In part one of this series we discussed how Terminator Sit & Go’s vary from standard games and briefly outlined some of the strategies needed to adjust to this format. Now we are going to look in more detail at how to approach them in the early game. 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.