Joined: Jun '10
Location: Belgium
Age: 51 (M)
Posts: 1457
What should a beginning poker player chose? cash table or SNG
And what type of SNG (1-table double-up or triple-up) or heads-up
I ve been calculating and it could be interesting to play heads-up , if you win 11 out of 20 games you make a break-even, if you do better you start to make profit)
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Germany
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 1242
Well, I started with Cash games on the lowest limits with a free bankroll of $50 I got from an other site. Some say that SNGs are easier to begin with, especially if you learn about push or fold strategy. Regarding heads-up, I am not very much experienced.
Personally I would say cash games. or HU. Again I don't play HU but I hear crazy stories from my friends about going 32-0 and 45-0 in a night. If you are a beginner I would probably stay away from HU until u get the basics, and some advanced concepts down.
What I do with my free $50 bankroll is I open pokerstars, poker770, party poker, 888poker, and lock poker all at once. Then i set up the cash game filter settings to help me table select. Table selecting is pretty key in increasing your hourly winrate. Then i basically just hunt the different sites for the fish.
also, play the bankroll mob freerolls. free chance at money that doesn't cost you anything. I play them all the time
I think SNG single table is way to start....you will learn many things in SNG that can be very useful when you play cash game later...HU is the most difficult i think because when your up against a good player you need lots of concentration and you cannot multi table in HU.....
you just gotta figure out whats works best for you, I started playing cash games 6 max, about half a year ago i completely abandoned them, now i only play sngs and turneys, I think medium stakes and up 6-max on stars is the toughest game in the world right now HU you have to know what you are doing if you do the biggest edge is in HU imo, and you can multitable HU, i've seen my buddy play 6 tables HU, same opponent tho Try em all and see what you like best. Cheers
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
It would be better to start both and see where you do your best game. Styles are different. Better avoid the double ups at first and try to finish in the money in normal sng's
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
If you are a beginner than the answer is pretty simple, choose the SNGs
You learn a lot more about poker and the variation is pretty good compared to mtt or cash on micro limits. At beginning my advice would be to stay away from heads up and concentrate on full ring!
Joined: Jun '10
Location: Belgium
Age: 51 (M)
Posts: 1457
I noticed that playing SNG double or nothing the floowing :
It s a matter of having patience and hope that the other players are playing to aggressive.
Just wait till you get a really monster hand to play and just fold all the rest. As long as you have more than 15 big blinds you can wait and look at the action of the others and hope they play each other out. It s a bit boring but works.. and it s easy to play on more tables at once as you fold most of the starting hands
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Germany
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 1242
You are absolutely right regarding the double or nothing SNGs. Patience is the key. It happens sometimes that you can fold your way into the money. But for sure this only works at the lowest limits.
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
sng's usually offer less stress for the beginner than cash games, just because you are not always betting cold cash- you get chips for your cash and try to do something useful with them, and even if you are down in chips you can end up winning cash, on the cash tables this is not the case, in the end whatever yanks your crank will do
Joined: Mar '12
Location: Netherlands
Age: 51 (M)
Posts: 617
i think constantly playing heads-up is very dangerous...mostly because i think it's a lotery whoever will win .
i have also played multitable heads-up ,,so on 3 tables at once and managed to win easely..
But i have also played 1 table at a time and kept losing ,,,so if u ask me HU is like bingo...
For example:you play loose and win easely today,, tommorow is a total different story..
:you play thight and wait for a high pair or lets say any pair,,,and your opponents has something even better then what u hold ...happened too many times too me...
example..: Hu blinds 40-80 and you are on the button...and you are chipleader,got him cornered ,just waiting for the one hand to give him the final blow...,,
you raise with Q-Q to 225chips and your opponent goes all-inn..
although you can have an idea about his range,,you simply cannot know if you are dominated or not..so most likely you will call.
then BAMM , he holds A-K or A-J and hits his A,,,you lose (typical online set-up)
or even worse,,which has happened also many times to myself...
you raise and your opponent thinks you try to steal another blind,,,and calls you with an absolute craphand or tries a resteel by going all-inn, with 3-9 ofsuit and he hits 2 pair...
this nonsense has happened to me soooo many times,,,
of course i also had flawless victories over my opponents,,dominating and putting pressure on them during the whole game,,and win it ,without them having a single chance to win from me...
then u get a confidence boost...but if u lose 12 in a row...you'll agree with me to better stay away from HU-play..
I do admitt ,now and then i still do play heads-up,but that's only when i am losing in my regular tournament and sng play..
then i play HU untill i lose one game and go back to what i'm good at ,,,SNG-multitable and MTT's
ive also learned to run after a win and not exept a rematch...just play someone else...
you will face different style of play in most cases,,but that's better then playing the same person over and over again...to my opinion.(bad experience, first win,then lose,lose,lose,lose,lose,lose then tilt..)
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
Posted by MIGO14: You are absolutely right regarding the double or nothing SNGs. Patience is the key. It happens sometimes that you can fold your way into the money. But for sure this only works at the lowest limits.
Agreed, but i think we can all approve that hu sng is not one of the best choices to learn poker at beginning... OP, in the end what have you decided to play, what were your results?
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
I actually started playing SnG's ($1.10 - 27 Player) and placed 3rd the very first time I played. There is one thing about playing I learned from the start and now I'm not near as diciplined as I used to be. I believe patience is a virtue. Let the donks and aggressive players go at until your blinds get up to 25/50 or a bit higher. I shouldn't be giving advice since I'm not a great player, but have won a lot SnG's from the $1.10 -18 player to the $5.50 - 45 player.
There is a really good post if you surf back through the forum here about SnG's by Islandjack. It helped me a lot, but so did a lot of the info from the Mobsters. Read everyone's thoughts and opinions and develop your own strategies. Good Luck!
Joined: Sep '12
Location: Romania
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 1052
I think you need to play SnG because you can win more cash than Cash Games... if you lose 50% of stack you return and win the sng... at cash if you lose 50% of money, you can lose easily the rest... at the Sng you have almost 50 blinds ... at the cash game you can enjoy with 99999 blinds or 20... i prefer Sng
HU you have to know what you are doing if you do the biggest edge is in HU imo, and you can multitable HU, i've seen my buddy play 6 tables HU, same opponent tho 
Try em all and see what you like best. Cheers
