Sit n Go Advanced Strategy: Improving SNG Heads Up Performance

Heads Up play is often a weak area for a lot of players. This is because you will play the other stages of a Sit and Go much more often than you will heads up, for some players it’s a very rare occurrence.

So it’s important to maximise the time you do get playing heads up and there are 3 steps that we will teach in this lesson to help improve your heads up performance.

The 3 Steps to Improving Heads Up Performance

Committed SNG players must make a serious effort to maximize their results in heads up play. First place is where all the money is, and the jump in prize money from second to first is usually significant, especially to your long term profits.

Here are the three steps we will discuss to improving your Heads Up Performance:

1. Tracking results
2. Studying play
3. Practising

Step 1: Tracking Results

Keeping a record of your historical performance in heads up play can be a useful way to identify patterns and areas for improvement. You should keep a note of the following:

• The opponent
• The stack sizes when heads up play began
• The results

Noting the opponent allows you to keep records on who you have defeated and who you have had difficulty against.

If you find an opponent you can’t seem to beat, change your style against them. If they counter your aggression with all in re-raises, beat them to the punch. Raise them all in first. Try mixing in some check raises out of position, or simply checking behind a little more often when they check to you.

Recording the stack sizes when heads up play began is important. If you are a 10-1 chip underdog and lose, it’s essential to understand that while the odds were against you, this doesn’t necessarily reflect poorly on your play. Focus on evaluating your decisions and strategy rather than outcomes.

Use ranges like those shown in the chart below as a guideline, but remember that poker is a game of adaptation. Always consider your opponent’s tendencies, your position, and other factors when deciding how to act:

Expected wins is the probability that you will win giving the % of the total chips you held at the start of heads up play.

Target wins are a goal that you should set yourself and is over and above the expected win %, since this helps overcome the rake (fee you pay to the poker site each time you play a SNG which is a real cost to your bankroll that you need to cover).

Actual Wins is where you record how you are performing which each against each of the targets. If any of your numbers in this chart are below the target, review your play in those situations to identify potential areas for improvement and adjust your approach with a focus on continual growth.

Don’t adjust your results tracking for bad beats. Bad beats go both ways, and while they can be frustrating, it’s important to focus on long-term strategy rather than getting caught up in individual outcomes.

Studying Play

There are two ways to accomplish this:

1. To study your own hand histories (in a replayer if you have access to one) for possible leaks in your play.
2. To obtain a calculator like Poker Tracker to plug hand ranges into, to see how various hands do against expected calling ranges. It can be helpful to know that if you think your opponent is playing the top 25% of hands for a raise, you can call with J-9 suited if you are getting better than 1.6-1 odds.

Practice

Since heads up play is not always easy to get playing single table tournaments, you can practice it in heads up sit and go tournaments. Drop way down below your normal limit, and play some of these.

There will be a slight adjustment, as the blinds in these will be much smaller than what you see at the end of an STT, but if you can make the mental adjustment for that, you can learn a lot.

An even better method is to get a friend to play you heads up, and agree before the start that you will not play any hand for more than 10 big blinds to simulate late STT situations.

Two-player no-limit Holdem cash games can be used as well, but it’s important to only buy in for amounts that are within your bankroll, even when playing for practice. Responsible bankroll management should always be prioritized, regardless of the purpose of the game.