Middle Game Strategies for SNG's

So you've waited out the early part of the SNG, playing only premium hands, and now you are in the middle game of the tourney.  Once you're at this point, starting hands become extremely important because opponents will begin forcing the action pre-flop at a much higher rate. There is still some room for creativity but decisions will soon become automatic. Before opening any pot, you need to take your opponents' chip stacks into account, and be prepared to react to their all-in pushes. By the time the blinds reach 50/100, starting hands usually fall into one of two categories: (1) hands you are folding against a shove, and (2) hands you are calling a shove with.

The mid-stages of SNG's force you to make snap decisions with small pocket pairs and Broadway cards based on equity. By this time, two or three players may have been eliminated.  This means that chips have decreased in value. However, most of your decisions at this stage should still be based primarily on pot odds because players are usually not close enough to the money to consider Independent Chip Modeling calculations just yet.

However, being able to assign a specific hand range to opponents who are raising or shoving over raises becomes mandatory at this point. If you have 1,600 chips at 50/100 and raise 3x from the button with KJs, you have to KNOW (within a reasonable range) what your opponents in the blinds are capable of going all-in with. King-Jack suited could be an easy call or an easy fold in these types of situations, and it all comes down to your read on a particular opponent. On the flip side of that token, you will often be forced to go all-in over an opponent's pre-flop raise -- meaning you must have some idea of what he/she is capable of raising with.

Make an effort to recognize predictable opponents at the mid stages of Sit & Go Tournaments. Mainly, you want to place a note on players who NEVER raise a hand pre-flop (when their stack represents 12-20 times the Big Blind) unless they're calling a shove. These multi-tabling TAG players give up a small portion of their edge because they simply don't want to deal with having to fold a hand pre-flop after one of their raises gets re-raised.  So, they tighten up and only raise with strong starting hands. Knowing which players employ this strategy allows you to make correct decisions by (1) stealing their blinds more often, and (2) mucking your own rags from the blinds instead of re-raising all-in with them. It should be apparent that the reason why you should be folding your rags versus this specific type of opponent is because risking all your chips requires Showdown Equity and/or Fold Equity.  In a situation like this, your rags possess neither showdown or fold equity versus these opponents-- so you muck and move on to the next hand.

You may have noticed by now that the 'name of the game' is to accumulate as many chips as you possibly can. To take that one step further, you want to stay in the EARLY GAME for as long as possible. Just because the blinds increase at the same pace for every player, doesn't mean that all players are playing the same strategy. If you have 4,000 chips at the 50/100 level 7-handed with an average chip stack of under 2,500, then your options vastly outnumber those of your opponents. They are handicapped while you are not, and that represents an enormous edge, even as the blinds increase.

Many players struggle to find a "raising amount" that they are comfortable with during the Mid Stages of a Sit & Go. As long as you're raising with a strong enough hand to justify calling a shove, I really don't see any difference between putting 2.5x or 3x or 3.5x into the pot because eventually it's all going into the middle anyway. BUT, be wary of getting cute versus opponents who flat-call from the blinds in these situations. If you have 2,500 chips at 75/150, and you're holding Ace-Queen on the button, I wouldn't advise raising less than 3x in general, because you run the risk of "under-punishing" a flat-caller for seeing a flop.

The Mid-Stages of a single table Sit & Go are where close decisions become crucial to one's expectation. Pay attention to your table and make sure you characterize each opponent's style while taking as many specific notes as possible. Execute correctly and react appropriately to re-raises in order to maintain an image that forces your opponents to make mistakes versus your raising and shoving range. And most important, get to the Mid Game as late as possible in order to enjoy the luxury of playing a more creative game against players who have been forced into automatic decision making!..