The 2+2 Forum Archives: Favorite Threads and Links for STT FAQ v.3 (long)

While this is my first post, I’ve been lurking for a while. I haven’t read every thread, but I’ve looked at lots of them. I’m impressed with the quality of the posts and the level of debate. IMHO, this forum is the best source of information out there about SNGs.

As my way of paying back, I’d like to share what I thought were some of the most useful threads for newbies to read and for veterans to refer back to. I started with t perkin’s FAQ, added my own favorites, and checked suggestions by morgan180 and others. I had already started this list when curtains offered to update the FAQ. Since he and others are working on the 2005 edition of the FAQ, I hope this list can assist. Please add any of your own favorite threads and links.

Before I get to the threads, I first want to thank t perkin for his work in putting together versions 1 and 2 of the FAQ.

Second, at the risk of leaving out lots of great posters, thanks to AleoMagus, allencoix, Bozeman, curtains, dali, dethgrind, eastbay, frozen, gigabet, irie, Jason Strasser, lori, PrayingMantis, yugo, ZeeJustin, among many others, for sharing their knowledge of the game.

Third, thanks to 2+2 for hosting these forums, as well as Chuck for moderating this one. BTW, to keep things cool with 2+2, I’m sure that David, Malcolm, Mat, Chuck and the rest of the 2+2 crew don’t endorse any of the advice, recommendations, products, or services in any of the threads or links below.

I’ve organized the threads as follows:

1. STRATEGY
2. TACTICS
3. HANDS
4. THEORY
5. THE METAGAME
6. OTHER FORUMS
7. LINKS

1. STRATEGY

AleoMagus’s original world-famous guide to beat PP’s $10+1 is How to win at $10+1 NLHE Partypoker sngs (long).

benfranklin’s “new and improved” condensed version is Beating the Party 10+1, Part 2.

Also check out:

Is my basic SNG strategy alright? (this is pretty long, sorry)

CrisBrown and others, what is your SNG strategy (newbie)?

The Way

my sit and go poker system... discusses Chris Moneymaker’s Sit & Go Strategy.

While it deals more with multi-table tournaments, Darse's No-Limit Hold'em Tournament Primer is also worth looking at.

2. TACTICS

2.1. PUT YOUR OPPONENT ON A HAND

Gibabet’s Almost there with Success and Failure (Long)

2.2. COMPLETING THE BB

blinds 10/15 - complete with anything?

2.3. RAISES

Daliman’s 3x BB + 2x limpers formula for raises

2.4. MINRAISE

Let's kick this one around a little: the much-maligned minraise...

the "min" raise - please teach the newbie

The case with mini-betting (long!)

2.5. PUSHING

optimizing calling all-in in a heads-up, all-in or fold poker model

The "If Betting Is 35% Of Your Stack, Go All In" Theory

Folding Equity

Interesting formula (Shove EV)

10xx BB Rule

Rebuttal to the magic 2/1 rule. (Long)

2.6. STOP AND GO

Fossilman coined the stop and go in the MTT forum.

When to use stop and go?

My first conscious use of the stop and go

2.7. BUBBLE

A bad way to play on the bubble

The old coin-flip debate

Fundamental SnG bubble theory question

On the Bubble - interesting puzzle

2.8. IN THE MONEY

curtain’s argument with PokerDali

pot odds and such

2.9. STEALING BLINDS

OK, let's talk about wmajik's article discusses MJ’s Theorem of Blind Stealing.

Re-steal

2.10. HEADS UP

Simulated heads-up endgame in all-in or fold mode

Heads up evaluation

HU Strategy

Heads up in SnGs, Can you do anything?

Nash Equilibrium Heads Up???

Single Table SNG down to heads up

2.11. MISTAKES

“The greatest weakness of all is the great fear of appearing weak”

Your opponents never make mistakes (long)

3. HANDS

3.1. A HAND IS MORE THAN JUST TWO CARDS

Read What is a hand? before posting hand history threads.

3.2. PREFLOP HANDS

AA early on

AA with callers - good flop, now what?

Calling an all in with AK

Standard play with AQ?

folding KK preflop (don’t do it)

KQs All In call

QQ with a lot of limpers

Comments please - QJs

JJ preflop : The Final Discussion (for the FAQ)

Some thoughts about survival, drawing hands and small pairs

Calling a raise with suited connectors

3.3. POSTFLOP

Flush Draw w/ Axs

3.4. QUIZZES

Bob Ciaffone One Table Quiz (4-handed KQo)

SnG Bubble Quiz

Quiz time! (10 common SNG scenarios)

Hand Quiz (5-handed push hands)

4. THEORY

4.1. INDEPENDENT CHIP MODELING (“ICM”)

Start with dethgrind’s how to solve certain problems with the ICM (an algorithm).

dethgrind has posted eastbay’s The ICM calculator.

Even before eastbay and dethgrind, the poster who pushed the development of ICM is Bozeman. Some of his best posts on ICM are:

Tournament Finish Probability (long)

Test your intuition (three handed SNG play)

Four Way Tournament finish probability

Also look at allencoix’s Tournament finish probability for five players left in SNG post in the Poker Theory forum.

While it’s a commercial product and hasn’t even been released yet, eastbay's Sit n Go Power Tools uses ICM, opponent calling standards, and hand rankings to analyze whether it’s better to push or fold.

For the other side of the debate, check out curtain’s ICM is often flawed.

4.2. HAND RANKINGS

The Sklansky-Karlson All In No Limit Holdem Rankings

Sklansky-Karlson hand rankings

ranking hands against "push hands" preflop

self-balanced hand rankings

A question on Sklansky's hand rankings, and two handed odds

SNG all-in hand groupings

As far as links go, Jazbo’s Heads Up Hold’em Percentages, originally posted to RGP in ’95, ranks hands against random hands.

Poker Forum’s Heads Up Against Two Random Cards Winning Percentage also ranks hands against random hands. The numbers look the same as Jazbo’s, but breaks the rankings out by pairs, suited and unsuited hands. (While 2+2 may not be thrilled with a link to a competitor’s website, it’s got nothing to fear from this or any other site.)

allencoix’s 1 on 1 poker matchups ranks hands against the top 5%, 10%, 15%, 25%, 40%, 67% and all hands.

eastbay’s Hand Rankings vs. Specified Sets of Opponent's Hands ranks hands against (A) random hands, (B) any ace and any pair, and (C) any pair, any ace except A6o-A2o, KQs, KJs, KTs, and QJs.

4.3. IMPLIED ODDS

Pot Odds Vs. Implied Odds in NL

4.4. SURVIVAL v. EV

Positive EV vs. survival in Tourneys

4.5. WINNER-TAKE-ALL TOURNIES

Winner-take-all theory

5. THE METAGAME

5.1. BANKROLL

That incredibly silly subject...

5.2. ROI and ITM%

Bozeman’s Results for 435 $109 SnG's

Irieguy’s Finding rhythm in the madness (a theory)

5.3. STANDARD DEVIATION

Irieguy’s Why the standard deviation for SNGs is always about 1.5-2.0

5.4. MOVING UP

SNGs: Moving Up

Party $10+1 vs. $30+3 -- Opinions?

5.5. PARTY v. STARS v. OTHER SITES

best site for sng's

5.6. NOTES

Check out bisonbison’s Some notes on notes in Micro Limits.

Lori’s advice is easier and, IMHO, better – “only note good players, and if you see 2-3 notes before you sit, just play the next one.”

6. OTHER FORUMS

While STT was one of the first and is still one of the few forums that’s built a FAQ, some other forums have FAQs or threads that serve as one.

The best example is Lori’s FAQ for the Internet Gambling forum, a/k/a the zoo.

In Micro Limits, bisonbison posted A FAQ for people new to hold 'em, online poker and 2+2 and btspider followed up with [http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=1659321&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&vc=1]Microlimit Guidelines/FAQ v1.0[/url].

In Small Stakes Pot-, No-Limit Hold'em, BobboFitos posted SSNL FAQ, V 1.0.

In Texas Hold’em, check out illunios’s Favorite threads on 2+2 and Favorite 2+2 threads part 2.

In Heads Up and Short Handed, look at Guido’s To all the new 6-max players.

In Brick and Mortar, check out Virgin seeks FAQ....

Everyone in Multi-Table Tournaments is waiting for 2+2 to publish Fossilman’s book they don’t have to write a FAQ, but, in the meantime, look at:

MTT Early Level Strategies

eMarkM’s post in my problem in tournaments

Che’s hand against MLG

Tournament Strategy Summarized...

7. LINKS

7.1. POKER ODDS

Hold’em Odds

Texas Holdem Pre Flop Odds

7.2. CALCULATORS

Combinations calculator to calculate C(n,r) given n and r

Poker Stove is a freeware poker odds calculator to calculate show down odds against ranges of hands.

Poker Calculator is a freeware program to calculate show down odds against certain, random, or a range of hands.

Two dimes is an online Poker Odds Calculator.

7.3. SIMULATORS

Poker Academy Pro is a well-written commercial program written by the brains at the University of Alberta’s GAMES group. You can play SNGs against a variety of bots.

7.4. RECORD-KEEPING

New Penultimate 2005 SNG Spreadsheet discusses AleoMagus’s SNG spreadsheet.

Poker Tracker is a commercial program that stores your hand histories and generates statistics and reports based on them for you and your opponents. It’s useful for analyzing ring games, but less so for SnGs.

7.5. REPLAYERS

Party Poker Hand Replayer

MJ displays his own Party Poker Hand Histories, as well as those of some top players, including Dali, Strassa, and Frozen Fish.

7.6. CONVERTER

slavic's not ready for prime time Party Poker hand converter

7.7. GLOSSARIES

2+2’s Abbreviation Lists

A Glossary of Poker Terms

Poker Terms & Abbreviations for Advanced Players

7.8. MISC.

Finally, for a laugh, check out the primate poker and saabpo websites.

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