Using Sit-And-Go Tournaments as a training tool to improve MTT skills

[mayesie]

Hi All,
I've been thinking about some things I can do to improve my MTT play. As everyone knows, different games place value on different types of skills.

For example:

- Shorthanded games (6-max and Heads-Up) tend to emphasize aggression & hand-reading

- Deep-Stacked games tend to emphasize post-flop play, position, and pot-control

- Sit-and-Go's tend to emphasize aspects of bubble-play (Fold-Equity, calculating calling-ranges, Chip Equity, prize pools)


I'm merely stating some examples, as this isn't intended to be all-inclusive.

To me, it seems obvious that increased proficiency in Shorthanded & Deepstacked games will help to improve MTT performance. However, I can't say for certain that added proficency in Sit-and-Go tournaments would help. Although there are also many elements to bubble play in an MTT, they differ significantly from a Sit-and-Go.

I'd like feedback, as to whether or not you believe that participating in Sit-and-Go's can help to improve MTT performance? Perhaps, at the very least, it can get you in the right frame of mind, with regard to thinking about bubble-play and the end-game (though the strategies differ).

Thanks in advance!

[seke2]

Yes, I think STTs help, mostly as it relates to short-handed play (since you're usually half-ring or less for most of the time in a STT), FT play (which matters a lot because that's where you make the money), and bubble play in terms of cEV vs. $EV implications (since that comes up a lot more in STTs than in MTTs).

[BigPoppa]

[ QUOTE ]
Yes, I think STTs help, mostly as it relates to short-handed play (since you're usually half-ring or less for most of the time in a STT), FT play (which matters a lot because that's where you make the money), and bubble play in terms of cEV vs. $EV implications (since that comes up a lot more in STTs than in MTTs).

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't let STT bubble thinking drift into your MTT play, though.

The value in STTs is just in making the money, while the value in MTTs is going deep into the money.

[LearnedfromTV]

i'll be captain obvious and say that since i started playing a lot of sit and goes, i've had a better sense of stack size considerations in mtt lategame, especially final tables and on the final table bubble, which is analogous to an stt bubble. The key thing is that there are analogous situations but not identical situations, mainly because of the payout structure differences. Recognizing what translates and what doesn't is really crucial.

Also, for anyone who doesn't play shorthanded cash, stt's are basically your only chance to play shorthanded (other than final tables with lots of $ on the line, for which you'd like to be prepared), and get an idea of hand strengths 2-3-4-5-6 handed, so they are helpful for that too.

i may come back to this and write a longer post..

[BigBuffet]

They are good for final table practice, as well as developing the ability to quickly read a previously unknown opponent.

[durkahdurkah]

I've always disagreed that SNG experience is good for FT experience, the two are so unbelievably different, regardless of the "one table left" thing.

They are really good for improving shorthanded play and pushbotting though.