Turbo Texas Hold'em Poker sit and go tournaments are becoming increasingly popular. The faster game play and wilder action has helped them become a pretty big attraction in the world of online poker tournaments, like heads-up sit'n goes.
But the question is, with the blinds increasing so rapidly and the players playing so wildly, are these turbo tournaments beatable? Furthermore, if you can play them profitably, what is the ideal strategy?
Can you win money from turbo sit and go tournaments?
A Sit & Go tournament is a variant of Texas Hold’em Poker which you will often see on TV. A prize pool is made up from all of the participants paying an equal entry fee to the tournament. The goal in a SNG is to win all of the chips from all of the players.
Yes, of course you can. Whilst the element of skill has been reduced due to the increased rate at which the blinds move up levels, it is still possible to outplay opponents and make profitable decisions in each tournament.
Turbo sit'n gos are more of a numbers game than you standard tournament, as you will need to play a greater number of these turbo games in order to see any conclusive results because of the greater swings. However, if you can get a good strategy under your belt, you will be able to make money at these tables.
Turbo Poker tournament strategy
Here are a few quick facts about the turbo sit'n go games:
- The blinds move up levels very quickly,
- Your stack will rapidly become small in relation to the blinds,
- You will have less room for movement to make plays,
- Decisions will be reduced to the flop and preflop only.
Sounds awfully like you're going to need good Texas Hold'em short-stack strategy here, as the majority of the time your stack is going to be very small when compared to the size of the blinds. In a standard tournament you won't often find yourself with 5 - 10 BBs, but that is going to regularly be the case here.
Therefore, aside from at the start of a turbo tournament, you are going to need to learn how to play good short-stack poker.
Short stack Poker strategy
Good short-stack strategy in Texas Hold'em Poker starts with the starting hand selection (in fact, it revolves around it). The hands you want to play are the ones that are going to hit the flop hard. So the following hands are going to be ideal:
- Big pocket pairs,
- High cards like AK, AQ, AJ.
The chances are that we are not going to be able to make it to the turn or river the majority of the time because our stack is small compared to the size of the bets. Therefore we are going to need to look for hands that will get the job done.
Hands we will want to avoid are:
- Low connecting cards,
- Low suited cards,
- Small pocket pairs (except for when our stack is desperately low).
When it comes to short stack strategy, the last thing we are looking to do is call a raise with 67o with the intention of check raising on the turn with a flush draw on a semi-bluff, our stack just isn't going to give us that much room for manoeuvre.
Opening up your starting hand requirements
As your stack diminished in a turbo Texas Hold'em Poker pokerstars sit and go, you are going to need to adjust your starting hand requirements with it. If your stack has reached the stage where it is pretty much all-in or fold before the flop, you want to prepare to move in with any hand that can hold it's own in an all-in situation.
You should continue to stick with big cards, but incorporate some more speculative hands like the following:
- AX,
- KQ,
- KJ,
- KT,
- Pocket pairs,
Basically, any big cards are going to be your friend when your stack starts to hit the 10BB or lower mark. They may normally cause trouble in a bigger-stacked situation, but seeing as flop play is minimal or non-existent, it is not going to cause too many problems.
Turbo Sit'n Go: Pushing vs. holding on
Do you wait for a better hand or do you push all-in and hope to collect a few extra chips? It's not an easy decision, but as a rule of thumb, pushing all-in earlier on is usually the better option.
The longer you hold off on moving in, the shorter your stack will be when a nice pair of cards comes your way. Even if you are dealt AK, a 4BB push is going to give the right odds for any old hand to call, so you are almost definitely going to have to see 5 cards with another player. Now against any random hand you have 66% chance of winning, so you still lose out 1 time out of 3. Are those odds worth waiting for?
On the other hand, if you find yourself with 8BBs and decide it's time to push, you have got a lot more weight behind you, and your opponents will have a hard time calling with any old hand. You have increased your chances of picking up the blinds to help build your stack, which will prove to be very handy. If worst comes to worst and you get called, you still stand the chances of doubling up to 20BBs or more, which is far better than the 8BBs you may have got by holding on.
It's a lot easier to hold on and hope for the best, but it's not necessarily the most profitable way to play. Forget about thinking 'what if' every time you push all in and lose, because you're better off grabbing the bull by the horns and giving yourself a decent chance of winning the tournament, as opposed to sitting back and diminishing into 4th place.
Turbo Sit'n Go: Overview
You should treat the start of any turbo tournament just like any other, so don't try and force a double up at the start to try and set yourself up for the rest of the tournament indicator. Play wisely, and play as you would at the start of a normal Sit and Go.
As the blinds start to increase, you will need to keep an eye on the size of your stack and the size of the stacks of the players around you. Start to incorporate short stack strategy when appropriate and consider how your plays will affect the other players based on the size of their stacks also.
The more you play turbo sit'n gos, the easier they will become. You're going to need to play a lot of them anyway to exploit that poker edge and see a profit, so consider multi-tabling to make the most of them. When you know you've got a winning strategy, it's all about playing as many of them as you can and turning that handle. Best of luck.
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Hyper Turbo SNGs are some of the fastest and most aggressive SNGs offered at online poker rooms. The starting stack size is a mere 300 chips with a starting big blind of 30! This gives the player very little wiggle room and quickly forces gamblers to make decisions for all of their chips.
Also the blinds increase every 3 minutes as opposed to every 5 minutes in typical turbo SNGs.
These hyper turbo SNGs are not without skill. A competitive edge can be gained by players who know how to take advantage of the tournament’s structure and are able to pounce on mistakes in their opponent’s game.
The short and skinny of it is, play relatively tight in the very early stages of the tournament, know when to kick it into high gear, be aware of your stack size, use position to your advantage, shove or fold.
Top Five Hyper Turbo SNG Tips
1. Play Tight In The Early Stages
One of the best things about hyper turbo SNGs is that many players in these games are just gambling. In the early stages of the SNG you will often see players shoving their whole stack in with very marginal suited hands or a naked Ace.
At the beginning of the SNG you should be looking for relatively strong cards from early and middle position and opening your range up a little closer to the button. Typically from early and middle position you should be looking for 77+ AJ+ to move all-in with. If the pot is unopened ahead of you then you can move all-in from the button with any pair, any ace, and a strong King. The same goes for opening the pot from the small blind.
2. Know When To Shift Into High Gear
Hyper turbo and Super turbo SNGs require significant aggression from any player looking to be competitive.
In the middle stages of the SNG, more often than not the cards in your hand matter less than your position and stack size. Many times it is correct to move all-in no matter what two cards are in your hand. For instance: If you have 5 or fewer big blinds, and no one has opened the pot in front of you, it is correct to move all-in from the button or small blind with any two cards. You cannot allow yourself to “go like broomcorn’s uncle” as Doyle says in Supersystem. In other words, you cannot pay blinds until your stack is too small for a double up to matter.
3. Manage Your Stack Size
Your stack size will frequently dictate your actions in hyper turbos. If you have a comfortable second place stack and you are in the small blind with 4 players remaining and the big stack is in the big blind, you should fold KQ without a thought. The top three players get paid and there is no reason to risk bubbling the SNG with a hand that is easily dominated. If you are the short stack however, this is a no-brainer shove.
In general however, whenever you are approaching the four to five big blind mark, you should be looking to move-in on the first unopened pot where your cards are not terrible (and sometimes even if you have 72o).
4. Position, Position, Position
This may be the most important tip to take with you into the hectic world of hyper turbos. Position is key! Whenever the pot is unopened ahead of you and you are in the small blind, you should be giving serious consideration to moving all-in. You have only one random hand to worry about. The big blind will typically be folding more than 60% of the time, and when called you still have a chance to win even with two random cards! This situation is always +EV for the player in the small blind. The same goes for the button, albeit to a slightly lesser degree.
5. Shove Or Fold
Everyone starts with exactly ten big blinds. In regular multi-table tournaments this is known as “shove or fold mode.” The same holds true for Hyper Turbo SNGs. In Hyper Turbos you should almost always be making a decision for your entire stack right from the beginning of the hand. Either fold and conserve your ability to apply maximum pressure, or shove and apply maximum pressure.
Because stack sizes are so small, if you make a standard raise it is usually incorrect to fold if your opponent moves all-in. Because you have already dedicated 30% of your stack (if you raise 3x the big blind) and then someone shoves all-in for 100% of your stack; you need to call the last 70%. This means you are getting 130:70, which makes it about 2:1. If your hand can win 33% of the time in this scenario, then it is correct to make the call. If you don’t think your hand can actually win 33% of the time, why are you raising in the first place?
Most of the time the only decision you need to make is shove or fold. Now you can just sit back and laugh when other players spew chips by raising and then folding to your shove. The exception to the rule is that if two players have both doubled up early on and each has twenty big blinds, then it may be correct to make standard raises.
As with all SNG formats, make sure you tread very carefully on the bubble with tight but aggressive play. Check out our Poker SNG Tips article for tips on bubble play and more general tips on playing the Sit N Go format.
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