Heads Up SnG Strategy

[KidPhil]

Couldn't find too much on heads-up SnGs (are they called SnGs too? Are they STTs too?) so starting a thread up... Anyway I've been playing a lot of 9-mans at FTP, but just discovered the joys of Heads Up play. Based on this, maybe some of you can answer these questions:

1 - SnG v. Ring Game: I noticed there are 2 man tables in the ring game and I'm wondering what the general opnion is on profitability. I play low limits (either 10/20$ SnG or 100NL Ring) so rake seems fairly big in the Ring. Id play for 20 minutes and notice 5-6$ out of the total pot.

2 - 2-man SnG swings: How big are the swings? I figured you'd have less swings than a full tables tourney or MTT or even Cash Games, but I do seem to win like 6-7-8 in a row, then lose 6 out of 8, etc...

3 - How many games do you need to play to determine profitability? Id use sharkscope (heh) to check this out

4 - Are there any threads on this topic/general strategy on 2p2? Sorry I couldn't find anything based on a quick search...

[jay_shark]

1) For regular sng's , you can probably get about 4 per hour and maybe 5 . The average duration is about 12-15 minutes .
So a $20 sng player is capable of winning about $16-$20 . If we make this direct comparison , you'll probably earn slightly more in the sng's but the decision is close and may depend on the size of the rake or your rakeback if any .

2) Your standard deviation for sng's will be close to 1 buy-in/game or about 1 buy-in/50 hands . This is equivalent to 0.707 buy-ins/100 hands . Your standard deviation for most cash games should be close to 1 buy-in/100 hands or 100bb/100hands. This means that you'll experience more variance "per buy-in" in a cash game .

3)As always , you need many games to determine with confidence that you're a profitable player . If you've won 60% of your games after 200 games , then chances are your win rate is above 52.5% .

4) Go to the heads up forum and read the FAQ for more related questions .

Look under "Other Poker" and you'll find the heads up forum .

[MikeBandy]

[ QUOTE ]
(are they called SnGs too? Are they STTs too?)

[/ QUOTE ]
SNG and STT are often used synonymously. They are both tournaments which begin after all the seats are filled. However, a SNG may be comprised of one, two, or three tables.

[JSmith2007]

Heads up SNGs are commonly abbreviated and referred to as 'HUSNG'. They are technically both SNGs and STTs, but to differenciate (sp?) them they're called HUSNGs.

[KidPhil]

Thanks... I honestly didn't know about the Heads Up forum in Other Poker until you mentioned it!

So I've started playing HUSNG now and I like it. One thing I noticed recently while playing the FTP 22$ one is that there are people kibitzing the table. Now its not the controversial kind like AP or anything, but I get comments when something crazy happens (like a bad beat or bad play, etc). That just makes me wonder what these guys are up to? I'd expect fanboys to watch the high limit games, so are these people scouting opponents or something?

Just wondering, since HU is a lot more about playing the opponent rather than playing your cards, does anyone know of this phenomenon?