Sit & Go!

The attraction of Sit & Go tournaments (a.k.a. single- table tournaments) is that they offer the tournament experience in a compressed format. A multi-table tournament can take hours to play and still not pay -out if you go out before the money. Sit & Go’s are usually over within an hour and offer loads of action from the start.

They also provide you with a stop loss. You know the maximum amount you can lose going in.

Game structure

Most Sit & Go’s consist of a table of either six or ten players. Games aren’t scheduled, they start when the table fills up (the clue is in the name). Buy-in’s start from as low as one dollar and go up from there to as much as several hundred .

On tables of ten, prizes are usually divided between the top three finishers, with first place taking half the pot (so, $50 in a tourney with a $10 entry), second prize taking 30 per cent (so, $30), and third place taking 20 per cent ($ 20).

Chips and blinds

Game flow

Just like in multi-table tourneys, Sit & Go’s move through a series of stages where the table will loosen or tighten up. Knowing how to change gears to take advantage of the flow of play is critical.

Games will sometimes start with a flurry of activity. Some players will try to double up, or establish a super-aggressive table image with huge bets before the flop. It’s not unusual to see one or two players eliminated within the first few hands. Just like in a multi-table tourney it’s hard to read what these early big bets mean so it’s dangerous to get involved without very strong cards.

Play will eventually tighten up, with players eyeing each other up and getting accustomed to each other’s styles. As the blinds go through the low to middle stage, play becomes more aggressive. Relative changes in stack sizes can create heavy betting situations with big stacks going after the little guys and the little guys looking for opportunities to double up.

Observation

Observation pays off in Sit & Go’s like in no other form of poker. You get to see all of the hands that all of your opponents are in for the duration of your stay. No moving tables like in a multi-table tournament, no players coming and going like in a cash game. That makes reading player styles and sending out the right messages even more critical.

So is changing gears. Playing one style throughout a Sit & Go makes you far too predictable. If your game play has been staying ‘loose’ then tightening up may induce bluffs and over-bets at your strong hands, while appearing too tight gives you more opportunities to steal later on.

End game

The final stages of a Sit & Go are always exciting – it’s virtually a game unto itself. The relative value of pocket cards go up as the table becomes short handed and players are forced to pay the (now quite expensive) big blind every third or fourth hand. Short stacks are under huge pressure to double up while big stacks are wary of giving them new hope.

Hands need to be played aggressively at this stage and normally won’t progress beyond the flop. Pre-flop raises come often as do all ins after the flop. The slow play becomes a more attractive option here with a guarantee of fewer hands to beat you and marginal hole cards being played very aggressively. Betting also needs to become highly targeted, aimed less at the size of the pot and more at the size of an opponent’s stack.

Players struggling in lower positions need to treat every bet as leading to a potential all-in situation. They also need to pay close attention to the blinds and calculate the number of hands they’ll get to see before their either blinded out, or their stack gets so low that a semi-bluff with an all-in would be easy to call. Remember, an all-in that’s going to put your opponent below you if he loses is infinitely harder to call than one that isn’t.

As a rule of thumb, if you’re short stacked and need to make a play, you’re better targeting a small/medium stack with a bluff and big stacks, who will be looser and more likely to call, with strong cards.

Players with middling chip stacks need to target the short stack(s) with aggressive bets and be wary of the gorilla in their midst with the big stack.

The first thing a big stack should do when a Sit & Go gets to the point where there is only one player left before the bubble, is add up all the chips on the table that aren’t his. If there are a similar number or fewer chips out there than your own then you know right then that all you have to do is stay ahead of the blinds to be in a good position to win the tournament. The table is going to be very loose and throwing chips away by calling a lot of hands is throwing your advantage away.

That said, the big stack shouldn’t go into a shell and ignore opportunities to steal pots. Look for signs of fear on the table – other players are bound to be worried about going out of the tourney one place before the money. Very short stacks ‘just hanging in’ for second or third place will fold easily to your raises and have the added bonus of making it harder for anyone at the table to call your strong bets. N o one wants to go out of a tournament having been second in chips with nothing to show.