SIT&GO TOURNAMENT TIPS
Sit’n’Go (SNG) tourneys are fun and action. It is a fast moving game with lots of tactics and psychology. As SNGs usually last about an hour there are lots of players who tend to gamble in SNG tournaments trying to get a massive stack right away, this is clearly the wrong strategy. When you start a SNG tourney you should not play for the first place, once you are in the money (usually top 3 are paid) you can aim for higher places.
Many poker rooms have high traffic in the SNG tourneys as they are getting more and more popular. If you like to play Sit’n’Go tournaments your choice will be PacificPoker, PokerStars, PartyPoker and BetssonPoker. Why? There you can find most exciting jackpot in the industry.
When playing SNG tourneys at Noble Poker and Titan Poker you can either play a table with 10 seats or with 6 seats. In both cases three places are paid, the winner takes 50%, second 30% and third 20%. And if you are on a run and manage to win some SNGs consecutively they pay you a huge jackpot (of course in addition to the regular price money).
Titan Poker will pay an incredible $100,000 Jackpot Prize to the winner of six consecutive $50+$7 “Fort Knox Jackpot Sit ‘N’ Go” (6-player) tournaments. Titan Poker will also award a $750 prize to a player who finished in either 1st or 2nd place in six consecutive Fort Knox Jackpot Sit ‘N’ Go tournaments.
Titan Poker will pay a $25,000 Jackpot Prize to the winner of six consecutive $20+$3 “Rio - Jackpot Sit ‘N’ Go” (6-player) tournaments. Titan Poker will also award a $300 prize to a player who finished in either 1st or 2nd place in six consecutive Rio Jackpot Sit ‘N’ Go” tournaments.
Titan Poker will pay a $15,000 Jackpot Prize to the winner of five consecutive $5+$0.75 “Maui - Jackpot Sit ‘N’ Go” (10-player) tournaments. Titan Poker will also award a $200 prize to a player who finished in either 1st or 2nd place in five consecutive – Jackpot Sit ‘N’ Go” tournaments. If no player wins the $15,000 Jackpot Prize, Titan Poker will add additional funds to increase the prize.
Sit’n’Go Strategy:
There will be always players who believe their only chance finishing top is to build a mega stack right away and accordingly they start to gamble, going all-in early. This is the wrong way. Let the maniacs kill themselves at early stages. In the first rounds you have to play ultra-tight preflop and very conservative postflop. Try to determine who are the aggressors, the maniacs, the rocks, this info can be very valuable in later rounds. Unless you hold premium hands you will not call all-ins early and generally avoid the battles that could eliminate you.
Though SNG tourneys usually last less than an hour you have much time. There is no pressure at all at the beginning so you just have to rely on strong starting hands, let your opponents think that you are rock, as the tournament progresses you will open up your game and play more aggressive.
As said before, many players often gamble in SNGs and so they are ignoring their position. But especially in SNG tourneys position is crucial. Do not lose sight of your position, you never know what the action will be after your decision so your position becomes even more important than in ring games.
In SNG with 10 entrants the first 2-3 players are eliminated very quickly. This is the first time to have a look at the stack sizes of your opponents. Put pressure on the smaller stacks, avoid confrontation with the larger ones. At this stage you are still selective preflop but your postflop play becomes little more aggressive. Dont panic if you have not made any progress so far, the critical stage starts when there are six players left.
This is the time to open up your game a bit. There could be one with a huge stack, few average stacks and probably 1-2 small stacks. A small stack will try to double up in this situation and this is logical. The average stack is not very combative and the large stack tries to attack. For this reason you try to attack the average stacks on late position if possible, they will wait for the big hands and be scared to lose too much of their stack. The huge stack will call more often and the short stack will try to put his eggs in one basket with mediocre hands. It is not surprising that if a small stack successfully has doubled up he will be calm in the next rounds, perfect for you to attack him. Don’t attack the small stacks too often as you can find yourself easily in a coin flip game.
Lets talk about the last four, the most interesting and most exciting stage. Many sites recommend to stay out of action, because it is the worst thing to be eliminated as 4th, but is this the correct play? Well, lets look at a typical situation at this stage, when there are two more or less average stack, one large and one small. The large stack challenges the small stack which is trying to double up to become an average stack. The average stacks avoid any battle and hope that the big one is kicking out the small one. What does this mean? Play aggressively! Don’t overdo it and do not bluff too often, but if you read the game you can be the aggressor for some rounds with an average stack. Nobody expects you to be aggressive so you have the psychlogical edge. The large one wants to play against the small one and not against you, just as well the other average stack. So especially be careful playing with the small stack. If you are the one with the small stack, attack the average whenever it is possible and as long as your chips matters. Very important is to team up with the others to kick one out if possible.
Hopefully you are now in the top3, and now you aim for higher places. There will be situations where the high and the middle stack are friends and their enemy is the shortest stack (as long as the blinds do not force to go all-in). You can bluff on the button more often, at least any competitive hand should be raised in that position.
Heads Up Play
No matter if you have reached the final or joined a Heads Up tourney, it is a battlefield. First of all, try to put pressure on your opponent. Normally a hand with A or K is good enough to raise, but dont get too predictable, deviate from time to time, otherwise your opponent can read your play. Secondly, dont call raises! If you want to win at Heads Up you have to be the aggressor. If you want to raise then it should be 3-4 times the BB preflop and half of the pot to potsize postflop, your opponent will hate you for sure, because this is pure pressure. Slow playing usually is a bad decision, dont give cards for free unless your hand cannot be beaten, but this is rather rare in Heads Up. If there is a flop then in most cases top pair will decide.
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