Sit-n-Go Strategy

By Wesley R. Young

One of the most popular recent developments in online poker is a sit-n-go tournament. Predominately played nine or ten-handed, they are usually completed in less than an hour and are available in most popular games like no-limit and limit holdem, Omaha/8 and 7 Card Stud. The payouts are generally 50% for first, 30% for second and 20% for third. The blinds elevate at a fairly fast rate, usually every ten hands or every ten minutes depending on the room you are playing at. If you would like to start playing sit-n-go’s or would just like to improve your game, here are a few tips.

Because the blinds rise so quickly, many players take unnecessary chances early in the tournament. This is the single largest mistake I see in sit-n-go’s. Unlike large multi table tournaments where it is necessary to amass a large stack of chips to win, in a sit-n-go it is much more important to survive until the maniacs are gone. I have played two different strategies while playing sit-n-go’s, and I have won using both. However, one of them is much more successful overall than the other. I am of one of two mindsets when I sit down at the table. The first is impatient and I want to either double-up quickly or bust out. Of course if you haven’t already guessed, this is the lesser successful of the two strategies. When you enter a tournament this way, you end up butting heads with all of the other maniacs and you reduce the game to a coin flip mentality.

The best strategy I have found is to be very tight and conservative with everything but your best hands early in the tournament, and very aggressive late in the tournament. There is no need to be concerned about the size of your stack until you get down to around half what you started with. If you start with 1,000, start looking for opportunities to double up if you fall to 500. When you are fortunate enough to land a premium hand like Aces or Kings, by all means jump into the fray. You will probably find at least one maniac willing to put their money in with an inferior hand. Spend the time early in the tournament studying your opponents. Pay attention to how many hands they are playing and see which ones can and can’t be bluffed. You will often be able to use this information to your advantage later in the tournament.

Once you have survived down to the final four or five players, or even better in the money, you need to change gears quickly to become very aggressive. If your opponents have been paying attention, which is not always the case, you will be able to steal a few pots as they will give you credit for a good hand because you haven’t been playing many. If you find yourself short-stacked at this point, you only have one play, move all-in pre-flop.

Though this is not a complete guide to sit-n-go dominance, if you are able to remain tight early and quickly switch to aggressive play late, you will find your game immediately improved.