Colortag the bastards!

Colornotes!

I hope that you are all aware of the feature that PokerStars got and hopefully every other site out there, that you can take notes! In Stars you can change the notes colors and that is very useable.

Darkblue: Tricky
Lightblue: Fish
Purple: Very good Reg
Green: weak reg
Yellow: New player, got no stats on him.
Orange: average reg
Red: Good reg

Use notes you don´t have to write in every note just colortag them so you notice them when they are on the table. You could also instead of having "Tricky" and ""Very good reg" colornote people after the % they are pushing. Let say that you know that a certain opponent is pushing 30% then you use the color you prefer.

We can also combine the colornotes in Stars with Holdemmanagers note system. So we get two notes on every player the more info the better. Where the Stars notes tell approximately on what level they are on, and then Holdemmanager notes tell you something about their tendencies. Like you use the green note in holdemmanager and it means that they prefer to checkraise all in on the flop or whatever you want. Like if they are TAG or Loose or if they dont care much about the bubble, they are spewmonkeys, limps AA, tricky postflop, tricky preflop, blinddefender, steals alot, weak, bully.

There is alot you can do, and when combining Stars colornotes with Holdemmanagers notes and also Holdemmanagers stats we then get a lot of information to use.

Customlayout

I don´t know if you have made a tablelayout before, if you haven´t then its ok. I however prefer that my table are neatly stacked on top of each other in my left upper corner. If you create a tablelayout and saves it the tables dont pop up on random place and makes you lose time by pulling it to the right place. The tables pops up on one spot all the time and it is very good when playing a ton of tables.

Bankrollmanagement

You got to have bankrollmanagament because when the variance hit you and be sure it will hit you sometime, then its nice to have extra dollars on your account. So how many buyins do we need? It depends on a lot of things like what kind of sng are we playing, cause in a hyperturbo sng the swings are more brutal cause luckfactor here is bigger, also the payouts affect this. Also one thing to take in account is how many tables you play at once, do you play 20 tables then of course you will need more buyins then when playing 4 tables.

Prepare yourself that somedays we will lose, eventough we are much better then our opponents. Sometimes it can be a few buyins but you can also lose up to 20 buyins even 40 when playing a lot of tables.
That is why we use bankrollmanagament when the variance comes creeping we have a soft cushion of more buyins as protection.

I recommend using at least 40 buyins but if you are planning to play around 30-40 tables at the same time then 100 buyins is what I recommend.

Some players us a buyin limit on how much you are allowed to lose on one day and then stops playing for the day. Perhaps that is good if you got no tiltcontrol and can cool down and start another day refreshed. But when playing sngs I think its better you set a fixed number of sngs to play a day or how long you are going to play. Because eventough you use a stoploss of x numbers of buyins, what is saying that the downswing will stop and not continue to the next day? That is why I recommend playing through the badswings and try to be positive and not tilt. So to beat the variance the only cure is volume play as many sngs you can.

If you loose a lot of buyins step down in level and swallow your pride. Build up the roll again at lower stakes and then get back. This goes both ways you got a lot dollars in your account then go up in level.

If you got 100 buyins as bankroll and you are not planning on going up in level, then I suggest you cashout everything above 100 buyins once a month or what suits you. But if you are planning to advance in level then of course you cant withdraw everything above 100 buyins, you have to figure out depending on your roll and when you want to go up in level, so that you can build your bankroll to be able to handle the new level.

SNG Strategy

Here are a couple of simple strategy reminders to follow. Some can perhaps look contradicting so write if there is something you don´t understand or that I should mention.
I´ll post more on a later time but I am short on time cause I am in Tallinn trying to win a EPT...one time!

* In every hand a preflop decision is made, learning and understanding this part is very important because almost everything is decided preflop in sngs.
* Learn this and you will be ahead of most of your oppnents.
* When the blindlevels are low we raise 3xbb but once they have increased to let say 25-50 we rasie 2xbb - 2.5xbb.
* When the big blind hits 100 you can start to minraise but expect a lot of calls and more postflop play.
* Using the holdemmanager and the hud will quickly collect hands and get knowledge of our opponents.
* Steal as much as we get away with but dont just steal with junk if the guy of course isn´t autofolding, steal with hands that got some value.
* If the bb calls alot dont minraise, just raise good hands if you arent comfortable playing postflop.
* Many people get scared and slows down on the turn
* Many use potcontrol and checks to much on the turn.
* If someone has called your cbet on the flop and you got something of value bet again.
* If we get raised on the turn by a fish or a regular just fold beacuse they probably got the nuts.
* Very few people raise you light on the turn.
* Checkraised on the river just fold as its usually the nuts.
* Usually go with top pair god kicker on the flop, play for stacks. At least at these levels.
* If a oppnent on these levels go all in for 1500 when the blinds are 10-20 or 15-30 call with 99+ AJs+. If they just open push that is.
* A good samplesize of hands is 1000, when consulting the hud.
* Remember the variance dont get upset if you lose 20 sngs in a row, that is standard when playing a lot of tables.
* Try to play at least 10 sngs at a time as the tactics is simple.

Thought process from the bb is something like this:

Look at our stack? is it under 10 bb? yes no?

Look at our hand is it good enough to push all in with? yes no?

Compare it to our oppnents pfr position stat is he stealing a lot? yes no?

Is he folding enough to a 3bet all in ? yes no?

Can I just call his raise? again look at his Steal % and decide.

Ask yourself these questions and you will know what to do!