Sit and Go - Online Poker

Sit & Go games

One table Sit and Go tournaments

Introduction
Sit&Go is a very popular form of tournament poker. The tournament format is a one table game with usually nine or ten players. In the online poker world new Sit&Go games are started constantly with a buyin as low as 1$ plus fee. Usually the payouts go to the top 3 players as follows: 50% / 30% / 20%. For example, in a $5 + $ 0.50 Sit&Go with ten players, is the total prize pool of $50. This gives $25 for first place, $15 for second place and $10 for third place. The $ 0.50 is each player's fee to the poker room. In contrast to a normal multiple table tournament where about 10-15% of the players will enter the money, a Sit&Go is different. 33% of the players will enter the money in a nine player Sit&Go. The Most popular Sit&Go game is no limit Texas Holdem. You will also find limit Holdem Sit&Go’s, but they require much more time to finish, and people playing online tends to prefer games with a little bit of speed and good action. For this reason, if you want to play no limit Sit&Go’s you will need to know what kind of hands to push with, and when to quietly lay down strong hands. The following sections explain how to go about winning no limit holdem Sit&Go games.

Early stage, low blinds
The game is all about survival. When the blinds are low there is no need to take any risks. Doing a blind steal makes little sense since the blinds are low. You want to maximize your chance of getting to the medium blind level. That said, there are of cause hands which you must play, hands like AA, KK and AKs in late position. Huge bets and re-raises from players in early position, will force you quietly lay down hands like QQ, JJ and QKs. If someone goes all in at this stage of the game, it will properly be best to lay down anything except AA. The reason is this: a player after you may decide to call the all in bet, hence one player will bust out or lose a lot of chips, and this is good for you. If you have AKs against 88, you are a bit under 50% of winning in this spot. No need to take such a huge risk at this stage of the tournament. To sum up, play tight, you do not have any good read of your opponents, so avoid any close battle.

Middle stage, medium blinds
You have made it to the medium blinds. At this stage, you must have collected some kind of impression of you opponents, any sort of small tell has value here. Some of the players you now know are loose players, and some are tight. The most important thing here is to identify the tight opponents and play accordantly, if they are involved in the hand. You gold is to enter the high blinds, and for this reason you should lay down any two cards, except AA if two players are all in. Again, if someone bust out, this is good for you. Limiting the field of opponents at the medium blinds is always good. On the other hand, if you do want to play because of a good hand and position, precede aggressively. Make a solid raise to limit the field of opponents and maybe steel the blinds. Because to blinds are medium, this is always good. If you should get called lead out on the flop with a ½ pot bet, maybe a little more. You showed strength preflop and no matter if you hit the flop or not you must show great strength again. This will make you opponent fold in most cases, and if he do not fold, it is the strength of your hand that entirely determines if you want to put more money in the pot or wait for a better spot. To sum up, play solid starting hands with position and move in aggressively. Solid starting hands would be hands in the Sklansky Group 4 and above. Move in aggressively with a standard raise. No need to take any extra chance and go all in with a moderate stack. You may get called by AA or KK and see you self get busted out.

Late stage, high blinds
This is the stage which requires some amount of luck. You overall aim is of cause to enter the money and get back value of your investment. However, if you get nothing but bad hands, like 72o, J5s and so on, the only way you will be able to enter the money is if your opponents busts each other out. This is highly unlikely; you will have to at least steel some blinds in this stage in order to survive. But one advantage now is that you should have a good picture of the playing style of your opponents. The rock will slowly get blinded out, and the fish player will make a mistake of calling early in with something like KJs which properly will make second best at showdown. You must use this knowledge in the way you decide to proceed. Poker is not an exact science, and it is nearly impossible to applying a specific strategy that will always win in the later rounds of a Sit&Go. But generally speaking, you must again be aggressive here, and actually a bit more aggressive compared to the middle stage. If you have build up a big stack, raise with any good hand Group 7 and up, this will put maximum pressure on the small stack. With a medium stack make sure to only raise preflop with solid hands, Group 5 and up, and wait until a tight opponent is on the button, if possible. If you have a small stack, your most avoid getting blinded out. With at stach of 5-8 big blinds you are in trouble, this is a small stack, and you must make an all in move with any decent hand like AJs, 77 and so on. Try to find a spot where a tight opponent is in the big blind and push. If you are the first to open push again here with almost any hand. If you get down to 5 big blind you must play any hand, do not look at the screen, find an acceptable spot and push. Even if you have 53o against one opponent, who has AKs, you have about 40% chance of winning, not so bad. To sum up, be aggressive, avoid entering a battler with two opponents, avoid getting blinded out. Raise big when a tight opponent is in the big blind … and hope for the best of luck.