If you are a beginner or a poker player that struggles to make any profit over time then this post could help you towards becoming a winning online poker player.

The following advice is very simple but should be understood and appreciated in detail to help you to improve your poker game and make you a winning player.

Learn how calling ranges are determined by the scenario at the table.

An easy bite size sentence which when evaluated will in all likelihood become one of the most important poker lessons you will ever encounter.

What Do I Do Next?

As a casual player with a small ever dwindling bankroll you can find yourselves in a rut during games where you genuinely don’t know what to do with a given hand. If you believe you’ve suffered numerous bad beats over time, your judgement can become impaired and your play can suffer significantly.

If you find yourself in this situation you need to go back to basics. Perhaps even step away from poker for a while to allow yourself to clarify your mindset.

When you are ready to play, you need to refresh yourself with hand calling ranges and how this determines your play at the table. A bad player will play the cards. A good player will play the cards and their opponents.

Playing Short Handed Poker

It is acknowledged that short handed play is reserved for advanced players. This needn’t be the case when you have a grasp of calling ranges and how the calling ranges are affected by the number of opponents you have at your table.

I personally prefer playing heads up poker or sit and go’s with as few players as possible becasue my knowledge of calling ranges associated to the number of players around a table is so strong. Once you get a feel for these calling ranges, you game should improve exponentially when playing short handed.

How to Improve Short Handed Play

There are two key elements that you need when playing short handed -

• A strong understanding of calling ranges

• Bravery

In order to understand the calling ranges for a given sized table you can study charts or play theoretical ands through a program such as PokerStove which will give you odds on winning a hand based on starting hands, number of players, etc. However, this will not teach you the real game bravery that you need when deciding to raise big or push all in.

In my opinion the way to learn calling ranges for short handed play and to instil the bravery required to be able to push all in or bet big is to play a number of turbo or hyper turbo sit n go’s. This isn’t standard advice that you will see written on other poker tips sites, but the rationale is very sound.

Super Turbo Sit N Go’s?

A fairly standard super or hyper turbo sit n go will consist of 4 – 6 players max and the blinds will often increase every minute. In other words the blinds can increase after every hand or couple of hands.

In order to play turbo sit n go’s successfully you need to understand that unless you act decisively and statistically correctly you will likely fail. You could simply sit tight and either let the blinds knock you out or allow yourself to get so shortstacked that effectively you have no raise equity so realistically the whole table could call or raise you with no problems holding the worst starting hands imaginable, or you could play decisively according to your table position and calling range.

Therefore, in these sorts of poker games you need to learn a sort of push or fold game. In other words push all your chips into the middle or fold your hand. In doing so you will need to grasp the fundamentals behind what is a good starting hand on a table of say 2,3,4 or 5 opponents and when you determine that you have a strong starting hand based on the number of opponents you need to have the bravery to push all in. This is easy said than done when it is your tournament/game at stake.

Winning Short Handed Play Summary

By playing hyper turbo sit n go’s you will only win hands and progress successfully if you have a grasp on your table situation and the value of your starting hand. Of course there will be variance based on other players that are poor or just reckless but as a training exercise, using turbo sit n go’s should help to sharpen your poker brain as to when to push or fold and give you the bravery to do so.

You will then be able to take these skills to standard sit n go tables and clean up.

PokerStars offer a range of Hyper Turbo Sit N Go’s at varying buy in levels, format and field size with the only real constant being the low stack of chips that each player starts with and the manic speed with which the blinds and antes increase – usually every 3 minutes.

Common Hyper Turbos over at PokerStars are -

FPP Hyper Turbo SNG’s to tournaments such as the Sunday Million, Sunday 500, Sunday Quarter Million, and Turbo Takedown. These can range in buy in level from 5,400 FPP for 4 seats guaranteed in the Sunday Million in a 10 man Sit N Go field, through to as little as 1FPP for 6 seats from a field of 300 to qualify for the Sunday Quarter Million.

Cash Hyper Turbos can be played to qualify for all of the major tourneys (as mentioned above) at PokerStars and can range from $220 for a 2 seat guarantee from a 6 man field for the Sunday 500 down to $10.20 for 4 seats guaranteed to the Sunday Million from a 90 strong field. One of the most popular cash buy in Hyper Turbos in the $88 game to qualify for the Sunday Million which has a regular buy in of $215.

What Are Hyper Turbos All About?

Essentially at PokerStars at any one time there will be numerous Hyper Turbos running which will invariably offer qualification to one of the more expensive buy in tourneys. This allows PokerStars to lure in players that would baulk at paying e.g. $215 for a tourney entry if they could try to qualify for the fraction of the price. It helps PokerStars to increase the numbers playing in their main tourneys and gives aspirational players a chance of playing in some of the biggest online poker tourneys going.

Hyper Turbo Format

The most important aspect of a Hyper Turbo is the speed with which the blinds and antes kick in. The clue is in the name, you aren’t just playing in a Turbo, but a Hyper Turbo!

Usually you will start with 300 chips in a PokerStars Hyper Turbo and blinds will start at 25 / 50 with a 10 ante and increase every 3 minutes.

Field size as well as the qualification method and number of qualification places can also vary based on the particular Hyper Turbo SNG you have selected. One of the most popular Hyper Turbos is the $88 Sunday Million SNG. In this SNG the field is 6 strong with the top two places gaining entry to the Sunday Million and third place getting $87.68. Other Hyper Turbos include double, triple or even quadruple shootout elements. In other words for a triple shootout you would need to win three, 9 strong tables to win the event overall. Essentially the equivalent to winning 3 consecutive Sit N Go’s, but with the field getting better at the later tables (theoretically).

Why Play Hyper Turbo Sit N Go’s?

There are pluses and minuses applicable to Hyper Turbos as there are with all types of poker games. Adapting to the special rigours associated with Hyper Turbos can be difficult for some (I’ll be going into Hyper Turbo strategy and providing tips in the next section), but many people enjoy playing in Hyper Turbo SNG’s for the following reasons.

1. If you are short on time, playing in Hyper Turbos maybe your best option as they rarely last long, even the events with largish fields.

2. They provide a quick and low cost way to qualify for a large tournament with a steep buy in level.

3. They can be excellent ways to build a bankroll. Take for example the $88 Sunday Million Hyper Turbo. You would need to place in the top 2 from 6 players to get an entry to a $215 buy in tournament. Even if you finish third you virtually get your money back. Many people play this particular Hyper Turbo not to qualify for the Sunday Million but to place in the top 2 and ship the equivalent $215 buy in to tournament dollars which can be used to build a bankroll for other tourneys, or sell the tournament dollars to other players.

Hyper Turbo Sit N Go Strategy

Hyper Turbos are an extreme form of standard SNG Turbos in that there are a reduced number of chips to start with, the blinds increase quicker and antes are introduced straightaway, so in some respects if you have a solid Turbo game, you can alter it slightly to take into account the “Hyper” element. However, if this is new to you then you will need to carefully consider strategy because playing Hyper Turbos is very different to any other form of poker. By taking into account the following points you should be prepared to be unleashed into the world of the Hyper Turbo.

- If you aren’t familiar with ICM, read up on it before you attempt to play in Hyper Turbos, this is also the case to an extent with playing standard Turbos also. ICM will help with determining dollar based equity decisions. You simply don’t have the time to make fancy plays or bluffs, so you need to be fully aware about how ICM can be applied to your play. SNG Wizard is a good tool which will help http://www.sngwiz.com/tiki/tiki-index.php

- Due to the lack of time you will have when playing in Hyper Turbos you will need to adopt a push or fold type of game. You simply do not have the time to wait for killer hands so you will need to work on ranges of hands that are acceptable to go all in with. There is little point in calling bets in this format – it is either all or nothing for the most part.

- The blinds increase incredibly quickly so you need to be constantly aware of the current blinds level and when its due to increase as this will help to determine your plays.

- Given the low amount of starting chips and the quickly increasing blinds you will find that some players will try to steal blinds. Be aware that if you are the BB and have strong hole cards and all but the player to your right have folded then they might be trying to make a steal. If you have strong hole cards don’t be afraid in going over the top of them or raising them all in.

- Any mid to high pairs should be immediate all in bets, along with ace and middle to high kicker.

- If you are playing in a MTT Hyper Turbo SNG you might want to try to slow down the play. This isn’t a tactic that will go down well with some of the other players but it might make the difference between you cashing a ticket or not if the other tables have to see more hands than your table.

- Bear in mind the hand ranges that you are prepared to play and when they arrive, play them hard. Don’t be tempted into playing lesser hands just for the sake of action; you must play a disciplined game to be successful in Hyper Turbos.

- Most importantly, unless there is only one prize on offer (which is rare) it is not your aim to win the tournament. It is simply the aim to get the tournament ticket that is on offer so if the top 6 get tickets it doesn’t matter if you are 1st or 6th. For that reason you need to be aware of the bubble and don’t fall foul at the final hurdle. If you are approaching the bubble you need to carefully consider your chip position relative to the other players and use your discretion and knowledge of ICM to aid you. There is no point in a heroic all in even with a very strong hand that could take you into the chip lead by winning it if loosing it would mean that it would put your tournament at stake.

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Sit N Go (or Sit and Go, or SNG) is essentially a small scale (usually) single table poker tournament which will start when a pre-determined number of players have joined the table. Standard Sit N Go’s can feature as few as 2 player’s heads up straightaway or up to 10 people playing.

All players will start with the same number of chips. Often 1,000 – 2,000 each and the game will progress until one player has accumulated all the chips on the table. Depending on the number of players starting the game, a percentage of the buy-in (the fee it costs to play the game) will be awarded to the winner and sometimes second and third place finishers. If the Sit N Go tourney is a heads up game between two players only then the winner will take the spoils, but if there are 10 players the payout will usually be shared between the first second and third placed players. A common split is 50/30/20 if three placed are paid out upon. If two places are paid, a common split is 75/25. (more…)