Advanced Sit And Go Tournament Strategy
- Understanding poker strategy can be difficult, but it will ultimately pay off in the long run
- Due to a bigger pot, most online poker players find multi-table games better value for money
- However, single-table games move much quicker and you can build up a knowledge of other players at the table far easier
The advanced Sit And Go tournament strategy guide will help you get the most out of your poker game. Sit and go tournaments are the most popular type of tournaments in online poker rooms. More and more players are figuring out that these fast paced tournaments can be an excellent way to make money and gain valuable experience playing poker. Still, if you are going to succeed playing online poker Sit and Gos, you need an advanced Sit And Go tournament strategy, you also have to be able to act quickly and follow some fairly complicated principles. You will never be able to win every time, but with a little bit of practice, you should be able to win enough to make a consistent profit.
Advanced Sit and go tournament strategy can be extremely difficult to master. As any novice player will tell you, it’s not easy to jump right into these poker tournaments and finish in the money. In effect, you have to take your lumps a little bit and find out what it’s like to handle the pressure. Every hand can be your last, and you’re never too far from the money, you just have to gain the valuable experience necessary to make the right moves.
It’s not difficult to jump right into the action, but you do need to follow an advanced Sit And Go tournament strategy. Every single major poker client, including all of the ones you can find listed on this site, offer a number of different options in this category. Any day of the week, you can log on and find a ton of tournaments running. Sometimes it is even difficult to get a seat at one of these poker tournaments, as they fill up extremely quickly. Why are all of these players trying to put their name into the hat? They are trying to earn quick money in a fast paced, entertaining tournament setting. With multiple table tournaments, it isn’t easy to get to the money quickly. This age of instant gratification demands instant reward, and Sit and Go tournaments provide that. How do you take advantage of this? You have to follow some kind of advanced Sit And Go tournament strategy, and the rules laid out in this comprehensive guide will help your game advance a lot further.
Before you get started with learning about Sit and Go tournaments, there is a very important aspect of these poker games that you need to understand; no one at the table has earned their way onto the table. With multiple table tournaments, players are at the final poker table because they’ve played well enough to get there, following their own kind of advanced Sit And Go tournament strategy. You can logically expect that these players know what they’re doing. This isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to Sit and Gos, you have to assume that the players at your table are anywhere from novices to experts. Because of that, you must be ready for all sorts of styles of play.
Different Types of Sit and Go Poker
For the most part, when you follow any kind of advanced Sit And Go tournament strategy, you will run into two different kinds of Sit and Gos. There will either be a single table Sit and Go or multiple table Sit and Go poker tournaments. You might also see a variation of these two types that is called a “turbo” tournament, which speeds of the pace of play and the blinds. You have to play some of these Sit and Gos in order to figure out which ones you like the best. Some players thrive in turbo mode, while others like a slower pace. After a few tries at various levels, you will come to figure out which type of Sit and Go is best for you.
Some players also like to participate in short handed Sit and Go poker tournaments. You can enter either four person or one-on-one Sit and Gos, which effectively place you at the final table of a tournament in a short handed setting. Your style of play has to be quite aggressive and different in order to succeed in these tournaments, so you’ll need to follow a slightly different advanced Sit And Go tournament strategy. Some players love them, while others don’t have a chance in them, the only way to figure out where you stand is to try your hand at one of these tournaments.
Most players find that multiple table Sit and Gos are a better value because they offer a much bigger pot. Because there will be 18 or 20 players in these tournaments, there are a few extra buy ins to divide among the winning players. If you become good at playing Sit and Gos, then you can easily adjust to the bigger tournament size. You just have to allow other players to eliminate themselves and stay patient enough to hand around until the money. These tournaments do take longer, though; so many players steer clear of them.
Single table sit and go tournaments have their obvious advantages. For one, you get to observe all of the players in the tournament from the start, all the way until the finish, there is no mystery and you never have to worry about players coming over from the other table. In addition to that, the tournaments move much more quickly, so you can play a number of them in a short period of time.
- Entry Fee Considerations
Like with any type of poker tournament, you will be required to pay an entry fee if you want to play. Buy ins can range greatly depending upon where you look. Though there are a small number of poker rooms that provide cheaper sit and go buy ins, the majority of rooms don’t offer anything less than $5. The high end of the spectrum is right around $5,000, though these games don’t run all that often. Generally, players like to play sit and go tournaments anywhere from $5 to $100. When choosing which level to play at, there are quite a few things to keep in mind. This is the first decision that you have to make in order to be successful in sit and go tournaments.
- High Stakes Equals High Quality
As a general rule, the higher the buy in for the sit and go, the better the player. You won’t see top flight players playing in $5 Sit and Gos. Likewise, there aren’t going to be too many fish in $100 buy in Sit and Gos. If you have plenty of experience, then you should jump in at a higher level. If you happen to be something of a novice, then you should try your hand at small buy ins. This way, you can work your way up and gain experience without having to go head to head with excellent players.
- Manage Your Bankroll
In addition to worrying about higher competition, you should also keep your bankroll in mind when starting new tournaments. Some players would like to throw their entire bankroll at a single tournament in hopes of making a huge splash, but this is never a good idea. You should never go in with more than 10% of your bankroll on a single tournament. This way, you can survive the bad runs of luck, because they are certainly going to happen. Do your best to stay patient and build that bankroll slowly. There is no easy way to make a ton of money playing poker. If you try to do so, you will lose and it will hurt.
- General Sit and Go Approach
Playing in a sit and go tournament is unlike any other sort of poker play that you’ll find. You have to have a sharp approach and stick to it in order to be successful. There is really no other way to go about it. There are a few things that stick out as far as basic poker strategy that are important in regards to Sit and Go tournaments.
- Playing Position in Sit and Go Tournaments
Depending upon what type of sit and go tournament you enter, you will have to use a different strategy in regards to position. If you are playing at a standard Sit and Go tourney, then you will want to be a little bit more conservative in how you play your hands. You can afford to wait on good hands in late position and make your move from there. In turbo tournaments, you might have to make some moves from early position. In general, it is better to wait on your opponents to make mistakes instead of going ahead and putting your chips at risk with a weak hand.
- The Constantly Changing Dynamic
It might sound difficult, but you will have to constantly change your play in order to keep up with your opponents in a sit and go tournament. In addition to that, you will also have to alter your play in order to keep up with the changing blinds. Sit and Go tournaments present an interesting dynamic in that the number of players at the table will be changing almost continuously. You will start with either nine or ten players, but before too long, that will change. You will have eight and then seven and so on. Learning how to play in both a full table and in a short handed situation is extremely important. You have to learn when is the right time to make a move. If you wait too long, you risk being destroyed by the rising blinds. If you make a move too soon, you could leave yourself open to a bit hit that will cripple your ability to compete.
- Learning to Conquer Heads Up Play
As I mentioned before, the dynamic of a sit and go tournament will be constantly changing. From that, you will see that you will end up in a heads up situation if you plan to win the tournament. Most players have absolutely no idea how to play heads up poker, because it isn’t something that you would normally do. It can be extremely fun though, if you know what you are doing. In sit and go tournaments, the difference in prize money for the winner and the second place finisher is often large. If you are going to make the leap to winning tournaments, you will have to learn to take down another good player. As far as heads up strategy goes, be prepared to play aggressively in order to get what you want. Passive play in heads up situations will not only cost you chips, but it will cost you table image. If the player on the other side of the table figures out that he can own the table, then he will do that. You can’t allow him to get the upper hand or put pressure on you. Heads up play is one of the most difficult things in poker to conquer, but in order to have long term success, you have to learn to do it.
- Learning to Deal with Aggressive Players
A major part of advanced Sit And Go tournament strategy is understanding the type of aggressive players at the table. There is one type of aggressive that is effective in poker, and another type of aggressive player that just isn’t effective. When you see these wild, loose players, you have to take advantage. Some people buy into Sit and Gos and try to go in and make a big, quick splash. More times than not, they just bust out and move on to the next tournament. It is your job to make sure that their chips end up in your pile. Dealing with aggressive players is easy if you stay tight and play good starting hands. If a guy at your table is throwing all of his chips in with rag aces or small pairs, wait until you have a pair of queens in the hole, then go get him. Most of the time, these people will be willing to pay off your big hand if you play it correctly. Getting all of their chips can set you up to be in the money and make a run at the tournament title.
- Spotting Tells Online
Most people will tell you that it is impossible to pick up on tells in online poker. Though it is certainly easier to find tells in live poker, it is still possible to find some tells on your competitors in a sit and go online. One of the easiest tells to pick up has to do with the check-boxes at the bottom of the screen. Many players play in multiple tournaments, so they use the check-boxes to make their decisions before hand. In this case, then you can be certain if your competitor has a good hand if he checks the box for “auto-raise”. If he has the “check” box checked, then you can probably conclude that his hand is pretty average. Most of the time, players will use time to think things through when they have a good hand, so they won’t have to use check boxes. This isn’t always true, but it can be for many novice players on the internet. It is important to be conscious of these and other things, like if a player takes a specific amount of time for strong hands as opposed to weak ones.
- Utilise Bluffing and Learn How to Steal Blinds
You can’t have the best hand every time, nor can you flop a monster every time. In fact, you can’t even do this most of the time. Because of that, you have to be able to get some chips when you don’t have the best hand. Learning how to bluff isn’t easy and it’s often difficult to develop the guts to make moves in a sit and go. Likewise, many novice players don’t take advantage of the opportunity to steal the blinds when it presents itself. These are the pots that will set your game apart from that of your competitors. If you see that a few players have limped into a pot or if you’re on the button and no one has called, don’t hesitate to make a move on the blinds. As a sit and go progresses, the blinds become much more important. If you can manage to steal them a time or two, you can have enough chips to push around the other players in the tourney.
Sit and Go tournaments can be fun, and they are offered by just about every poker room on the internet. You can find one at pretty much all hours of the day if you look around hard enough. Sure, it’s fun to play in the big tournaments that have million dollar prizes for the winner, but Sit and Gos are much quicker and you can play many of them. Use advanced Sit And Go tournament strategy as a chance to add to your bankroll and also as a chance to get better at tournament play. You can practice in live action against other players and sharpen your skills. The majority of poker players will tell you that the only way to truly get better at any type of poker game is to do so with experience. With Sit and Gos, you can gain lots of valuable experience in a short period of time. On top of that, there is nothing like the feeling of winning a tournament after a tough heads up period with another worthy player.