In speed Sit & Go’s you want to be targeting everyone, but for very different reasons throughout the game. In the early levels (levels one to three) you want to be targeting the very good and very bad players. You can exploit the good players – who we assume will know ‘correct’ early strategy and also are probably multi-tabling – by going after their blinds when you’ve got position or very few players to go through. For instance, if you’re in seat seven and you know seat nine is a solid player, raising when you’re on the button is a great spot to pick up some chips as this player is unlikely to be pulling moves at this stage. If you are called you will have position and you can use that to your advantage. As for the very bad players, when the blinds are small (10/20, 20/40 and 30/60) you want to play pots against them in position with hands that you’re either playing for value or that can flop massive. In fact you can do so profitably because the bad players are more likely to stack off lightly with a poor made hand postflop.
Pick your mark
In the later stages you really need to keep a close eye on the clock, because a shift in blind levels can take your stack from comfortable to imperilled. When you get down to five or six players, at which point you’re almost always playing push/fold, you want to target players based on their playing style, stack size and your position relative to them at the table. Going after players who are tight and/or weak is a good tactic as their calling range will be so tight. In terms of stack size, focus on players who are comfortable but will be decimated should you beat them in an all-in confrontation. So if you’ve got a stack of 2,800 at 150/300 and the two players to your left have 3,700 and 4,000 respectively, this is a great spot to shove, as the players have far more to lose by calling and shipping you chips than they have to gain by knocking you out at this point. Accordingly, their range should be fairly tight and that is something that must be willing to exploit.