SNGicons touts itself as the "premier SNG instructional site on the internet" & specializes in SNG instruction as well as MTT videos. In addition to the videos, the site also has some blogs & the mandatory site forum and chat room. The main instructors are Jonathan "FieryJustice" Little, Joey "bigjoe2003" Michael, & Chip "z32fanatic" Ferguson.

High Stakes Pros: FieryJustice, z32fanatic, BigJoe2003

SNG Pros: Fiery Justice, z32fanatic, Spacegravy & bigjoe2003

SNG instructional videos are the forte & the heart of SNGicons. The instructors at the site are predominantly SNG players as opposed to cash players though FJ has recently stated in one of the vids that he has been playing more cash online. This was what the site was created for & what they emphasize. Having said that there are some problems most which deal with production quality & overall professionalism.
They clearly discussed their thought processes behind the decisions they make during the games as well as delving into some concepts that relate to specific hands even though they might not be occuring at the video at the time. These "what if?" scenario's are very helpful to understanding how they arrive at their conclusive decisions. Jonathan Little seems to be very adept at explaining his ideas in a clear & articulate way. He talks through the decisions during dead time (when he is folding/folded on several games) like push chart ratings, books he has read, how he got started, what he has been doing to improve his play etc. In short I enjoyed his video's the most due to his explanations going far beyond the videos at hand. Some of the other instructors while being great players sometimes lack the ability to fully convey their thoughts. z32 fanatic expanded his play from full table SNG's to 6 max games which was very nice for SNG variety. This was a very welcome change to the standard full table SNG play. The caliber of the instructors for SNGIcons is clearly top notch with FieryJustice having 6 WSOP cashes & 2 WPT final tables, z32fanatic with over 30,000 tourney's with over 14,000 of them being in the over $200 category, & bigjoe2003 being the 2nd ever PokerStars Elite player (1 week after elky!). So the quality of instruction is top notch.

The biggest weakness with SNGicons apart from the sporadic release of videos is simply the quality of the site overall. The home page itself is very simple & bright (lot's of white) as opposed to the more sleek marketing look of CardRunners or DeucesCracked. Nothing wrong with that though if you can look past that to the quality of the videos themselves which is what matters. Sad to say that is where the MAIN problems begin for SNGicons. Up until recently many videos were not viewable due to one reason or other & I give them credit for fixing the problem. Several that I went in to view had comments from members complaining about the video not working all the way through followed by a comment stating "fixed". I saw several of those vids & they were indeed "fixed". However the main problem was simply lack of professional etiquette during the filming of the videos themselves. Some of the incidents I witnessed while watching video's was a phone ringing & being answered by the instructor during the video. I keep thinking that should have been an easy edit OUT by whoever finished producing/editing the video.

Other problems were background noise such as people talking or watching TV, one instructor watching "a bowl game" as he did the video & even stating that, one instructor making a video after New Years day & stating he was not in best shape to make a video & it shows. More than one instructor (must be a corporate thing) had the annoying habit of making noise with a straw in a fountain drink running the straw up & down incessantly which was VERY annoying. In another video there was simply a lot of dead air time with no comments by the instructor in between the comments he was making thus making for a lot of time simply viewing a screen with not much happening. . That is where Little excelled in making very useful commentary not directly related to the video in hand but to the game in general. In short they need some serious editing or direction change to make their vid's up to par with competitors.

The final complaint I have was that after logging on to the site by signing in whenever I would go to a video to click on it it would tell me I was not allowed to watch the vid & would have to go through the sign in process all over again. This was not a one time occurence but practically every single time. They need to get that fixed asap.

The strengths of SNGicons lies solely on the play of the instructors themselves. It's obvious the guys know SNG play inside out. Topics such as ICM, early low blind play,mid blind play, high blind bubble play & heads up play are all clearly covered. Another thing I found to be refreshing & interesting was variance in action. Watching an instructor not win every single SNG they play was quite interesting! In some instances some instructors would have 4 games going on at once & not place in the money in a single game. Watching an instructor bust out on the bubble after making a correct play only to get sucked out on was enlightening. It also happens to the pro's. We know that but for the most part don't hear about it much less see it happening.

Video's range from simply watching them play games & commenting to replaying hands & even replaying & critiquing students/members playing SNG's. Overall some of the video's were very good. Some editing work would bring that standard up very much as the instructors are top notch players.

Overall Rating:

7/10

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