Summer Sitngo Season

        When the weather's fine,
         we go fishing or go swimming in the sea.
         We're always happy
         Long's we're living in this sound philosophy.    Mungo Jerry

  After a shaky start, the summer is well and truly here. Enormous black clouds hung over Auckland for days on end over Christmas, then it cleared up but was windy for about a week. But the good weather came with the new year, and I spent quite a lot of time out and about over the holidays. Nevertheless, between bouts of lying in the sand I've managed to play in quite a few online Sitngos. This is at least partly because of the convenience of Sitngos, with a typical game lasting no more than an hour.
   As mentioned in previous posts, my results in Sitngos were less than impressive in the  last few months of 2012. So I decided to look for a new improved strategy for the new season. My playing strategy at the time was based on dividing the tournament into three stages. The first stage, when there are 7 to 9 players on the table, is my conservative stage. I have a pretty tight list of starting hands and tend to fold a lot more than other players. I play basic poker; raising my big starting hands and limping in with drawing hands from late position.
   In the second stage, when there are 4 to 6 players, I get more active. I base my play partly on my cards, but mostly on my position and the relative size of my chip stack. The basic idea is to pick on the short stacks and to avoid playing against the big stack unless I have a monster hand. Position also becomes much more important and I am far more inclined to bet at a pot with nothing if I am last to act and no-one else is betting. I also follow the basic principal that if I drop down to ten big blinds or less then I simply fold and fold until I hit a decent hand and then push all-in.
   If I make the third stage then I'm in the money, and ready to change gears again. My end-game is pretty basic and often successful. It basically boils down to just checking in the big blind, regardless of the hand, and hoping to see the flop. On the button I will usually raise, regardless of the strength of my hand, in the hopes of stealing the blinds. Sometimes I'll fold rags, just to mix it up. The only time that I'll call on the button or the small blind is if I have a monster, hoping to trap my opponent with the second-best hand. This 3rd stage strategy has worked pretty well for me. The problem has been with the earlier stages.
   Around the start of December I read something online about Sitngo strategies. The author advocated a super-tight starting scheme. He said he wouldn't play anything less than AQ in the earlier stages of a Sitngo. I briefly toyed with the idea of adopting this strategy but it just seemed too extreme. So I came up with a modified plan. I put a lot more emphasis on the power of position in the earlier stages. I tightened up my early position starting hands almost to the point of AQ or better. I also tightened up my mid position starting hands somewhat, and abandoned the habit of big pre-flop raises with these hands. However, I loosened up the hands I was willing to limp in with from late position, especially from the button. As for the second and third stages, I continued to play them the same way as before.
   Although this appears to be just tinkering with my starting hands, it had a significant effect on my results. I actually started winning more than I was losing. By the end of the summer holidays I'd played enough games to conclude that this was no flash in the pan. Although the winnings were not huge, I was definitely in the black for summer season Sitngos. So I started thinking about what I could do to improve things further. Eventually I came up with Plan C.
   Plan C is a lot harder to explain than my previous strategies. It's much more.... fluid. It goes something like this:
   In stage one I play conservatively. I'll still raise with big hands pre-flop, but not by too much. I just accept that I'm probably going to get multiple callers and see what comes on the flop.  The only exceptions to this are AA and KK, both of which I'll push hard with pre-flop. Any other playable hands will be played carefully. I try to play small pots from late position. I hardly ever bluff at a pot and am always ready to fold if it looks like someone has drawn out on me. Basically, I'm biding my time, picking up chips here and there and waiting for the maniacs to knock each other out.
   I play the second stage similarly to the way I played before, but it's more about stack management. I'm always watching the size of my stack compared to those of other players and the objective is to survive through to the next stage. It's all about preserving a big stack and trying to pick up enough chips to stay in the game if I'm short-stacked. I also have less tolerance for being short-stacked. If I'm down to 12 big blinds I'll start looking for the all-in hand.
   Playing this way has helped me to make it through to the third stage more often. From there, I play the way I always do. Even if I'm the shortest stack of the three remaining players, I can often crawl my way into second or first place. At the very least, I'm in the money.
   This new strategy has worked well for me so far. Although it's early days yet, I feel confident that I'm on the right track. My results have significantly improved and my bankroll is well above the break-even point. Maybe it's just a winning streak, but I don't think so. I feel like I'm finally getting a handle on the correct way to play online Sitngos. I still have a month of the summer season to go. By the end of this month I should have a better idea of my progress, but for now the outlook is sunny.