The Sit & Go is a form of poker that’s open to reinvention, and PKR has introduced a brand new format in the shape of the Terminator Sit & Go. Available for buy-ins of $5 to $20, Terminators dispense with traditional payout structures, with your winnings determined entirely by how many other players you knock out. 100% of your buy-in goes into bounty prizes, and for each player you knock out you claim 75% of their bounty value. The remaining 25% goes on your head, increasing your attractiveness as a target, and only by winning the Sit & Go do you get to claim the bounty on your own head!
Clearly therefore the strategy considerations that apply to normal Sit & Go’s need modifying for success in Terminators, and with no prize positions ICM considerations are irrelevant. Rather, you should be looking to target the weaker players as much as possible in the early game in order to knock them out before anyone else can claim their bounties. As the stacks diversify and the blinds rise you need to start weighing the value of knocking out other players against the proportion of your stack you will have to risk, as well as the size of the bounty up for grabs.
Bounty hunter
We can best consider this by looking at an example in a $10 Sit & Go. Obviously there is $100 in prize money to win if you knock out every single player and win, but this is fairly unlikely and so getting any decent proportion of this will be a massive victory. At the start of each event you can get $7.50 per player you knock out (with the other $2.50 adding to your bounty), so you are simply looking for the best hands or weakest players. But with four players left $45 will have been claimed in bounties and $55 will remain on the players’ heads, with each person having between $10 and $25 on them.
Often the biggest bounties will be the biggest stacks, but if players with big bounties have been knocked down you should be more inclined to go after them. For example, if a player has knocked three people out and has a bounty of $15 on his head but has since dribbled down to a starting stack of 1,500, which you have covered, you should call them much lighter. The chance of claiming the inflated bounty is worth lowering your calling standards.
Early game
Now let's look in more detail at how to tackle the early game in Terminator SNGs. As we have already seen, each player begins the game with a bounty on them equivalent to the buy-in, and when someone is knocked out the winner claims 75% of the bounty, with the additional 25% going on their head.
At the start each player has 1,500 chips, and with levels lasting eight minutes there should be plenty of scope to play deep and get involved in hands early on (especially while there are still weaker players in the game that are likely to give their chips away). Your first job therefore should be to profile your opponents over the first 10-20 hands to see who is doing things that might be considered fishy, like playing lots of bad hands, raising odd amounts or open-limping in late position. Of course, you will need to consider you own hand in doing this, but when you have a marginal holding you should tend to base your decision about whether to play or fold, on how good or bad your opponent is.
What hands should you play?
Your starting hand requirements don’t need to vary much from conventional Sit & Go’s as it is still a game of hold’ em. However, with no ICM (Independent Chip Model) considerations you simply want to be thinking about amassing chips and knocking players out, as your elimination doesn’t really benefit players not involved in that hand.
Traditional tournament strategy still applies in that if you get knocked out you may forgo future opportunities that could be very profitable. As such you shouldn’t get involved in close equity situations (particularly if there are lot of tiny stacks that you may be able to sweep up), but with any decent edge you should be happy to put your chips in, as winning will give you not only a bounty, but also the opportunity to be more aggressive with the additional chips as you become a more difficult target to eliminate.
In the thick of it
While a simple, straightforward strategy is best in the early stages, as Terminators progress things start to get more complicated. Players will have differing stack sizes and varying bounties on their heads, and the size of the bounty will not always correspond to the size of the stack.
One thing that is true in the later game of this format is that if you get a lot of chips by knocking other players out and then lose them, you will become a more attractive target for the remaining players. With this in mind it is wise to avoid large and potentially devastating confrontations that can knock you down, leaving you vulnerable to attack. Instead, focus on eliminating the players that are themselves low on chips (unless you are a big favourite).
Putting stacks into practice
Consider a situation where there are four players left in a $10 game. At this stage there would be $55 left in equity after six $7.50 bounties have been claimed. Now imagine we have stacks and bounties of 2,000 ($10 bounty), 1,500 ($15 bounty), 3,500 ($12.50 bounty) and 8,000 ($17.50 bounty). Here clearly the biggest bounty is not the most attractive target as no-one can knock out the big stack in one fell swoop. Instead its best to target the second biggest bounty who is also on the smallest stack.
The likely game flow here is that the big stack will be able to bully everyone by moving all-in frequently, assuming the blinds are high, since calling against him will be terrible with no possible bounty reward and because the chances of another player winning overall are not very good at this point. The other stacks will have to look for opportunities as best they can where they may win additional chips and a bounty.
The player with 2,000 chips therefore should be very keen to gamble with the player with 1,500 chips, as it will give him a big bounty and equal chips to the second place player if he wins, whereas the 3,500 stack should be looking to attack the 2,000 stack, who will want to avoid a confrontation.
Of course, with 1,500 chips and a high bounty the low stack is in an awkward position and should simply be looking for the best possible hands to push or call all-in with, or situations where winning the blinds or doubling up will allow him to cover another player and get back in the game. Such a huge lead in a Terinator should ensure that with a little luck you should be able to bully your way to glory!