One of the biggest impacts that online poker has had on poker is the boom in sit and go's, or SNG's, small tournaments from one table up to ten or twenty that often finish in a few hours at most rather than last several like some of the bigger multi-table tournaments. The most popular of the sit and go's though is the one table variety, usually 6, 9 or 10 players, which can often be over in an hour. Buy-in's range from as little as a few cents all the way up to the $1000's. Some players have also been known to multi table as many as 26 tables at one time playing this type of SNG!
Playing this many tables is obviously not for everyone, but multi tabling a few SNG's can have a significant effect on your bankroll and see your hourly earn rate increase. However, its important to note that although maximizing your hourly rakeback can have a positive impact on your hourly profit, it can also lower your overall ROI (return on investment) and consequently lower your $/hr. Below are some tips for making the most out of playing SNG's and utilizing rakeback deals to gain the maximum benefit to your hourly rate and overall bankroll.
Before we even start to look at
maximizing your earnings, one of the most important issues is to ensure
the poker room your playing at includes tournament fees in the MGR.
It is rare to find a poker room however that does not include
tournament fees, and almost all the rooms on Pokerpod rakeback do. One
notable exception is Carbon Poker.
If you are not sure, simply check in the Pokerpods review summary or
sign up page, or contact one of the moderators in the Pokerpod Forum.
The multi tabling SNG world record included playing over 60 tables at once
When you look to earn the most out of
playing SNG's, choosing a poker room with the most suitable bonuses and
promotions is also important. Many rooms, such as Ultimate Bet
and Pokerstars
offer "Step" SNGs where you work through tiers to get to the final SNG
which will often have packages worth as much as $16,000 starting
from an initial
buy in at phase step one from as little as 0.10¢!
Have
a look through some of the bonus offers on Pod rakeback and pick a deal
that suits your play best.
To really benefit, increasing your
hourly rate and overall MGR in SNGs, is to multi-table them. If you are
not used to it try slowly building up, first playing just two and as
you grow in confidence add another and another until you find a level
you are comfortable with. Most players should easily be able
to manage four. Full Tilt Poker
offer "matrix" tournaments where from one buy-in you play four tables
with the same players at once. This is excellent practice for
multi-tabling without having to pay four buy-ins. When choosing a room,
its also worth looking at whether you can resize tables, or whether
there is a limit to how many tables you are allowed to open at once.
This is all covered in our reviews.
On a similiar note to above, to
slightly increase your rakeback even more, try to avoid playing in sets
and instead try to play continuous sessions. For example instead of
opening four tables and playing down until you've either won or being
eliminated from them, once you have been eliminated from one table, or
one game has finished, open another so you still have four tables
going. Give yourself a target, say that you are going to play from
13:00est to 18:00est before taking an hour break for example.
If you use tracking software such as Poker Tracker™
or Poker Crusher™,
try both ways and analyze your win rate after.
Full Tilt Poker Matrix Tournament
Play Turbos occassionally! Turbos, in
relation to standard SNGs will have a slightly lower ROI due to the
amount of luck that becomes involved, but it will always increase your
MGR and your overall $/hr. They take some getting used to as they play
very differently from standard SNGs, but in the long term can be very
profitable. Although your winnings maybe less than when you
play standard SNGs, you will find that your rakeback return will rise
significantly, often enough to raise your $/ph in turbos over that with
which you make in standard SNGs.
When you play, try and play at rooms
that have a good flow of traffic, and/or play at peak times. You dont
want to be waiting around for tables to fill when you could be earning.
Typically this means concentrating on the larger poker rooms, but you
will find many of the upper/mid-range sites such as Betfair
and Doyles room
have excellent traffic at peak times.
Lastly, when you look to play SNGs at a
profit and make the most our of your rakeback and bonus deals,
investing in tracking software, that will allow you to
continually track your win rate, is a profitable idea. Poker Tracker™
and Poker Crusher™,
are just two, but other programs such as Sit 'n' Go Shark
can help give you that edge and help you to continually improve your
$/ph. If you are willing to put in the time to work the
bonuses and earn your rakeback, you will see a significant rise in your
overall $/ph, and Sit and Go's offer an excellent form of poker to do
just that.
