Basic Sit And Go Tournament Strategy

The Sit and Go (SNG) tournamentsTournaments, also known as "sit and play", are a quick and usually relatively easy way to make some money in online poker. In the cheaper tournaments the players are often weak and there is a good opportunity to learn and make a profit. Medium-cost sit and goes are also beatable, but the level of players at a $50 table is different from those at $5 to $10 tables.

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Secure your prize

The idea of a sit and go is simple. In most cases there are nine or ten players who pay an entry fee, and the prize pool goes to the top three. Some experts suggest that the entire strategy should be aimed at finishing in first place, which guarantees a significant prize pool. Other authors say that the player's goal should be to finish in the top three.

We recommend combining these two strategies. Our suggestion is to initially play to finish in the top three. After that, play aggressively to gain positions.

That said, an aggressive approach from the start of the tournament is vital to increase your chances of finishing in the prize zone. If all goes well, you'll increase your stack and be protected when you reach the final stages of the tournament. Here are some quick tips for getting off to the right start:

• Playing the top hands (monsters) is best, but waiting forever for them in a sit and go is suicide. In general, the blinds grow quickly, since SNG is a short tournament.
• Watch out for bluffs. Cheap SNG opponents tend to pay to see more often, sometimes with a mediocre hand, but better than your bluff.
• Use the early stages to play hands such as Ax of the same suit, connectors of the same suit or not, preferably with small investments. Remember that these hands are more profitable against more opponents.
• Watch your opponents carefully, if they enter a lot with minimum bets or in bad positions (signs of inexperience). If you're ahead, use your stack to take advantage of worse players and/or those with smaller stacks.
• Protect your top hands with significant raises. Low-cost sit and goes often have players who call bets with anything, and you should punish them for this mistake.

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The final sprint

As the game goes on and the number of players decreases, your strategy needs to change. When there are only four or five opponents left, the blinds will probably be very large in relation to the chip stacks, and playing weak hands can be a disaster. At this stage it becomes important to select your starting hands well, to play only quality hands in early positions. In late positions, you can try to steal the blinds with average hands. Players with fewer chips generally play very conservatively at this point, so take advantage of this. On the other hand, raises made before you should be respected most of the time, especially from players in a bad situation.

Once you're in the top three, the intention is to win. At this stage, players tend to play looser, but more liberal in their choice of hands. This is the time to use your position well, raise when you decide to play, and don't be afraid to use ALL-IN. If you come third, at least you've made a profit, but by playing this way, you'll see that coming first is quite possible in online SNG.

Note: To perfect other important techniques in a sit-and-go, check out the other articles from online poker strategy.