Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Mike Glasser

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Inissint raises to 60 from middle position with the A 4. Villain No. 1 calls from the cutoff. Villain No. 2 calls from the big blind.



Craig Tapscott: From everything I know about SNGs [sit-and-gos], you're not supposed to get involved early with ace-rag. I doubt that Eric "sheets" Haber taught you this.



Mike "inissint" Glasser: Ha-ha; yeah, I'm pretty sure this is not a hand Eric would open with here. And it is only the second hand of the SNG, so I definitely could have folded this from middle position. But, as robotic as SNGs tend to become, I like to mix in raises occasionally with marginal hands, for a number of reasons.



CT: Are you one of those players who say, "It was suited," when your A-4 beats A-K?



MG: [Laughing] I believe the correct pronunciation is "sooooooooooooted." But really, there are valid reasons to occasionally raise with this type of hand early. First of all, by doing this, people cannot automatically narrow your range. This is because a lot of regulars, especially when multitabling, raise only huge hands early; so, it becomes very easy to play against them. I feel like they lose a lot of value, because everyone knows they are raising only huge hands. Additionally, against anyone who is not paying attention to me raising with weaker hands, I can pick up chips pretty easily, because people like to wait until the later stages to get involved. And while the later (push-or-fold) stages of SNGs are clearly the most important, it can help you afford to lose a race later by playing well and picking up chips early without much resistance.



CT: Sounds good … so far.



MG: Neither of the two callers had played with me before. I would guess that their calling ranges this early would be something like any pair, some decent suited aces, decent suited connectors, and Broadway cards.



FLOP: 10 5 4 (pot: 190)



MG: The flop actually looks decent for my hand, as I have a pair on a pretty ragged board with no flush draws.



Villain No. 2 bets out 100.



CT: See, I was right about ace-rag. Ready to fold now?



MG: Against a regular who I knew played only huge hands, I would fold without much hesitation here. Given that I had not played with this player before, I was not ready to give up the pot just yet. At this point, I am thinking he probably has a decent 10 (A-10, K-10, Q-10, J-10, 10-9), or a low or medium pocket pair. So, I …



Inissint calls. Villain No. 1 folds.



MG: So, I call, thinking I can take the pot away on the turn or river against many of these hands.



Turn: Q (pot: 390)



Villain No. 2 bets 140.



MG: I was pretty surprised when the big blind led out again, but the amount of the bet convinced me that I could win the pot (on either the turn or river) often enough to make semibluffing clearly profitable. The bet of 140 into a pot of 390 seemed very weak, and maybe was a last-ditch effort to tell me that he had a 10 and hope it was good enough. The turn seemed like one of the best cards in the deck for me. Unless he had Q-10, it likely did not improve his hand, and suddenly, a low or medium pocket pair, or even an average 10, would not look very strong when facing a raise. Furthermore, it clearly helped my hand, as I now had the nut-flush draw.



Inissint raises to 400.



MG: I raised, intending to represent a slow-played overpair on a non-scary flop, or a slow-played set, or even A-10. The amount of my raise was important, in that I wanted to raise enough that a mediocre hand would consider folding right there, but I also wanted to leave enough to potentially shove a significant bet on the river.



Villain No. 2 calls.



CT: It's a trap; run away, run away.



MG: Hmm, maybe you're right. Again, I was a little surprised when he called, but he took a long time to do it.



River: 5 (pot: 1,190)



CT: Give up?



MG: No chance, sir. The river also seemed like a great card, as it almost certainly did not improve his hand at all.



Villain No. 2 checks.



CT: Hmm, perhaps you're right.



MG: Well, when he checked, I felt like he definitely did not love his hand. Given the line I took, I thought it would be pretty difficult to call a huge (almost pot-sized) bet on the river. And before basically shoving, I employed a funny and effective reverse tell. I asked him in the chatbox, "How much will you call, sir?" In my experience, that chat is often interpreted as major strength by people I have not played with before.



Inissint bets 939. Villain No. 2 folds. Inissint takes the pot of 1,190.



CT: My apologies. Nice hand. I still think sheets would say fold preflop. Bax, I'm not so sure.



MG: Ha-ha; thanks. I already agreed about sheets … and Bax is even tighter than sheets! But I think this hand shows that even in something as straightforward as SNGs, you can profitably mix things up, given the right circumstances.



CT: What are the three main keys to winning sit-and-go strategy?



MG: Well, I started my first video for PokerXFactor by describing my three SNG success principles. They seem so simple, but very few people actually adhere to them regularly (including me in the hand we just discussed). The only reason I did not discuss an obvious fourth principle, learning bubble (push-or-fold) strategy as well as you can, is because I see so many huge mistakes at early levels that I wanted to emphasize the importance of embracing the boredom of SNGs.



The first is patience, meaning that most people play way too many hands early, and end up losing tons of chips that they do not need to lose.



The second is discipline, which is related to patience. Our hand example notwithstanding, SNGs are not MTTs [multitable tournaments]. They are entirely different beasts. Unless you feel very comfortable folding top pairs on flops, it is important to fold (preflop) pretty hands like 10-9 suited early in SNGs. These types of hands generally tend to get people in trouble, not help them. Also, it is important to have the discipline to fold fairly big hands preflop early in SNGs if the action warrants it. I see people go broke so often with hands like 10-10 through Q-Q at the 10-20 level when it is clear they're racing, at best.



The third principle is necessity; if you are unsure about making a particular play, or about playing a particular hand, and you ask yourself something like, "Is this move necessary here to increase my chances of success in this SNG?" and then you act accordingly, you will avoid many unnecessary mistakes.



And again, just to clarify, while our hand example tends to violate all three of these principles, I occasionally mix in some nonstandard plays, because I often play with many of the same players.



Mike Glasser started playing SNGs almost exclusively at first, and through his frequent chatter at the tables, he met Eric "sheets" Haber. The two became good friends, and sheets mentored Mike about all aspects of the game. Mike quickly became one of the most respected high-stakes SNG players, and has completed several training videos for PokerXFactor. Over the past year, he made three final tables, including his first at the World Series of Poker and two in WPT preliminary events, at Bellagio and Foxwoods. He has a very supportive wife, who forgave him for leaving a career as an attorney to play professional poker.