Sit & Go Quick Strategy

Personally, I love online Sit & Go tournaments. They can be entered and won in under an hour, feature a wide assortment of opponents, and allow cunning players to take advantage of weak fields to consistently place in the money well over 90% of the time. The reason so many players bust out early at a Sit & Go is because they don’t understand if they should be playing these small, single table events like a cash game or like a deep-fielded tournament. The answer is neither, at least not through all the stages.

Sit & Go’s require intense patience crammed into about 30-45min of poker. You won’t be able to use hours of information gathering to get to know your opponents, instead you’ll need to watch every bet, raise, fold from the get go to develop an immediate profile on everyone at the table. This profile can be limited in its usefulness since it’s based on limited knowledge, but it does help, especially when you get down to the making it in the money.

Here’s a quick three-step process to doing well at a Sit & Go. Will use the scenario that you’re playing in a standard 9-player tournament, no with special rules such as a turbo blind structure.

Early Round

The first stages of a Sit & Go can be played very much like a deep-stacked tournament. There are many schools of thought on Sit & Go hand selection, and I tend to agree with the methodology that you should stick to the top ten starting hands combined with proper positioning strategy. You don’t want to give up too many chips early on fishing with small pairs or even medium strength hands like K-J because they can be too easily defeated, and your goal is to make it to the money.

Unless you get a big blind special and flop big, you’re going to want to wait for the premium stuff, pocket aces, KK, QQ, A-K, etc. Many times in these Sit & Go’s you only need to increase your chip stack by 50% in order to cruise into a comfortable spot that will allow you have even more patience with your hand selection. Since you’re mostly playing just premium hands, you’re going to want to make sure you maintain good betting discipline when you pick up these cards. If you overbet and pick up just the blinds, you’ve wasted the hand. Maximizing your profits and the amount of chips you’re extracting from your opponents is incredibly crucial during the early stages of a Sit & Go, because if done right and you are able to double up quickly, you might be able to reach the top 4-5 spots with little difficulty.

Mid-Game/Money Bubble

The middle of a Sit & Go is when a few players have been eliminated and there are now a few big stacks at the table. At most 9-player Sit & Go’s online, only the top three spots are paid, so even though you’ve outlasted about half of the field, it means nothing unless you get into the top three. How to play your hands at this stage depends heavily on your chip stack. If you are the chip leader or runner-up, there’s a sound strategy in just waiting for the other players to take each other out, putting you into the money without much of an effort. This doesn’t mean you should fold your pocket queens, but it also doesn’t mean you should be calling off big bets with a drawing hand just because you can afford to. Don’t gamble too much here if you have a sizeable chip lead, remember that the goal is to make the money.

If you’re stuck with about an average to low chip stack, you are essentially now looking for an opportunity to double up. It is not advisable to raise all-in pre-flop unless you have a very premium hand and are confident you are going to get just one caller. The problem with going all-in pre-flop before making the final three is that the other players at the table will have tightened their play immensely, as they themselves will not want to be knocked out at this crucial stage. Big bets or moving all-in to pick up the blinds doesn’t make sense here usually, because the tournament hasn’t been going on long enough in a Sit & Go to make winning the blinds worth risking your tournament life.

Instead, you need to play tight/aggressive poker. Flop big, play big, it might be your only shot. Also pay attention to how the other small stacks are playing, as the short stack at the table is probably going to have to go all-in with something less than premium. Pay attention to his betting patterns to see if you can pick up when he’s about to shove with a mediocre hand and you can then possibly call and knock him out of the tournament.

When it’s down to the final four bubble, everyone is going to be waiting for the short stack to bust out. Very rarely will you see the big stacks at the table get into a betting war with each other at this point, they rather just make it into the money. If you’re the short stack in this situation, see if you can ID which, if any, players at the table raise constantly pre-flop. If there is such a player at the table and you pick up a hand worth going all-in with, let him put that extra bet out there so that you can steal it out from him and possibly even induce a call. Playing for small pots and the blinds aren’t going to help you on the bubble, you’re going to need to double up.

In The Money

This is the stage of the Sit & Go where everything that has happened up to this point strategy wise can and has to be thrown out the window. The super-tight play that was pitch perfect just five minutes ago will now result in you folding to every bet when you don’t have top pair. The inability to switch gears this quickly is what results in many novice Sit & Go players finishing third. They continue to wait for the nuts, meanwhile their more experienced opponents have completely switched up their styles and are now playing aggressive heads-up method poker, even though there’s still three people at the table.

Smart, aggressive players do well once they’re in the money at a Sit & Go. It is very easy to see if an opponent is going to fold whenever he didn’t get a great piece of the flop, and you can constantly one-bet that player into folding almost every time. Not only does this let you pick up some easy pots, but when they do call or raise, you’ll know they have a legitimate hand and maybe you need to back off a little and minimize your risk.
Much like how everyone picked on the short stack during bubble play, the same will usually happen with the final three players, especially if the short stack is considerably short. If you find yourself in this position, you’re not going to have many options other than shoving with a medium strength hand. Remember that in three-handed play, often any ace will be good, and even the smallest pocket pairs will usually start out as the favorite. It might not be the ideal situation, but you need to double up early on so that your overall stack will grow enough to become a threat.

If you’re the big dog and in the money, you need to learn how to play bully poker. You’re going to want to make sure your opponents are not seeing too many cheap flops and you don’t want to check on too many streets, especially if you’ve classified the opponent as weak. If you constantly hammer on scared players during this final stage, you’ll goad them into shoving with a medium strength hand constantly, just to try to ease up the pressure.

Trapping is a great way to knock out these timid players as well if you flop big, as you can often induce them to go all-in if they catch any piece of a flop or turn. Let them hang themselves on weak cards and you’ll easily be able to exploit these situations.

Play smart, gather information and be able to switch gears if you want to crush your typical Sit & Go tournament.