Early stages in 1 table SnG

[L0s3rAL0t]

Hey I'm fairly new at poker and this is my first post on FTR so I was hoping for a little help. In a lot of guides I've read that you should only play very big hands (AA,KK maybe QQ,AK,JJ) early in an SnG. So far I've only played freerolls but I've managed to work my way up to the highest stake SnG's on pokerstars (200k buy-in). I find that a lot of the times when I sit too tight the blinds become too high in relation to my stack. Also, these guides often recommend going into an all-in/fold mode. I don't see the point in playing very tight only to a point where you want to shove wherever possible (increasing your risk of busting out). Anyway I'd like to hear what other people have to say. Thx

[Nakamura]

I assume you mean the 200k play-money tables? Otherwise, I don't think you'd need my help .

IMO any guide that says you only play "AA,KK maybe QQ,AK,JJ" at the early levels is probably missing a lot of the finer points of position and situational awareness. While you should play pretty tightly at the beginning, you shouldn't restrict yourself purely to these cards.

As the blinds get to the 3rd or 4th level, you should start opening up your hand range. The AI/fold mode should only really come into play once you get to 5th level or so, once you drop below 10-12BB. The reason why you should generally push when you have 10BB or less is because any decent raise is generally pot-committing to the hand, so you should make your strongest move PF and also prevent opps from thinking they any kind of fold equity on you. At this stage most decent players will follow the Independent Chip Model (ICM), which is mathematically speaking, an unexploitable way to play.