One of the greatest things that online poker has brought us is sit and go poker tournaments.

A sit and go (SNG) doesn’t have a specific start time like multi-table tournaments (MTTs). Instead, these single-table events begin as soon as the required number of players (2, 6, 9, or 10) have entered.

Another good thing about SNGs is that they normally only last around an hour. This is perfect for players who don’t like the long grind of MTTs.

But if you’re coming from MTTs or even cash games, you should be aware that sit and gos require their own strategy.

That said, I’m going to cover seven ways to improve your success rate in SNGs. Keep in mind that these tips cover both general and situational advice.

1 – Know How to Isolate Opponents When Blinds Are Low

Just like any poker tournament, sit and gos begin with small blinds that increase as the event rages on.

A standard SNG starts you off with 1,500 chips and a starting big blind worth 20 chips. The big blind (BB) increases every ten minutes, which is done to speed up tournaments.

Stages of a Sit and Go Poker Tournament. Any sit and go poker tourney can be broken down into roughly three stages. The amount of time each stage lasts will vary depending on the tournament structure, but here is a basic breakdown. Early Rounds of a Sit and Go Poker Tournament. Sit and Go poker tournaments, commonly called SNGs, have become amazingly popular thanks to the growth of online poker. Their shorter format allow you to play tournament style poker without having to play for hours like in a full multi table tournament giving them the same time convenience of cash games. BLAST is a 4-handed, Super-turbo Texas Hold’em Sit & Go; Multi Table Tournaments Tournaments with hundreds or thousands of players and incredible prizes for the winners! Sit & Go Tournaments In the Sit & Go Tournaments you will compete against a pre-defined number of players, and begin playing once all of its seats are filled.

The low blind levels in the beginning make it attractive for multiple players to see the flop. This creates profitable situations for playing speculative hands like 8 9 off suit from middle or late position.

But this also makes it harder to play premium hands (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AK) preflop.

The best strategy when holding a big hand like this is to isolate a single opponent and take advantage of them post flop. Reducing the number of players in the field lowers the odds that somebody will flop a better hand than you.

In most cases, a standard 3xBB raise is enough to isolate an opponent with monster hands. However, you may need to increase this to a 4x or 5xBB in the early stages of a sit and go.

The stakes will also play a factor in what size of raises you need to thin the field. For example, you’ll run into more maniacs in $1+$0.10 buy in SNG’s than you will in $10+$1 tourneys, because the average player isn’t afraid to lose a single dollar.

In these situations, you may find yourself raising 6xBB or even higher to force more folds.

2 – Don’t Take Too Many Risks in the Early Going

While you often need to make larger raises to thin out the preflop crowd, you also want to play on the conservative side when blinds are small.

There’s little reason to make overly risky plays with no pressure to do so. Here’s an example:

• Three players remain in a hand, and I’m sitting on the button
• I have 8 9 on a rainbow flop of J 8 9
• The first player checks
• A tight aggressive (TAG) player shoves their stack into the middle

I’d like to call with my two pair. But then again, I haven’t seen the TAG do anything this aggressive so far.

I conclude that they must have flopped a set of jacks. While this may not actually be the case, I don’t want to take the chance when the blinds are this low.

Therefore, I fold and wait for better situations to arrive, because the low blinds give me this opportunity.

3 – Open Your Range in the Middle Stages

The fourth blind level is generally considered the middle stages of a sit and go. By this point, one third of the field is likely gone, and the average stack size ranges from 15 to 25 BBs.

If you’re an average stack, then you’re not in immediate danger, but you also need to play aggressive enough to keep picking up chips and avoid falling under 10 BBs.

This requires a delicate balancing act between not chasing straight and flush draws, yet opening your hand range to increase your stealing opportunities.

If you’re willing to play A T or better from middle position, for example, you can open this up to A 8 during the middle stages.

Anybody who falls under 10 BBs will be looking to shove any opportunity they get, usually with Ax or any low pocket pair. If they do so and you’re in late position, this presents a good time to call them and claim their stack.

But you may also notice that inexperienced average stacks are still playing speculative hands.

These are perfect players to isolate and take chips from. They’re likely to fold when they don’t hit their hand on the flop or turn.

4 – Be Extra Aggressive During SNG Bubbles

The SNG bubble is the point where only one to two players are left before cashing positions are determined.

Three players will cash in a nine-player sit and go. This means that the point when four to five players are remaining is considered the bubble.

The bubble is a crucial point in any poker tournament, because most players tighten up in hopes of making it into the money. But experienced players look to capitalize on those who are playing tight so that they can increase their stack.

You should be especially aggressive during an SNG bubble since these tournaments are so short. Even if you bust out while playing for first place, you’ve only invested thirty to fifty minutes into the tournament.

Contrast this to an MTT, where people play for hours or even days before reaching the bubble. At this point, bubble play becomes psychological warfare because players don’t want to lose all the time they’ve invested.

Again, you don’t have to worry about this with an SNG since they don’t last very long. You can always fire up another one if you do bust out.

After all, there’s a notable difference between first place money and the rest of the paying positions.

Furthermore, your long-term return on investment (ROI) will increase when you make appropriate aggressive plays near the bubble.

Short stacks are in a different situation here, because they need to simply survive until the money. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should keep folding and hope another short stack busts out.

The reason being is that you have no idea how many orbits will happen. And if there are too many orbits, you’ll blind out of the tourney.

Instead, you want to take control while you still have a chance. A good way to do this is by going all in as soon as you get a decent hand. You can also shove when you’re in late position and nobody has raised yet.

Sure, you may get called by the larger stacks when doing so. But the alternative is watching your chip stack being eaten away by the blinds, thus giving you less leverage the next time you raise.

5 – Late Stages

Both pre-bubble and post-bubble play are considered the late stages of a sit and go. This is the point where rising blinds become even more critical, and you need to increase your aggression to the maximum.

Many hands in the late stages are decided before the flop. The more hands you can steal with preflop raises, the more blinds you’ll be able to pick up.

This is especially significant if you’re in the 15 BB range and trying to avoid becoming a short stack.

Speculate hands have little value at this point, because most players won’t waste chips trying to connect on a straight or flush draw. Instead, hands with A or K gain additional value at this point.

Pocket pairs are also very significance in the late stages. This is especially the case when considering that your chances of being dealt a pocket pair are only one in seventeen.

Sit And Go Poker

If you’re playing in a nine-player SNG, this means that one player gets a pocket pair roughly every other hand. That said, you can have a fair amount of confidence whenever you’re holding these cards.

I described some short stack strategy in both the bubble and middle stages sections. You want to employ the same kind of desperation in the later stages to avoid having your chip stack dwindle down to a few BBs.

6 – Don’t Forget the Fundamentals in Sit and Gos

If you’ve already played cash games and/or MTTs, the same fundamentals apply to SNGs.

This includes studying opponents, being disciplined with preflop hand selection, playing tighter in early position, and opening your range in late position.

You especially want to concentrate on your table position and avoid taking unnecessary risk. After all, you can’t replace your chip stack in an SNG.

If you’re a new sit and go player, I recommend that you spend time learning ABC poker so you fully understand the fundamentals.

Of course, there are also times where you need to break from cash game strategy to excel in sit and gos.

This means playing fewer drawing hands than you would in a cash game, especially as the blinds increase.

You also don’t want to let standard concepts like pot odds and implied odds rule every situation. Again, you have a finite chip stack in poker tournaments and can’t base every call on thin value.

In summary, you need to use good fundamental play, but you should also know when to change gears based on your chip stack and the blind levels.

7 – Sit and Gos Require Extra Study to Succeed Consistently

The general consensus among myself and other poker players is that sit and gos are tougher than online MTTs.

SNGs have less variance than MTTs and are easier to make a consistent living with. Furthermore, sit and gos are easier to multi-table, which is a crucial part of earning a living through internet poker.

Wsop Sit And Go

Long story short, SNGs have a tougher caliber of player than the average MTT. This is especially true when you move up to $20+$2 SNGs and above, where semi pro and pro players become more common.

I’m not saying this to scare you, because sit and gos are still beatable. You can especially have success when playing SNGs ranging from $1+$0.10 to $10+$1.

But I recommend that you spend more time studying poker strategy as an SNG player than MTT players at similar stakes. A couple of great ways to improve your poker game include Twitch streams and YouTube videos.

Twitch streams are nice because you can watch skilled pros grinding in online sessions. They often give helpful tips on a number of situations while playing.

YouTube videos are my favorite source for individual concepts and situational play. If you’re having trouble knowing when to continuation bet in early position, then search for this topic in YouTube to find several videos on the matter.

Of course, you can also use other methods to improve, such as online articles, books, and poker training sites.

Conclusion

The seven points I’ve covered here should give you a solid strategy base for sit and gos.

Of course, no poker player is perfect, and you can always work on becoming a stronger player by learning more strategy.

You should especially do this if you’re a new player who’s learning the ropes.

Besides seeing what others have to say, you should also spend a fair amount of time reviewing your sessions. This helps you work through difficult hands and better handle these situations later on.

Texas holdem sit and go tournaments are one table poker
tournaments that can usually be completed in less than an hour.
The most popular variation is no limit Texas holdem, but you can
also play limit and pot limit at some rooms.

While a few land based casinos have started offering sit and
go tournaments, the majority of them are played online. Some
poker rooms offer two or three table tournaments, but the
traditional sit and go is a one table event with 9 or 10
players.

A common payout structure for a 10 seat game is 5 times the
buy in for first, 3 times the buy in for second, and 2 times the
buy in for third.

Here’s an example:

In a sit and go tournament where the buy in is $100 plus $10,
the first place finisher wins $500, second wins $300, and third
wins $200.

In a tournament with 9 players instead of 10 a common payout
for first is $450, second place gets $270, and third place wins
$180.

Break Even

If you’re going to be a long term profitable sit and go Texas
holdem player you need to know your break-even point.

It’s helpful to understand exactly how many times you have to
finish in the money and how many times you need to finish at
certain positions in order to break even in the long run.

In the long run you should finish in each of the first three
positions roughly the same amount of times. While this isn’t
100% true for every player, it’s close enough to get an idea for
calculating how often you need to get in the money to break
even.

Example

We find it easier to visualize and understand if we base all
of my long term projections and calculations on 100 events. So
in this example we’re using a buy in of $100 plus $10 over 100
sit and go tournaments.

Our total cost of entry is $110 times 100 for a total of
$11,000.

For a 10 person table the average win spread over the three
top spots is $333.33 when you get into the money. So you have to
get in the money 33 out of 100 time in order to break even. You
get this number by dividing $11,000 by $333.33.

If you’re playing at a 9 seat table the average win is $300,
so you need to finish in the money 37 times to finish slightly
better than break even. 36.67 times is the actual break-even
point.

A good goal is to finish in the money 40% of the time.

• When you finish in the money 40% of the time, your
  profit in the first example is $2,333 per 100 tournaments.
  This works out to $23.33 per tournament.
• In the second example 40% works out to $1,000 per
  tournament, or $10 per tournament.

Realize that with one fewer entrant in the second example it
reduces your average win rate if you finish in the money the
same percentage of the time, but it also makes it easier to
reach the same percentage.

Techniques Poker Sit And Go Back

To make the same amount per tournament on average at a 9 seat
table as a 10 seat table you need to finish in the money 44.44%
of the time instead of 40%.

In the Money

Of course the goal is to finish in the money in every Texas
holdem tournament you enter, but figuring out what it takes at
each stage of the tournament can involve a few more
calculations.

It helps to understand how many chips you need to finish in
the top three spots in a sit and go. Many tournaments start with
stacks of $1,000 so it’s easy to determine the average stack
size for the final three.

Of course you only need a single chip to get into the top
three, but by using the average you can quickly determine where
you stand at any point in the tournament.

• In a 10 seat sit and go each player will have an average
  of $3,333 when the field is reduced to three players.
• In a 9 person tournament each player will have an
  average of $3,000 chips.

When you find yourself in a position with over $2,000 in
chips with four players remaining you’re in decent shape, but
you can’t afford to let down or make any big mistakes. If you’re
in the same position with $4,000 or more in chips you can
usually slow down and only play your best hands.

This information also gives you a good idea of how many times
you need to double up to get where you need to be. You might
start feeling pressed when you get down to $500 chips, but you
only need to double up twice to get to $2,000.

Even if you’re down to $200 in chips you only have to double
up three times to get to $1,600.

Blinds

The blinds force action in sit and go tournaments just like
in ring games and multi table tournaments, but they force action
faster in sit and go’s.

The blinds go up quickly so you have to play aggressively
early in order to build a large enough stack to survive until
you get into the money.

We’ve seen many players complain that sit and go tournaments
are reduced to luck because of this, but it’s simply not true.
The best poker players win more often than poor players in the
long run, so it can’t all be about luck.

Skill is what determines sit and go winners, not luck.

What you have to do is adjust your game so you take the
rising blinds into account.

Reducing Players and Hand Strength

Another interesting thing that happens while you play sit and
go tournaments is the number of players goes down as the
tournament progresses so the relative hand strength changes.

Few poker players are able to play their best game at both a
10 person table and a 6 person table, but a sit and go combines
both of these as well as short hand play that ends with heads up
combat.

Hand strengths change depending on how many players remain.
Here are some examples:

If you get a pair of kings at the table with 9 other players,
they have 18 of the 50 remaining unseen cards. 4 of those cards
are aces. This means that the odds are that at least one of them
has an ace in their hand.

When you get a pair of kings and only have 3 opponents they
only have 6 of the remaining 50 cards so it’s much less likely
one of them holds an ace.

Of course a pair of kings is a strong starting hand in any
situation, but if an ace lands on the flop you can judge how
likely an opponent is to have one in both situations.

With a full table a pair of nines from early position should
usually be folded, but when the table is three or four handed it
becomes a strong starting hand from any position.

Any hand that contains an ace also greatly improves in value
as the tournament goes on. You don’t want to play aces with poor
kickers at a full table but with three players they’re usually
strong hands.

Two Distinct Strategies Plus a Bonus

Most successful players use one of two different strategies.

Strategy 1

The first strategy is folding all but your best hands until
you’re forced to play because the blinds are getting too high.
When you do enter a hand you play aggressively, usually over
betting, in an attempt to get all in every time you play. This
gives you a chance to double up with your best hands until you
get a large enough chip stack that you can adjust your play
until you get into the money.

If you play in sit and go tournaments with many of the same
players over and over a few of them may get wise to this
strategy and stop giving you action early in the tournament. But
most players don’t pay attention and will give you action on
most hands.

This strategy works well for many players, but the key is
learning how to value starting hands while you have an average
stack and when you get low and are forced to play because of the
blinds.

The mistake many players make is losing patience and playing
hands that aren’t as good as they need to be or jump into a pot
before they have to.

If you have enough chips to pay the blinds for three more
rounds you have plenty of time to pick up a good hand to make a
move with.

We’ve seen players push with middle suited connectors and
small pairs at this point, and it isn’t a good play. If you’re
down to your final round of blinds you can play these hands, but
you don’t need to before.

When we’re looking for a hand to push with when we get short
stacked in addition to the top normal hands here’s a list of the
types of hands, somewhat in order from best to worst, that we
want.

• Any hand with an ace, but suited is better
• Medium pairs, 7 and above
• Any two face cards
• Any king with a suited second card
• Suited queen

Strategy 2

The other winning strategy is playing a wider range of hands
with high aggression from the beginning of the tournament. The
idea is to bully the table and steal many blinds and small bets.

If the table lets you play this style you may be able to
build enough of a stack that when one of your opponents lands a
strong hand you’ll have enough to take the loss and continue
playing.

One main problem with this style is you rely on too much luck
early to stay in the game and not run up against a big hand.

More players are successful playing the first style than the
second, but some players are good enough to make money with the
second style.

Successful players who use the second strategy are really
good at using their position, stack size, and knowledge of the
other players and situations at every point in the tournament.

Alternative Strategy

A third strategy is an all-in system. The basic concept is
every time you play a hand you move all in until you reach the
money. Once you reach the money you usually adjust your play to
maximize your chances of winning.

The reason we list the third strategy as a bonus instead of
three different strategies is because the first and third
strategy are similar. This strategy stems from a multi table
Texas holdem tournament strategy that can be used to give an
inexperienced player a chance.

An inexperienced player is given a list of starting hands and
they fold everything not on the list and move all in with
anything on the list. It’s not a long term profitable play in
multi table tournaments, but with some thought and practice it
can work at some levels of sit and go play.

Notice that all of the strategies discussed here are
based on aggressive play. The blinds go up too fast for passive
play to be profitable in the long run. You have to play in an
aggressive manner if you hope to turn a long term profit at the
Texas holdem sit and go tables.

Competition

Just like Texas holdem ring games, the competition gets
better as the buy ins go up in sit and go tournaments. This
isn’t always true in multi table tournaments.

At the lower buy in levels you can usually turn a profit by
playing solid poker, remaining tight and aggressive, and
focusing on not doing anything stupid. As you start playing for
higher stakes the competition gets better, but most tables will
still have a few poor players. At the top buy in levels the
overall competition is much better, but you’ll still see a few
players who don’t seem to know what they’re doing.

During the online poker boom when Party Poker was the biggest
poker room in the world you could play in many low limit sit and
go tournaments, with buy in levels of $10 plus $1 or so, and
simply fold everything except high pocket pairs and get into the
money enough times to break even or turn a small profit.

The games were filled with poor players and all you had to do
was be patient. We distinctly remember playing in a few games
where we didn’t play a single hand until we were in the money.

Things have changed and you have to play a few hands even at
the lowest levels today, but the same basic concept still seems
to work well. Be patient, focus on your best hands early, and
play solid ABC poker.

At the higher levels you have to combine solid poker
fundamentals with knowledge of the other players. The top buy in
levels have a much smaller number of regular players so you need
to start building a database of information about them as soon
as you start playing. You need to be able to exploit playing
tendencies and poor playing decisions at this level if you want
to win enough to overcome the rake.

The rake is the extra add on instead of a charge per hand. In
a $10 plus $1 sit and go tournament, the $1 is the rake, or fee
the poker room collects.

Summary

Texas holdem sit and go tournaments require a different set
of advanced skills than larger tournaments and ring games, but
they can be quite profitable if you’re willing to learn the best
strategy.
Even if you’re an experienced Texas holdem player, try your
hand at the lower buy in levels until you grasp the subtle
strategy adjustments you need to make. Remember that it could
take hundreds of tournaments to get a real picture of your
success. Don’t be in a hurry to move up to the next level until
you’re convinced you’re playing winning poker.