My favorite way to play online poker is in a format called a sit and go tournament. This format has all kinds of advantages not available in ring games or bigger tournaments. One of these is being able to finish a poker tournament in about an hour.
You can also get into action for a low price, and most sit and go tournaments start right away.
Also, the appropriate strategy for sit and go poker is easier than for other variations.
How Does a Sit and Go Poker Tournament Work?
I’ve seen a sit and go poker tournament described as being like a miniature standard poker tournament. That’s as good a description as I’ve seen.
Most sit and go tournaments are single-table events, but the number of players might vary. When I first started playing these, the most common events had 9 players, but 6-player and 2-player sit and gos are becoming increasingly common.
As with most tournaments, everyone pays a buy-in and gets the same number of chips. This is usually 1000, 1500, or 2000 chips, but it varies. The blinds usually start at 5/10, 10/20. or 20/40, depending on the site and the tournament.
The blinds go up every 10 minutes or so, but sometimes it’s based on number of hands rather than how much time has elapsed. It depends on the site.
The prize pool for the 9-player tables are usually divided among the top 3 players, while the top 2 get paid off at the 6-player tables. Obvious, at a 2-player table, it’s a winner-take-all kinda thing.
Sit and Go Tournament Buy Ins
The most common sit and go tournaments that I play are the ones with a $10 buy-in, which you would think cost $10 to enter. But don’t forget that the poker site also needs to make money, so they add a vig (usually 10%) to the top.
So, for a $10 buy-in tournament, you’d actually pay $10 +$1 to play, which is an $11 entry fee.
If 9 players are at the table, $90 goes into that prize pool, while $9 goes to the poker site.
Usually this $90 gets split 50% for 1st place, 30% for 2nd place, and 20% for 3rd place. In this example, that’s $45 for 1st place, $27 for 2nd place, and $18 for 3rd place.
The amount vary with fewer players, but you get the idea. These amounts are usually clearly posted in the site lobby for when you sign up.
Sit and Go Strategy Is All about Changing Your Play Based on the Stage of the Tournament
You should, of course, understand the difference between a good starting hand and a bad starting hand.
But winning and profiting from sit and gos has at least as much to do with timing as anything else.
In the early stages of a sit and go, the blinds are so small that it doesn’t make sense to take a lot of risks. If the blinds are 10/20, and you have a stack of 1500 chips, you have 50 times the blinds in your stack.
You can afford to wait for a solid hand before playing, and when you get one, you should bet and raise aggressively with it.
Many of your opponents are going to try to get into pots cheap so that they can get an early lead. Don’t do this. Just get the cards and then bet the cards.
Once the blinds get to a point where you only have 10X the blinds in your stack, you have to start loosening up some. But this isn’t an excuse to become a maniac or a calling station, either.
At this point, though, you want to play even more aggressively than you did during the early stages. This means continuation bets on the flop even when you miss your hand.
You’ll see players who have double up early in the early stages try to become bullies during the middle section of the tournament. Don’t fall into this trap. It just isn’t necessary.
When you get into the later stages, like when you’re on the bubble or in the month, you’ll often need to get really aggressive with marginal hands, but don’t just play crap. Going all in with 27 offsuit never makes sense, but going all in with suited connectors might make sense if your chip stack is low enough in the later stage of a tournament.
Conclusion
This is, of course, the broadest possible introduction to sit and go strategy. You can find more detailed coverage of the subject online.
If it sounds like a tournament structure you might enjoy, I suggest giving it a try keeping in mind what I’ve suggested about paying attention to the various stages of the tournament.
