Weekly SNG Tip: Avoiding Predictability

Nothing spells doom in a SNG tournament faster than predictability. It’s amazing how quickly players fall into raise, call and folding patterns and stick to it like biblical testament. Most of these types of players will usually make the excuse that they are simply following a very tight method of play and only get involved with premium hands, which is fine, but there are still ways to try and camoflauge your techniques a little so that it doesn’t appear as though you are playing very roboticly.

The problem with playing the same types of hands the same way over and over again is that it makes it very easy for opponents to know how to play against you. Compound this with the note-taking tools built into just about every online site and very soon you’ll find yourself targeted by every alert opponent that likes to pay attention to how others play. Now this isn’t to say that you need to open up your hand selection to dangerous levels, but you may want to try and mix things up a little.

One of the easiest ways to get caught as a robotic player is to auto-check every time you miss a flop and then click on the “fold to any bet” box. What this tells other players is that you are only going to invest time in a hand where you flopped strong and want to play. Now all of a sudden if you raise out of nowhere, everyone at the table is going to know that you have a monster hand since up until that point you let the computer do all the work for you.

Predictability also allows you to get bullied very easily, which is something that advanced SNG players love to do. If you limp pre-flop, check on the flop and then fold to any bet, this is another major sign of weakness that will result in players betting into you even if they themselves don’t have a hand. The same goes with only betting/raising with top five premium hands like AA and KK. If every time you raise you end of up showing down a huge pocket pair, once again the rest of the table will know to stay away from you when you raise, killing your action, and then bet into you when you limp and check, effectively putting pressure on you the whole match.

The solution is to find as many ways as possible to mix it up. Make raises in late position if the action was checked around to you pre-flop and then put out a continuation bet on the flop. Maybe limp with a big hand in middle position with the hope that you can show it down on the river and prove to players that you won’t always play a hand the same way twice. Typically the only ways to change up your play is to get more aggressive, as defensive plays tend to put you more at risk as the hand progress. If you find yourself with a big chip lead in a SNG, take the opportunity to get involved in pots with hands you wouldn’t always play. Again, you don’t need your opponents to know whether or not you’re a good/bad player, you just don’t want them to be able to quickly identify how weak/strong you are in any given situation. Sometimes it only requires you to make a few plays outside of your comfort zone in order for this effect to be accomplished.

A combination of good hand selection, maximizing chip extraction and mixing up your play is about as solid as any SNG specialist can hope to play.