Sit & Go Tournaments

Bill Burton 01:10 Jul 19th, 2006 Poker

A Sit & Go is a single table tournament where you are competing against 8 or 9 other players. Some sites have 9 player tables and other have 10 player tables so it depends on where you play. A Sit & Go is like being at the final table of a regular tournament. The best part is that you only have to beat 6 or 7 players to get into the money.

Analyzing the Sit & Go

Most of these Sit & Go tournaments pay the top three players and these are the ones I am gong to discuss here. The payout for the top three is:

50% for First place. 30% for Second place 20% for Third place.

The buy in for the tournament goes into the prize pool. There is also an entry fee that is collected by the online site. For a low limit S&G, this may be a dollar or 50 cents. On Party Poker where I play a majority of the time, they charge one-dollar entry for both the $5 and $10 tournaments. Because of this, you are better off playing the $10 tournament on this site. The entry fee will cost you 10% for the $10 tournament but 20% for the $5 tournament. Since the skill level of players is about the same, it will be better to play the $10 one. Some of the other sites charge 50 cents entry for the $5 tournament.

Playing a Sit & Go The Sit & Go tournaments are fast. They are called Sit & Go's because when you sign up you are taken to the table. As soon as all the seats are filled, the tournament begins. On a busy online poker site it usually only takes a few minutes for the seats to fill up. The tournaments are run continually and there are several going on at the same time.

The Strategy

The secret to winning money in a Sit & Go tournament can be put into a single word: PATIENCE!!

Many of the players in the low stakes S&G tournaments are very loose and play too many hands. If you play this way, you WILL LOSE. You do not want to play many hands in the early stages of the tournament. You want to sit back and let all the loose players knock themselves out. Before you know it, the table will be down to 4 or 5 players and you will only have to beat two or three of them to get in the money.

When you are not involved in a hand make sure you are still paying attention to the action. You want to know who is playing tight and who is playing loose. This knowledge will aid you later in the tournament. If you are patient and play only the best starting hands it won't be long until you find that the tournament is down to four of five players. 4-5 Players

When the tournament gets down to 4 or 5 players, the action gets really tight. Players are hoping to coast into the money. This is where you can steal the blinds and pick up money from the short stacks who will fold in hopes of making it into the money. If you have a big stack, you should make sure that the players with the small stacks don't get to see a cheap flop. Enter the pot with a raise or fold. One word of caution is that if the blinds are too short stacked they will be pot committed and will usually call in desperation. You don't want to double them up by playing garbage.

3 Players Now you are in the money. Play for first place or go broke trying. If you are the chip leader, you should be raising with every hand you play. Don't let the other two players see the flop cheaply. If you are on the button and have nothing let the blinds fight it you with each other.

2 Players When you do make it down to two players you have to be aggressive. When you are playing heads up you can't afford to wait. Many times it comes down to who can steal the most blinds. Therefore, you must loosen up and call more or you will go broke. Queen - Seven is called the computer hand because computer simulations show this hand is will win 51.77 percent heads up against a random hand. So with this hand or any hand higher than this one you are almost forced to play. A small pair or even a single Ace or King can be a big favorite in heads up play. With a big hand, you can often trap from the small blind by limping in with it.

Just remember to BE PATIENT!!