In Part I, we talked about how to play a SNG with 6 to 7 players. Now I will teach you how to play when 4-5 players remain in the game.
When 4-5 players remain in a SNG, your strategy should start to change a little. You should start playing a wider range of hands, but try to limit your opponents pre-flop to one or two. Limiting your opponents shouldn’t be too difficult, since you’ve created a tight image up to this point.
Another very important thing that you need to do at this point in the game is to steal blinds. You should now be between 20 and 30 minutes into the game and the blinds are probably starting to get big (now, if there is a big hand early in the game and you have five players in five minutes, obviously don’t put in much effort to steal the blinds, because they are still not worth much). You will be surprised at how easy it is to steal blinds at this point because of their tight play at the start of the game and, most importantly, the fact that in most 9 or 10 player games the top 3 win money. All other players will start to get tighter and play only the best hands, because they are afraid of being eliminated when they are so close to getting into the money, you should take advantage of that and steal the blinds.
3 REMAINING PLAYERS
Congratulations, you are in the money. But now you need to focus on the grand prize, the first place Poker QQ. This is where you may need some real poker skills to win first. I have a theory that the fewer players in a poker game, the more a poker player’s talent is worth.
There are many different ways to play at this stage of the game based on your opponent’s chip stack and opponent’s chip stack. Play the way you feel most comfortable playing at this point, but your main goal should be to get heads-up with at least half your opponent’s chips (this way, if you double up, you will be the chip leader).
ATTENTION
Since you should be playing with your opponent for about 30 to 45 minutes, you should have some idea of which of you is the best poker player. If you think he is a much better poker player than you, I advise you to wait until you get a decent hand, it doesn’t have to be big. Only a hand that is likely to give you 51 percent or better chances of winning the hand. You must take this hand and go all-in. The reason you do this is because if your opponent is better than you in a heads-up situation, you have a much worse than 51 percent chance of winning the game (your chances are probably around 20 percent) .
Now, if you feel like you are the best player, you should do the exact opposite. You must try to defeat your opponent slowly. You must try to knock it down hand by hand. Eventually, he will probably go all-in with a bad hand out of desperation and you will knock him down. You just need to remember not to be tempted if he bet everything right away. For example, you are dealt pocket sevens and your opponent moves all-in before the flop. Although you probably have the best hand, your hand is probably not much better and you probably have odds around 55 you, 45 in it. If you give up and play your game, you will win in 80 percent of
Time.