Super turbo tournaments are the new action packed game that is taking Full Tilt Poker and the entire online poker industry by storm. These games play extremely fast because you start off with only ten times the big blind in chips and the blinds increase quickly. You have to make strong plays and catch cards to succeed in these tourneys, but contrary to popular belief these tournaments are not lotteries and can be beaten. In this article we will look at the structure of the Full Tilt super turbo (the most popular super turbo sit and go online) and we will also touch on some basic super turbo strategy that will help you if you decide to try out the games.
In Full Tilt Poker super turbo’s each of the 9 players in the sit and go start the tournament with 300 chips, which is only 10 times the amount of the big blind which is 30 in the first level. The levels then increase every 3 minutes, making for an action packed game. A Full Tilt Poker super turbo tourney usually only lasts about 20 minutes. This average tournament time may be larger than you would have assumed given the structure, but the length goes to show that stronger players can gain an edge in these tournaments by playing a better push/fold game than their opponents and also mixing in some other super turbo tricks such as minimum raises.
As you can see the super turbo sit and go’s are action packed and you have to play aggressively if you want to succeed. However, that does not mean that you have to play loose. For the first couple levels it is advantageous to play fairly tight because the blinds are still relatively small and you get to see plenty of hands before you should feel like you have to push all-in. Even hands like (A,J) should be folded from early position in the beginning stages of the tournament. As players go out and the blinds go up you can of course increase the range of hands you are pushing, but in the early stages, tight is usually right.
It is also important to realize that position is extremely important in super turbo sng’s. A hand that is an obvious fold from early position may be an obvious push from the button. The better your position, the more information you have from the hand and the better decision you can make. For example, if you have (A,J) in early position, you should fold, but if you have (A,J) on the button and the table folds around to you, this is an obvious push because there are only two players left to act after you and the push equity is much better than the fold equity in this case.
The most important time in a super turbo tournament, like any other sit and go, is at the bubble. You want to do anything you can to cash and make a profit from the tournament. If you have a big stack you should be bullying the shorter stacks and if you are a short stack you should get aggressive and attack the other short and medium size stacks. Bubble play is often the difference between a winning and losing super turbo sng player.
Super turbo’s are a ton of fun to play because there is so much action and you get to see a lot of showdowns. If you understand the structure and use it to your advantage these games are very beatable, especially if you are also clearing a bonus or have a rakeback account.
