PSA/Holiday Message

As a SNG player we have so many tools at our disposal that not using them is almost criminal. However, as with anything else there is some potential barrier (eg it takes effort) to learn how to use new tools.

For example, recently I had a problem with my hotkeys not working when I open up camtasia. I still don't know why this does not work but it had been months since students have been telling me that Table Ninja is a nice hotkey app and that I should check it out. But I was lazy and kept telling myself, "Self, PSC works just fine. Who cares about looking at Table NinjaFT?" Once PSC failed me I was forced to take a look at table ninja and was supervised to find out that it was very easy to configure and worked flawlessly. It has slightly less options than PSC but it works and I now have an option for creating videos while multitabling.

I'll admit that there are still programs out there that I should take the time to download and learn how to use. For example, I need to get the wizardHUD, and the Hood script that allows you to transfer hands from wizard and HEM Back and forth. I also need to take a look at ICM explorer and stoxcombo.

Many of my students are basically paying me for the same thing. Reduce the energy that it takes to learn how to use the tools that are available. Many of these tools have forums and the information is all out there, but it is much easier to just have someone show you. I will give much props to Chubber (who used to frequent these forums) for helping me set up PSC for the first time. It was very difficult and he wrote me a long PM about how to do it, otherwise I might only be 6 tabling instead of 12 tabling this very moment.

So here is the announcement...

If you are not using SNG Wizard, Holdem Manager, Poker Stove, Table Ninja/PSC, you are wasting your potential. Take the time to learn how to use them next year. Make it a new years resolution to give yourself the best tools available. It is worth the effort.

If you want some help I will be happy to help people on the forums. I am also going to make it a point to do a series in my blog next year about the tools of the game and how to start to configure them once my "Phases of the Game" series is complete. You will be surprised once you start using these tools how many of your own problems become solvable.

Happy New Year
+EV

Stages of the Game: Part I Introduction

One of the most basic factors that influence our decisions in a STT is our effective stack size. However, until about a year ago I really thought about it as either "push fold strategy" or "not yet push fold strategy."

In the "not yet push fold strategy" zone I was just playing super strong hands and waiting for the "push fold strategy" zone where things became straight forward. I still do not consider myself an amazing deep stack poker player but a little more complexity with STT's in the early blinds is still warrented.

The purpose of the next few articles is to look at the stages of the SNG strategy in a less granular way and examine small changes you can make at every stage to improve your game. By adding an extra minor level of complexity, you may find that your results improve dramatically. But before we do that I want to discuss an important topic that affects your strategy at all points in the game.

Effective Stack Strategy:

The goal: To build up a stack that is dominant and pwn your table.

In the world of STT's a dominant chip stack is usually something like a stack that is 2X the size of your nearest opponent. Having a dominant stack means that you can play with impunity. When you are not playing for your tournament life but your opponents are, you can basically suck equity off the table since opponents do not want to tangle with you.

ICM tells us that the extra chips we earn are worth less than the chips we have. So if we have 4500 chips in a STT and everyone else has 1500, then doubling someone up is not nearly as bad for us as losing their 1500 stack is for them in terms of equity losses. If we have 3000 chips left in the tourney and are doing just fine. The bigger our stack size is the more indifferent we are toward ICM and we can apply pressure!

In his book Poker Tournament Formula 2, Arnold Snyder incorrectly claims that the value of each chip actually increases due to the extra pressure that we can apply. We gain more flexibility in how we can play without risking our tournament life. Although his assertion is incorrect mathematically (ICM dictates that chips decrease in value as you gain more) his conclusion is correct which is that by having a large chipstack we are able to more effectively scare our opponents with elimination. By using our large chipstack to our advantage, it becomes easier to play our hands because our opponents must avoid us without premium holdings.

It is easy to reconcile the apparant paradox of Snyder's assertion that chips go up in value as our stack grows with Sklansky's assertion that chips lose value as we gain more through the following thought experiment. If chips are worth less to us when we have more, than when we lose a few it also hurts us less to lose some chips than it hurts a shorter stacks to lose the same amount. Therefore, once we have more chips we can bully shorter stacks because we do not worry as much about losing some devalued chips. Snyder's slight misstep in explaining this message though, should in no way diminish his contribution towards discussing a majorly under-discussed and important topic. Snyder's PTF2 makes a major leap forward in describing an important dynamic in tournament poker.

When we get a dominant chip stack we want to pwn. (pwn: "To dominate the table" for those who do not know the lingo) This means shoving wider, taking some close gambles, attacking players because they can not easily call when we resteal etc. When we have a dominant stack poker becomes easy.

So what happens when the poker gods don't bless us with tripling up in the tourney early? Part II will deal with that very topic.

Good Luck at the Tables!
Greg

Strategy: Pivot Points IV Conclusion... plus "Stages of the Game" tease

So for a couple of posts now I have been writing about the idea of pivot points and how you can use them to improve your game. It is a tough balance between having too many and too few pivot points because if you have too many they are hard to remember and too few then you will be lost in many situations.

Last weekend while I as giving a lesson, a student of mine commented on some particular plays that I made differently than him. I was 9 tabling and he mentioned that I missed a SB shove that was on the chart. It was the very bottom of the range but since we were on the bubble I felt like it was justified as we were covered by the BB. We were about 8BB deep. We resolved to look at the situation later in wizard.

What we found was startling. It seems that because we were covered and we were on the bubble wizard was only recommending shoving about 35% of our hands. However when we tweaked the stack sizes slightly so that we covered BB wizard recommended ATC. This is clearly something important to look at. I told him, take a look at your hands for the week where you shove the SB and lets see if we can get a new pivot point together.

Possible New Pivot: ~8-10BB on bubble, shove normal range from SB if you cover the BB but only shove 35% if they cover you.

This is not a battle tested pivot point and I still need to spend some time playing with wizard to see if it really stands the test of time and math. It may be that there is a more complex bubble factor dynamic that needs to be flushed out and that this pivot will not work with a high enough percentage of the time to be useful. It may also be that some other factor that we were not aware of is actually dominating the result. Either way it needs more investigation since it could be a very useful as this type of adjustment would come up a lot in bubble situations.

So to conclude, I am interested in hearing from people if they have other pivots that they use which they rely on regularly. It may be a 10BB Btn shoving range or a typical calling range. If you've got a good pivot drop me a message on the blog. I would be happy to discuss it. A good player builds this kind of knowledge base over time. By developing a good arsenal of pivots we will make more correct decisions more often than our opponents and we will profit.

The next strategy series is going to be entitled: Stages of the Game and we are going to be talking about the early, mid, and late stages of the SNG. We will break it down by effective stack size and talk about the typical things we are thinking and doing at each stage to maximize our profit. So stay tuned!

Greg

Coaching: Details of Deluxe Classroom Package

For those of you wanting to get a better idea of what is involved in the deluxe classroom package here is the basic itinerary.

The Deluxe Classroom Package: The deluxe classroom package aims to teach the low stakes player all of the tools necessary to crush the $12 games on Full Tilt and other similarly competitive sites.

Think you've got what it takes to crush the games but are looking for a jumpstart on the way to SNG machine. The deluxe course is the best value I offer and is guaranteed to massively improve your game if you are struggling to beat the $12 levels.

The deluxe package is a unique course aimed at teaching the student how to think proactively about how they learn and improve their SNG performance. As well as guiding the student, positiveEV will present lessons aimed at challenging the student to learn to guide themselves in how to analyze SNG's and improve their game. The deluxe package is aimed at motivated players who are interested in learning all of the tools necessary to dissect SNG's and create customized strategies on their own. The final goal is that the student will be able to solve all but the toughest problems on their own.

Prior to beginning the package, a questionnaire will be sent by positiveEV to the student asking them to discuss certain questions and problems. These questions will be used to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses. When the student sends back the questionnaire they will also send back 5HH's for analysis. Sample programs will be created for the player but will resemble the following.

Session 1: Classroom Session focusing on Low Blind play.
Description: The first lesson is a classroom lesson that focuses on the basics of low blind play. The goal of this lesson is to teach students the proper methods for playing at low blinds as well as how to review their low blind play for leaks and errors. The lesson will discuss hand history review and exporting hand histories to stoxpoker or 2+2 in the proper format so that the student can get independent review on their tough hands. In this lesson all hand histories sent to positiveEV will be reviewed with the student at the end to examine their leaks at low blinds in context of the lesson. Homework will be assigned for the student to work on applying the new low blind concepts over the course of the next week. A video of the hand history review will be produced and combined with proprietary classroom video for the student to download and review at any time.

Poker Topics discussed include: ICM, Equity, Hand selection, bet sizing, post flop play, pot control, and when to get it all in.

Key Skills Developed: Hand history review. Hand history conversion and posting to the internet forums.

Session 2: Classroom Session focusing on Mid Blind play.
Description: The second lesson is a classroom lesson that focuses on the basics of mid blind play. The goal of the lesson is to teach students the proper methods for playing push fold strategy as well as how to review their mid and high blind play for leaks and errors. The lesson discusses SNG wizard including modeling custom situations using the custom analysis feature. It discusses building the ultimate weapon for playing push fold as well as aggressive building of your chips stack through restealing. Finally this information packed lesson ends with solving a big mystery, calling shoves and a proprietary concept called the “Magic Range.” In this lesson all hand histories sent to positiveEV will be reviewed with the student at the end to examine their leaks at mid blinds in context of the lesson. Homework will be assigned for the student to work on applying the new mid blind concepts over the course of the next week. A video of the hand history review will be produced and combined with proprietary classroom video for the student to download and review at any time.

Poker Topics discussed include: Why we play push fold (mathematical derivation), Push/Fold Ranges, Calling Shoves, Restealing, Making HUD reads.

Key Skills Developed: Hand history review using SNG Wizard. Modeling Custom Situations using SNG Wizard.

Session 3: Classroom Session focusing on High Blind Play and Special Topics.
Description: The third classroom lesson focuses on the basics of playing at high blind levels. The goal of this lesson is to teach students the proper skills to properly apply aggression and give themselves the best chance to win the tournament. It discusses finish distribution, how payout affects play, when to change gears, bubble play, optimum aggression three handed, and heads up play when short stacked and deep stacked.

Poker Topics Include: Chip Utility and chip values, Bubble play, in the money play, heads up play, calling light SB shovers.

In this lesson all hand histories sent to positiveEV will be reviewed with the student at the end to examine their leaks at high blinds in context of the lesson. Homework will be assigned for the student to work on applying the new mid blind concepts over the course of the next week. A video of the hand history review will be produced and combined with proprietary classroom video for the student to download and review at any time.

Session 4-5: Putting it all together.
After the foundation has been build with the classroom sessions the final two sessions will focus on a mix of sweat sessions and hand history reviews. The content of these lessons will be set by the student to plug holes in their understanding of concepts and to solidify the classroom information. By playing together and reviewing hand histories positiveEV will guide the student in the application of the information taught throughout the previous weeks. Topics discussed may include review using HEM filters, advanced SNG maneuvers, setting up AHK scripts, or may just focus on the application of the classroom material depending on the students level of advancement. A typical emphasis is on the poker mindset and making quick decisions with the clock running.

Total Price for 5 sessions: $235

Coaching: Shameless Plugs

I hope no one who posted these on stoxpoker minds but I am transferring a few positive comments from a thread over there so that other people can see them. They are all real comments and can be found at the this thread if you have a stoxpoker membership.

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"The first thing that comes to mind is to say thank you Greg!! I am only a micro stakes player right now, but with Greg's help and some hard work from me, there is no doubt in my mind that my roll will grow alongside my new and better knowledge

Greg is an awesome coach. Easy to understand, soft spoken and he is really worth a lot more than what he is asking right now. I can't wait for our next session."

I'm just glad I made the decision to get he's help."

Thank's again Greg!
Chris

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"Quite simply, this is the best value coaching available anywhere. Greg's professionalism but still very relatable style was impressive. His lesson was packed with content and relevance, and of a very high quality.

From ring game players looking to expand their playing repertoire, complete newbies, or experienced microstakes players like myself who think they know a thing or two, Greg has something for you. Just one lesson in and I am convinced Greg will cut through some leaks and get you thinking along some strategic lines that will not even have crossed your mind.

Now a word of warning. Greg's prices represent such ridiculously good value that I intend to monopolize some of his time. In fact if you are smart, you will too, because one thing I can guarantee, people will be prepared to pay a lot more for his time and the information he offers as the word gets out and you don't want to miss the boat.

I cannot recommend Positive EV highly enough."

cheers all
Bruce

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I've had coaching with Greg and am very impressed with his style of coaching. He absolutely knows his stuff and how to teach it too. The lesson plans were well planned and full of content. One thing I really liked about the lessons was the fact he actually recorded them and sent me a copy. I feel the prices were very fair and well worth it.

-Cardplayer52

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Had my first lesson with Greg last night. I have been trained the the best before but +EV brings in a whole new perspective to the way SNG's should be played. So far so good! Looking forward to the next lesson.

-Killthedonks

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UPDATE:
Ok fellow Stox members, it's about time we had another posting to this thread for an update, as there doesnt appear to be any postings from someone who has actually finished Greg's deluxe course.

I have not only finished Greg's deluxe course, but I have been so impressed I am engaging Greg on a weekly basis to work on my game. The following represents completely provable changes to the way I attack things and how I feel I have improved.

1. Complete restoration of my confidence to attack the FT 12's after a 65 buyin downswing by following the course basics and being mentally properly prepared to think about the taught game strategies in a logical way. The implimentation of the strategies is consistent and easy to apply with reasonable study and practice.

2. Great approach to pushing and calling ranges, boiling them down to fundamentals and strategies usable and consistently applicable. Much better at nailing this Oh so important area.

3. Detailed help to better use of SNG Wiz , HUDS and shorcuts. In short, helping with tools to analyse my game far more effectively. This has been breakthrough for me.

4. Greg's strategic concept's create much better focus during gameplay as you can push out of your head all the competing overflowing ideas that come from reading a thousand poker books and probably have no relevance due to previous missaplication.

5. Greg's pricing is still very cheap, and represents a small investment of bankroll which will pay for itself in a few shortweeks.

If you are new to SNG.s he will save you about 1 year of time and money it will cost you to learn much of this stuff just by play and reading forums, and if you are like me and not very intuative about poker more like 2 years.

I really hope to have him helping my game for a long time to come.


cheers
Bruce

Coaching: Rates and Current Package Offerings

I am convinced that I am offering the best value of quality coaching and competitive prices currently available on the SNG market.

Rate: $50 for 90 minute lesson (excluding current students through end 2009)

Typical Lesson plans: All are priced at $50 for one session. All are video taped and produced as .WMV files for students to review and continue to learn from. Below are several typical lesson plans that I rotate through with students doing continued weekly coaching


a) Classroom/Sweat combo - We do a 30 minute classroom lesson typically looking in-depth at a single topic then do a 60 minute sweat session focusing on that topic in game. Following the sweat if time allows we do a SNG wizard review and homework is typically assigned.

b) Classroom/Leak Check combo - We do a 30 minute classroom lesson typically looking in-depth at a single topic then do a 60 minute leak check trying to find instances of this specific topic in the players HEM database and discuss strategies for how to fix or improve play. Homework is to play games focusing on this topic and send HH's for further comment.

c) Video HH Review: We will do as many HH's as we can possibly digest in 90 minutes. Either we will look for specific issues that the student is interested in or we will look at whole games for leaks. Usually we can get through about 5 Hand Histories but longer formats like MTT SNG's typically less are done, while 9man and Superturbo, we can usually do more.

Deluxe Classroom: 5-90 minute lessons. Price $235
In the deluxe classroom we focus on 3-90 minute classroom lessons where we will cover all of the important game changing topics in low,middle, and high blind play. The goal of this package is to take a player who is trying to achieve strong win rate at the micros ($12 and below) but is struggling. In the first three lessons we break down the basic strategies that will take a player from struggling to big micro winner including important pivot points that will change the students game. The last two lessons focus on HH reviews, and sweat sessions that work on real time integration of the classroom material into the students game. We work on efficiently processing the classroom concepts and making sure that the student is able to use the classroom information in game. Typically I like to do the 3 classroom sessions back to back over the course of 3 days (or within one week) then do the final two lessons over the course of successive weeks so that the student has the time to review and work the information into their game.

I am currently open to coaching 9 man reg/turbo formats, 18 man-90 man MTT SNGs, Superturbo 9 mans and HU/ Superturbo HU SNG's.

To contact me: you can reach me on skype:zerosum79,2+2:+EV,stoxpoker:positiveEV. And we can discuss custom coaching packages, or scheduling some sessions.

Greg

Life: False Start

I am a little late getting of the blocks with my training for the 10 miler in April. I found out on Saturday that my Condo has closed down our rec room (where our treadmills etc are) since our sprinkler system has failed and it is a supposed fire hazard to be in there by myself. No one is allowed in the building except during management office hours. I guess it is more of a liability issue but since we just had about 20 inches of snow running outside is not an option (at least not without snow shoes).

I weighed myself this morning and I guess the power of positive thinking has me already losing weight since I'm down to 213.2 lbs. Maybe running is not necessary anyways? My friend Brandon who is training with me was already planning our next running conquest, the VA Beach Rock and Roll Half Marathon, before we have even started training for this one. Brandon is a marathon runner and the rock and roll half marathon is the first long run he ever did. Its Sept 5 so I guess getting from 10 miles to 13 miles is not out of the question. Brandon tells me that getting to the half marathon mark is the hardest part of getting yourself up to running a full marathon. I think that a half marathon is going to be the pinnacle of my running career though. I don't have the time or dedication to running to run a whole marathon.

Greg

Strategy: Pivot Points III - A Massive Secret Revealed

I thought a lot about whether I should even write this blog but based on the number of students who I have told this to, I think that there is very little to gain by protecting this secret. As far as I know this is proprietary information. I have never seen it discussed anywhere. However, in my mind, this is the best way for a beginner to learn Sit and Go's when it comes to certain aspects of the game.

After a beginning SNG student learns to play tight they typically struggle with things like shoving, calling all-ins, and restealing. Take calling a 10 or 5BB all in raise as we have discussed in the previous two articles. Mainly a beginners thought process is something like the following...

"OK so this guy is shoving on my BB again. WTF. I think I should call him wide. But I really have no idea what his range is, and even if I did, I can't use wizard in-game so I am totally unsure what to do."

As a student of SNG's we learn that range is everything when it comes to making SNG decisions. In fact the two calling pivots that we have discussed so far are based on set shoving frequencies. The 10BB range we assume that the villain is shoving 25% of their range and the 5BB range we assume that villain is shoving 35% of their range. So what is the secret you ask?

The secret is that by creating good pivots ahead of time we can avoid making range based decisions all together while actually playing. We have already evaluated the range ahead of time, and now choosing a range and the proper course of action is unnecessary. All we need to know is what pivot is the proper one based on the situation, and that takes very little information.

Notice that in the previous articles we assume a basic shoving range based on a typical "Normal Bad" villain. By carefully crafting our pivot point we can take our villains range out of the decision making process completely. The entire decision is made based on readily available information.

The thing is that figuring out a villains exact calling range is very difficult and would be a time consuming process. We can never know their exact range and it turns out that the decisions we make are going to have some level of error just based on the fact that poker is a game of incomplete information. Therefore, basing our decision on an average opponent when there is not any information to the contrary is actually not that bad. The benefits to this process however are significant.

One benefit is that we can make very efficient decisions. The information we need is just the effective stack, our hand and the pivot range. Any other information that we have to improve our decision is just gravy. This creates the foundation for our game which when all else fails, we can fall back on. Another benefit is that we will be able to make decisions very fast, allowing us to make more decisions per minute and increasing the number of tables we can play. Finally, since our decisions will be relatively static, we can then test our pivots using Holdem Manager to see if they are profitable. Because our decisions will not vary much we can quickly evaluate whether our pivot is indeed profitable or needs to be adjusted further without waiting many thousands of hands for the results to converge.

So in a nutshell, a well crafted pivot takes into account player ranges, but almost never forces the player in game to make range based decisions. Frankly, range based decisions are very difficult, and unseasoned players tend to over adjust anyways (as discussed in the last article). Making a range based decision and deciding how much to adjust is a very advanced skill which requires many hours of looking at pivots and SNG wizard to see how things change based on ranges. It is an art that will distract a beginner student from making good decisions more often than it helps them. However, creating and using good pivots can be a key in getting a beginning student rapidly making good decisions and creating a bulletproof foundation for their SNG game.

Good Luck at the tables!
Greg

Strategy: Pivot Points II – Creating a Spectrum and Combating Over Adjustment

In my last strategy post I discussed the idea of pivot points and how creating pivot points is one of the fastest way to teach beginners how to play sit and go’s.

Recap: A pivot point is a range of hands that works against general players in very common situations.

Once the correct pivot is determined, adjustments can be made to the range based on other in-game factors such as the bubble or opponent reads “pivoting” around the base range to make the correct decision.

One of the major mistakes that beginning players make is pivoting too much to a specific situation. Typically when people incorporate new information into their game they over adjust. They learn things in the following way.

Example: We are in the BB and the SB shoves on us for an effective stack of 10BB. The player is a typical bad player.

In the last article we described this exact event except the player was shoving 5BB not 10BB We created a pivot range of Ax+,22+, ATSB, and KT+. To solve this new problem we need one piece of information which is how often this player is shoving on us. Typically I would model this situation in SNG wizard, assign them a range of about 10% and see what range the Wizard says to call with. In the end Wizard says that the range calling range is about AT, 66. This becomes our new pivot.

Pivot 2: If a typical bad player is shoving 10BB into us our pivot is AT,66.

Notice now that not only have we created two pivot points for calling which is a tough subject for many beginner players we have actually created two points in a continuum which also keeps the player from over adjusting.

Example 2: A typical bad player shoves 7.5BB into us from the SB. What is our calling range without using Wizard?

So if I were to be strictly honest with you I do not know what our calling range is in this case. I have not memorized it and I have never needed to memorize it. However, I know I am not going to be too far off if I pick a hands halfway in-between our two pivots like A5s,A8o,KJs,44. By looking at the situation in relation to two pivots we also ensure that we are not making the typical mistake of over adjusting. With only one pivot a bad player might say that because we were calling for more blinds we should be much tighter (AK,QQ) which would be clearly wrong once we create the second pivot point.

One challenge is creating useful pivot points (ie situations that happen frequently). We should not have too many pivots so that they are fairly granular we can easily memorize these rules or make a list of them to refer to while playing in game. However, they pivots should not be too granular so that we can easily adjust them to in game situations. With my students I only teach about 8 pivots (and I have already given you two for free) that generally transform a players game into a much more profitable strategy. If you are smart you can guess what some of the other situations are…

Good Luck at the tables,
Greg (+EV, positiveEV, zerosum79)

Life: GW Parkway 10 Mile Run

Well, I was a little premature in saying that I was going to run the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler since we were in a lottery to be able to run. Well I run good in SNG's but bad in lotteries it seems since we were denied.

I have instead signed up for the George Washington Parkway 10 Mile run which runs north and terminates in Old Town Alexandria. It is on the 25th of April so pretty much happens around the same date as the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile run which means I have to start training ASAP.

I've got a cold but I am planning on doing my kickoff run this weekend.

Greg

Life: Cherry Blossom 10 miler

Lately I have been having a ton of trouble keeping up with my goals. As many of you know I have a budding family including beautiful 6mo old daughter, 50hr a week job, a real estate investment company, and poker coaching business. I have been sick 4 times this winter (two colds and two stomach viruses) and I am really starting to worry about my health. I have not been grinding much due to the insane coaching schedule and I am really interested in doing something for my health but having a hard time fitting it all in. Typically when I am exercising and in good shape I do not get sick nearly as often, but with my daughter in daycare and me out of shape, I seem to be catching everything imaginable.

For me sometimes the best way to make sure I do something is to commit to doing it well in advance so today I registered for a 10 mile run. Its in Washington DC and its called the Cherry Blossom 10 mile run. I have never run 10 miles but have run in 10K's and while training for the most recent 10K (over a year ago now) did have a maximum length run of 8 miles. 10 miles will be a challenge but not impossible. My goal is to finish it in by running 10 minute miles (slow I know but I am not a natural runner). Right now I think that the best thing for me is to start scheduling runs in the same way I schedule coaching. Look at the week ahead, put things on my google calendar, and do my best to keep appointments. My friend Brandon is going to run with me (he runs marathons and is very fast) so it will be charity but he is going to help me train and go with me on my long weekend runs.

The cherry blossoms will be out in mid-April so it will be a long slog but I think its time. I am 30 and I really want to keep myself from getting fat. Since my wife got pregnant and somehow I was the one who put on weight, I have ballooned up to 220lbs. I have also been eating unhealthy food.

Everyone who knows me from coaching knows I am big on setting goals so here they are.

By April (in no particular order).
Weight: 195lbs (-25lbs)
Run Distance: 10 miles
Run speed: 10 minute miles

Good Luck at the tables
Greg (positiveEV)

Strategy: Pivot Points

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it is that makes my coaching style different from other approaches that I have seen advocated for learning sit and go’s. In sit and go coaching videos or on forums, you typically hear a coach say something along the lines of “Here is the situation… therefore here is my range.” Sit and go wizard is even worse, because it tells you essentially: “Here is the situation… therefore push this range” but unlike a good player SNG Wiz can not even be relied upon to accurately assess the situation and may give incorrect advice. Worse still misapplying the advice of coaches and SNG Wizard is a very common problem for students trying to improve their game. There is no telling whether the situation that the coach was discussing was common or whether their advice is broadly applicable. As a result many students develop a mishmash strategy that is many times filled with misconceptions about how to apply SNG theory in beating the games.

So as a struggling player how do you get better? What students need to do is to learn about specific situations that are important and repeat over and over again in SNG’s, then understand how to play that situation. By starting with very basic situations and very basic strategy many of the very large leaks in one’s game can be plugged. I call these situations pivot points because we learn basic ranges of hands for shoving, calling and restealing that work most of the time for very common situations, then as the player gets better, we learn how to adjust pivoting around the base range. Think of it as a boat that is anchored in the water. A tide or wind comes blowing the boat in a different direction but the boat is generally still in the same place, it has just adjusted to the situation.

One of how we use pivot points in SNGs i would be in calling an all-in shove from a loose shover. We develop a basic range that works based on very specific SNG Wizard examples but that generally fits the majority of situations. Let’s assume that we come up with a situation where a loose shover is shoving on us for a 5BB effective stack. It turns out that typically a “normal bad” player will shove about the top 35% of their range from the SB or Button when they have about 5BB. SNG wizard says that calling with a range of about Ax+,22+, any two suited Broadway cards, and KT+ is a pretty good range for calling. This becomes our pivot for calling a 5BB shove from a “normal bad” late position shover.

Pivot Rule: If a regular bad player shoves the SB or BTN for 5BB, call with Ax+,22+, ATSB, and KT+.

Is this rule always correct? Absolutely not. Is it correct the majority of the time… yes!!! And this is also what most beginner players struggling to beat the low limits need. By creating a set of rules that is correct the large percentage of the time I can take a losing player and get them winning immediately. What’s more, these pivots become the foundation for proper play as we learn to adjust them. Once a player is able to accurately articulate why they are using the pivot they then will naturally be able to start to add more information into the mix. Remember this pivot only works perfectly if the shover has a range of 35%. Let’s say for example now we realize that the shover is a regular at the games. Their stats and sharkscope indicate that they are a winning player. They are apt to be shoving much higher than 35% and so we can now see that adjusting our calling range wider because they are shoving wider is the correct direction to pivot. Given the same situation but now the shover reverts to being a bad player and we are on the bubble, we can see that pivoting to a tighter range is the correct move. Naturally the student begins to learn to adjust to the playing conditions. However many students tell me that they struggle making reads on opponents ranges. The real truth is that they don’t have a foundation to make that read from. The pivot point gives them a starting point to begin to apply situational dynamics.

One last thing to note. It does not take many pivot points to take a struggling or break even sit and go player and get them to be beating the lower limit games. If you think about it, a big mistake that happens very infrequently is not going to have as big an impact on your game as a small mistake that happens repeatedly many times per SNG. If a certain big mistake costs you 1% of the prize pool but that only happens once in 10 games, but you have a smaller mistake cost you .25% of the prize pool 4 times per game overall you are losing 10X as much equity from the small repeated mistake! (1% per 10 games is a mistake that costs 0.1% per game while .25%*4 per game costs 1% per game or 10X as much) By learning just a few pivots, players can easily plug 4-6 small leaks per game (maybe even more). Don’t forget that 1% of the prize pool is ~10% of your buyin and who wouldn’t like to improve their ROI by 10% or more per game???

Good Luck at the Tables,

Greg (+EV, positiveEV, zerosum79)