Basic Sit and Go Strategy
Sit and Go tournaments are probably the most popular form of poker tournament online. All the excitement of both tournament poker and a final table take place at the same time. Many players go in with various strategies, but for those of you just beginning, here is a somewhat simple strategy to employ during a Sit and Go. Most Holdem tables start 9 or 10 handed. This set of instructions really can apply to either table.
First, you should play relatively tight during the first few rounds as players are beginning to be eliminated. Some common mistakes that I see from players is calling big raises with substandard hands or making huge raises to scare people out of a pot. The blinds usually start at an insanely small amount so stealing the blinds at this point is useless. Your best bet is to sit back and mainly play strong hands. Don’t get too involved with substandard hands. I would continue this until you are down to around five or six players.
Once your reach five or six players, you need to start to open up your game a bit. Depending on where the levels are, you may want to start to steal a few more blinds and play your position a little more. If you have a good stack or are the chip leader, attack the small stacks and stay out of the way of other larger stacks that can hurt you, unless you have a hand. One item to note is that some tables get down to five or six players somewhat quickly. If this occurs you may want to adjust your strategy and maybe continue to play tight. Otherwise, play this way until around four players left, which is also the bubble period.
The way you play at the bubble period will depend a lot on where you stand in chips. If you are the chip leader, you can begin to attack the smaller stacks and steal some blinds. If you are a medium to average stack, you can attack the really short stack but otherwise, try to play somewhat solid. If you are a short stack, you need to find a decent hand and push. When I say find a hand and push, use good judgment. If you are the short stack with 800 chips and the blinds are 25 and 50, you have time to wait for a reasonable to strong hand. If you have 800 with blind 200 and 400, then you need to find a decent hand and move. If you can enter the pot raising first, that will be to your advantage. If you are a short stack, attack the medium to average stacks if you can. They don’t want to end up in your shape and will typically only call you if they have a hand.
Once you reach the money, you need to try and play for the win. Be aggressive with the chip lead especially but don’t get overzealous. If you are the short stack, try and find a place to pick up chips and double up. Regardless of your stack size, you will need to loosen up your starting hand requirements.
When heads-up play is reached, a lot of how you proceed depends on your opponent. Play according to the read you have. If they are a tight player, then loosen up and start attacking more. If they are loose, rock up and look to try and trap them. A lot of hands become raising hands in this spot. Any ace is playable for a raise, as is two big cards. A pocket pair heads up is super strong, regardless of the pair. If you are on the short end of the stick when you reach heads-up, find a reasonable hand move in. Again, some of how you play will depend on your opponent. If your opponent will let you see a lot of flops cheap, then see them and punish him when you connect.
This is a very simplistic strategy that should get you a good start in sit and go tournaments. It is a tight strategy, but you will find that many lower limit sit and go tables can be beat with solid play. Good luck to you at the tables.
