Learning from the Pros

As part of my continuing evolution as a poker player, I am currently watching SNG (Sit and Go) videos prepared by online pros over at SNGicons. My cousin paid $90 to get a 3 month membership and I am piggybacking/sharing the account.

So how is it ? Did I suddenly become better and won tons of money playing SNGs by just watching these videos ?

Heheh ..... Ok here is my honest review of the videos. If you only have basic or beginner SNG knowledge like my cousin, then the videos would be very helpful in improving your game. They provide insight on the different strategies needed for beginning, middle and endgame SNG play. Depending on the pro who made the video, they will usually explain their thinking behind the moves and it gives extra dimension to reasons behind the normal check or call.

Some advance concepts like ICM shoves may shock the tight beginner player. But if you take time to understand ICM and download some ICM calculators, you will see that they are almost always 100% correct. Just bear in mind that ICM makes assumptions about opponent's ranges, and players in the low levels don't think logically. They will call when they should fold, so some adjustment is necessary as the video examples are normally high buy in SNGs where the opponents are also executing ICM strategy and will generally fold to a good push.

Even without ICM, studying the videos should give the beginner player a generally good idea of which hands are playable at what levels. You might be surprised to see them folding A8 suited at the first few levels without any thought whatsoever. But THAT is the correct play in SNGs.

Since I've been playing SNGs for close to 2 years, the benefit to me personally was less. A lot of the concepts they were explaining I already learned previously. I don't use ICM calculators, since they slow up my play. But I do have a general instinct of which cards to ICM push in the endgame and a review of my stats do show that I am generally correct. But the videos did show that I am still not executing perfect SNG strategy.

For example, I might still fold let's say 86 suited when I am in the small blind with 5 players left and the action is folded to me. For them, its an easy push. Things like taking advantage of the big stack and pushing with marginal hands against the mid stack guys are things that require some more analysis and experience on my part. But I was happy to note that my SNG play was more or less at par with what they were doing.

The main thing that might surprise the average poker player is that the pros rarely bluff in SNGs. Basically for the main reason that they don't need to. Sure, you'll see some weird hands during showdowns that look like stone cold bluffs. But upon further analysis and with their explanations, you will realize that they are actually not bluffs. They are either continuation bets, ICM shoves or calls they had to make because you were giving them the correct odds. We sometimes mistake these online pros for cocky and brash young people who just got lucky and I am also guily of this misconception. But after watching & listening to the videos, you will realize that a lot of math really goes into their every decision and the wins are not flukes.

I'll be watching some MTT videos next and hopefully I pick up some more things. The site is not known for the quality of their MTT videos but the guy who makes a lot of the MTT videos is Jonathan Little and he was the WPT player of the year last year, so it should be good. By the way, he's 23 years old. Heheh