Weekly SNG tip: becoming a grinder | pokerblog.com

I’ve heard the term “SNG Specialist” thrown around a lot in the online poker community, mostly from players that think that they’ve got the single-table format down cold simply because they sit down at a few tournaments a week. Well sorry to burst your bubble but the true SNG grinders are capable of knocking out dozens of games in a single session, especially if they’re multi-tabling and choosing “turbo” events. The truth is, if you want to be a real hardcore SNG threat, you’re going to need to be willing to put in the long hours.

Racking up experience

Unless you get knocked out early on, it’s safe to assume that most SNGs will last between 30 – 45 minutes depending on the pace of the action and whether or not it’s a turbo match or short-handed (six players or less) variation. Even if you only play two tournaments at a time, you’ll still be able to compete in over ten events in under five hours. By comparison, a single MTT (multi-table tourney) can last far longer than five hours, especially if you last until the later rounds. If you prefer turbo or short-handed SNGs, you can easily double the number of tournaments you can play in the same amount of time. Do that for five days in a row and you’re already looking at having played in 100+ sessions.

The financial strain

You need to take a hard look at your bankroll before you decide to flip the switch and become an aggressive SNG competitor. If each of those 100+ tournaments you played in the above scenario cost just $10+1, that’s over $1,000 in entry fees alone for the week, equalling $4,000 for the month and $48,000 for the year, more than the average American take-home salary. Just because you have the skill needed to play this often doesn’t mean you have the cash, but this is the commitment it takes to rise above the rest and evolve into a true SNG grinder.

Chris - Chris Laquinta is a magazine editor, content specialist and poker fanatic with 10+ years writing experience and over 1,500 published articles. Chris is a naitive of Southern California, where he spent his entire life learning gaming concepts and theories from relatives that had been former professional gamblers. He currently resides in Torrance, CA where he works as a professional content writer and part-time SNG professional.