Being able to win at hyper turbos is a very nice way to secure profit and grind up your bankroll. This guide will analyse all stages of a hyper turbo sit & go and the best strategy to profit at them. This guide is useful for all variations of hyper turbos, but will focus on the 6-max variation which is by far the post popular.
What is a hyper turbo sit & go?
Hyper turbos are a unique tournament structure (generally played as a sit & go) where you start will 500 chips, and the blinds increase extremely quickly. The latest PokerStars hyper turbo structures are hand-based rather than time-based. This means the blinds go up every few hands rather than every few mins. The below screenshot is a typical PokerStars hyper turbo structure.
6-max hyper turbos will generally pay the top 2 places only, just like a standard sit & go tournament. They will usually last less than 10 minutes in total, so are great if you don’t have too much time, or if you’re trying to grind out volume.
Early stage hyper turbo strategy
The early stages of a hyper turbo are where most mistakes are made. Players will generally play too tight and pass up on good spots. Collecting chips early in a hyper turbo is extremely important for the later stages where you can bully with your chip stack.
The common misconception early on in a hyper turbo is that you have 25 blinds, so you can be patient. This is a dangerous way to look at your stack. In just 7 hands, your stack could be as low as 10 blinds without even playing a single hand.
You should be looking for every opportunity and ensuring you get the most value out of it. Don’t be afraid early on in a hyper turbo to shove on the button with something like to steal the blinds. Every chip is key as you’re not just increasing your stack, but taking chips away from your opponents.
If you manage to double up early on, you can play slightly more conservative, but make sure you use position to bully any tighter opponents. Taking a small hit to your stack isn’t that big of a deal, especially if you’re giving yourself a chance to bust someone.
Playing hyper turbos on the bubble
Navigating through the early stages is only a small part in hyper turbo success. The bubble is where it will be determined whether you will be a long-term winner or loser.
You must pay attention to your opponents stack sizes and ensure you’re not putting yourself in difficult situations. In most scenarios, it’s better to shove rather than raise. Raising either indicates you are really strong, or if you’re not strong and get raised, you are taking big hits to your stack. Getting into the mindset that you need to decide whether to shove or fold is a key adjustment to be profitable at hyper turbos.
Make sure to profile your opponents. If you only have tight opponents behind you, you should be shoving pretty much 100% of hands, especially if you cover them. If you have looser opponents behind you, play more conservative, but you should still be shoving the majority of your hands. Winning the blinds for 2 or 3 hands in a row will see your stack increase rapidly.
A quick note on hyper turbo satellites
If you are playing a hyper turbo satellite which pays top 2 only, you should try to get money in 3-ways if a short-stack is in the pot. For example, you and an opponent have 850 chips each and the other has 100 chips. If the 100 chip opponent shoves, you should both call with 100% of hands to try and eliminate the player and make the money.
Heads-up hyper turbo strategy
Heads-up play during hyper turbos is quite important, as many players don’t take it as seriously as earlier in the sit & go. This is because players generally feel a sense of relief that they have made the money and they are essentially ‘flipping’ for first. This is absolutely incorrect. The payoout jump is quite substantial, so it’s important to take it seriously.
When you get heads-up, you are generally both quite short-stacked. This can be used to your advantage. Knowing the exact hands you should be shoving pre-flop gives you a huge advantage as picking up blinds for a few hands will put you in a dominating position. Given that the hands which end up all in pre-flop rarely have more than a 60% advantage to one player, it’s key to have more chips in the event you lose that hand.
When super short-stacked, you’re definitely not out of the tournament. Pre-flop there is so much dead money that winning a single hand could bring you right back into contention.
The break-even hyper turbo strategy
If you are a break-even hyper turbo player, it’s actually not a bad thing! PokerStars has a VIP program which essentially gives you coins which can be converted into money for playing regularly on the site. Hyper turbos are a great way to generate more coins very easily.
If you’re playing a high enough volume, you can easily break-even in the actual hyper turbos, but collect plenty of profit through the coints. Many high-stakes online poker professionals do this. They know they are equally as good as their opponents, so it’s irrelevant if they win or lose a specific hyper turbo, as long as they break-even in the long run.
The highest-stakes players have been able to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars through coins per year just by braking even playing hyper turbo sit & gos.
Hyper turbo variance
Variance is a killer in hyper turbos. Given that you are in coin flip situations very frequently, it’s very easy to go 10 or 20 games without a single top 2 finish. The key is to make sure you are making the correct decisions, as variance will even itself out over time. You might go 20 games without a win, then win 5 of your next 6 to completely turn it around.
Be patient and don’t get tilted if you’re unlucky.
Hyper turbo tools
Gaining the edge in hyper turbos sometimes requires the use of tools or software to help analyse your decisions. Most tools are not allowed to be used during play, but are great to analyse your play post-tournament. There are many tools out there to help you work on your game, but here are some of our recommendations:
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– Snapshove (mobile app)
– ProPokerTools
– ICMIZER 2
Hyper turbo strategy summary
Here are the key takeaways from this strategy guide which will put you well on your way to hyper turbo success:
- – Be super aggressive and pick your spots
– Aces are very powerful
– Position very powerful
– Mediocre hands play very well
– Don’t tilt and understand variance
– Play a large volume to take advantage of rake-back or other opportunities
– Continue to learn
– Use tools or software to improve your game