that recently appeared on PokerNews Italia in which three major heads up players suggest some starting points to reflect upon this speciality, I also wish to analyze the theory of heads up tournaments to express my personal view.
Among poker tournaments, excluding the shoot-outs, the heads-up tournaments are the only ones to be characterized by a structure at sealed off compartments: each segment has a own life, starting and finishing in the lapse of few hands but not leading to an increase in stack in sight of future moves or in the attempt to dominate the table thanks to the quantity of chips.
Once the turn is over, everything always starts from the beginning once again with a new opponent who probably we have never seen before.
The key to heads-up play is the ability to understand the style and the psychology of our opponent. Starting from the premise that we do not know our opponent and that the tournament has a structure that allows for playing, a number of 25/30 hands to start with should be enough to understand more or less the kind of opponent that we are facing.
The aim is to understand the main features and to take advantage of the weak points of the opponent. However, there is something even more important that has to be done. While we are trying to understand who is sitting in front of us, the same 'analysis' will be carried out on us! Therefore, we need to change our game constantly. We should try to give little opportunity of reading to our opponent by alternating pre-flop action, starting hands, and game on board too. Never be repetitive and foreseeable in heads up!
Aggressiveness is fundamental in a speciality like heads up poker. I too had to work hard to improve my heads up play and it was a long and difficult path. Obviously, it is not possible to wait for a good hand or to be too tight or passive in heads-up.
If the opponent is passive, the best way to profit from this leak is to attack frequently. However, should this play become a standard, in the long run the opponent will take our measures and start to counterattack by raising in a bluff or making some hero calls on our bluff attempts. We therefore need to 'mix' our image, sometimes by preflop limping (if the opponent is not aggressive, probably he will not raise), sometimes by renouncing the classic c-bet at flop. Once we have confused enough our image, we can start to attack and to bluff again.
We cannot wait for a good hand.
If the opponent is aggressive instead, we cannot give him much space to act. At the same time, we cannot wait for a good hand. By mixing our plays, we won't let him take control of the situation. If we preflop fold a few trash hands at the beginning, then we can suddenly raise or reraise no matter what we have. With players of this kind, when we are in the big blind we can surely increase the number of hands with which we can call a raise, but every now and then we have to come up with a reraise. Sometimes, I limped preflop with aggressive players, then see their raise and fold the hand. Later on, when I had a good hand, I did the same play, obviously firmly 3-betting on their raise. Very often, this 'trick' has allowed me to pick up some big pots.
Another often useful play in heads up is the delayed c-bet: though I attacked preflop, I choose to check at the flop, followed by the opponent's check ,and finally I come out betting on 'any turn'. This play may create confusion for a while and lead the opponent to think that he is facing a slowplay. Try this, but once in a while, and then choose a different play in a similar game situation.
To conclude, the heads up is a game based on reading the opponent while hiding oneself. it is a challenge to our opponent's mind and, in the end, this is one of the features that make poker a wonderfully complex game!
Last week, we discussed three-handed strategy for a single-table sit & go. This week, we will tackle heads-up play.
It's important to be able to play the endgame effectively in SNGs. When playing poker online in a standard single-table sit & go, for example, the payouts typically have 50 percent of the prize pool go to the winner and 30 percent to the runner-up.
At this point of a SNG, the effective stack is usually under 10 big blinds or it will be in short order. The shallow stacks tend to make the game simple and relatively easy to play. Generally, you want to be going all in or folding. Which hands you do this with depends on the tendencies of your opponent.
Facing an Unknown or Balanced Player
When you are facing an unknown or balanced opponent, it is best to utilize an unexploitable strategy. One strategy that has stood the test of time is called the 'Sit And Go Endgame' system, or SAGE for short. It was developed and introduced by Lee Jones back in 2006 and is still relevant to SNG strategy today.
Essentially, SAGE is a shorthand memory trick that helps you determine if a hand is an unexploitable shove or call. Here is how you use SAGE.
First, you must calculate the Power Index (PI) of your hand. Number cards are valued at the displayed amount 2 through 10. Then jacks are worth 11, queens 12, kings 13 and aces 15.
To calculate your hand's PI, double the value of your highest card, then add the value of your lowest card. If you hand is suited, add another 2 points. If you have a pair, double the value of one of your cards, add the other one, then add another 22 points.
For example, with , you double the value of the jack (11 x 2) and add the 7, totaling 29. With , you double the eight (8 x 2), add the 7, then add 2 more for suitedness to total 25. With you double one of the sixes (6 x 2), add 6 more, then add 22 for being paired to total 40.
Once you've calculated the PI of your hand, use the chart below to look up the number of big blinds in the effective stack to determine if your hand has a PI high enough to play.
For example, when the effective stack is 7 big blinds, you must have a PI of 26 or higher to shove and a PI of 30 or higher to call. This means it would be recommended to open-fold (PI = 25), to shove but not call with (PI = 29) and shove or call with (PI = 40) based on our calculations above.
This shorthand is game theoretically optimal for effective stack sizes 7 BBs or below. It starts to break down for bigger stacks, so I am including a second short chart with the percentage of hands you can shove or fold 8-10 BBs unexploitably as recommended by Max Silver's SnapShove app.
SAGE Chart
| Effective Stack Size (BBs) | Shove if PI is at least | Call if PI is at least |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | Call Any Two Cards |
| 2 | 21 | 17 |
| 3 | 22 | 24 |
| 4 | 23 | 26 |
| 5 | 24 | 28 |
| 6 | 25 | 29 |
| 7 | 26 | 30 |
SnapShove
| Effective Stack Size (BBs) | Shove Top X% of hands | Call Top X% of hands |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | 61.7% | 45.4% |
| 9 | 59.9% | 40.6% |
| 10 | 58.4% | 37.6% |
Heads Up Poker Free Online
These are great defaults to use when you don't know what mistakes your opponent is likely to make. But when you know he is too tight or too loose, you can deviate from this baseline to exploit him even further.
Facing an Overly Tight or Overly Loose Player
SAGE would have you call a 7 BB shove with a hand like (PI = 30). This is great to know against a good player who is shoving hands as bad as (PI = 26), but not against a player who shoves too tight.
If you know this to be true about your opponent, you should call him tighter than SAGE suggests. If you can determine the bottom of his shoving range, just call him slightly tighter than that.
By the same token, the range of hands SAGE suggests to shove is profitable against a player who calls correctly. But if your opponent calls too tight, then you can shove even wider than the SAGE ranges.
Feel free to throw in a few more hands, especially those that contain big cards, but don't go overboard. There are players and situations where you can get away with shoving any two cards — but this approach can quickly become a slippery slope to Spew Valley, so be careful.
When facing a player who shoves or calls too loose, you can just stick to the SAGE ranges. The fact that he is getting it in with more garbage than you just improves the EV of every hand in your ranges.
Heads-up play is where the real money is in a SNG. But because of the short stack sizes, it can be one of the easiest parts of the tournament to play. If you utilize these tips, you should win at least your fair share of SNGs in the long run.
Next week, we'll wrap this series up with a discussion of sit & go bankroll management.
Also in this series...
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