Sit & Gos made easy (Howard Lederer)

Sit & Gos (SNGs) are a great gift from online poker for those aspiring to be great tournament players. Before SNGs, final table tournament experience was rare. You could enter dozens of multi-table tournaments and never find yourself in a final table situation. Or you could make one or two final tables and be defeated in eighth or ninth place. Adapting to the “shrinking player” model of an SNG is a crucial skill in a multi-table tournament, and it’s an experience that’s hard to come by playing live without spending a lot of time and money. Online, that experience is just a click away.

The advantages of a SNG are many. For beginners, it costs little or nothing. It’s also fun, and it’s convenient: You don’t have to plan ahead—a SNG starts every time the table fills up—and it usually ends in less than an hour. A SNG is a simulation of a tournament final table, and mastering it should be essential homework for any serious student.

Now that you know why you should play, let’s find out how:

The most obvious difference between a SNG and a multi-table tournament is when someone gets knocked out. In a SNG, there is no one waiting to fill the empty seat. Multi-table tournaments mostly consist of full tables. In a SNG, as players get knocked out, the table gets smaller and smaller. This reduction in the number of players serves to artificially increase the blinds. For example, let's say you're playing at a five-handed table with blinds at 100/200. You're paying 300 chips in blinds every five hands, or 60 per hand. As soon as someone gets knocked out, you're playing at a four-handed table, of course. You're now paying 75 chips per hand – an increase of 25% – even though the blinds remain the same. So you're forced to play more hands or risk getting eaten up by the blinds.

Depending on the difference between the size of the blinds and your stack size, you should adopt a different approach. I recommend starting the SNG by being very tight about your 'starting hands'. This serves two purposes: First, the blinds dictate that you play tighter at the beginning. The blinds are small and you are playing at a nine-handed table, so they (the blinds) don't catch up to you as quickly. Second, it helps you establish a tight image at the table, which you will appreciate later when the blinds are higher and you need to steal them more often.

But there is another, not-so-obvious reason to play tight at the beginning and looser at the end: The payout structure of a SNG rewards those who play tight. Most single-table tournaments pay out 50% to first, 30% to second, and 20% to third. This payout structure dictates that you should play to finish third. Why? Let’s look at this structure again to help you understand. Basically, this structure means that 60% is awarded when you are at a 3-handed table (20% is already guaranteed for each), 20% is awarded when you are at a 2-handed table, and the final 20% goes to the winner. If you can just finish third, you get at least a third of the 60% prize pool, or 20%. You have guaranteed a profit and have the chance to win an additional 30%. It’s only now that you’re in the final three that your strategy must change radically. Now you’re being paid to play looser. Let’s look at the numbers again: 60% of the prize pool is off the table, and moving up one spot is only worth 10% more. But moving up one spot is worth 30% more – that’s three times more for first place than it is for second place. And with the blinds rising, playing loose is increasingly clear as day.

I see a lot of players employing the exact opposite strategy. They believe they have nothing to lose, so they try to double up as soon as possible. They take too many risks too early when they see nothing to lose. Then, when they are in the money, they play tighter, thinking about the extra money they can get by moving up a position. If you start to rethink your approach to SNGs and adopt a “slow early, fast late” strategy, you will see an almost immediate improvement in your results.

Original from March 14, 2005, Full Tilt Poker – link (authorized reproduction)