Poker Tournaments--Sit-and-Go Strategy
In this article we look at various strategy tips from the pros surrounding Sit-and-Go tournaments.
What is a Sit-and-Go?
Basically it’s a nine-handed game (although six-handed is becoming popular too) that begins as soon as nine people “sit down.” The rounds usually move a little quicker than in larger tournaments and there are no re-buys. A typical sit-and-go tournament has six-minute levels (about 15 hands per level with a full table) and three players are "paid" with about 50 percent of the prize money being awarded for first place, 30 percent for second place, and 20 percent for third place. Players usually start with 1,500 in tournament chips.
Why Should I Play in One? As Howard Lederer describes: “The Sit-N-Go (SNG) is online poker's great gift to the aspiring tournament player. Prior to the SNG, final table experience was hard to come by. You could enter a dozen multi-table tournaments and never find yourself at a final table. Or you could make one or two, only to get knocked out in 8th or 9th place. Adapting to an ever-diminishing number of players at a single table is a crucial skill in tournament poker, and it's a hard experience to find offline without investing a lot of time and money. Online, this experience is a mouse-click away. The SNG's advantages are many. For starters, it's low-cost, or even free. It's also fun, and convenient: You don't need to schedule it -- a SNG starts every time the table fills up -- and it's usually over in less than an hour. It is the flight simulator of Final Table play, and mastering it should be considered mandatory homework for the serious student.”
What is the optimum strategy? Early Stages.
All three of our pros recommend tight play early on in the Sit-n-Go. Chris Moneymaker gives the following advice:
1. Early in the tournament, don't gamble. You'll see other people around you gambling, but you shouldn't get involved unless you have a big hand. Big hands are AA, KK, QQ, AK. For the first 3-4 blind levels, you shouldn't be playing any other hands except these (with one exception, listed next). If you have AA, KK, or QQ, try to get all-in before the flop. Your preferred plan with AK is to re-raise a raiser all-in and have him fold. If you see a flop with AK and you didn't hit a pair, you probably need to get out.
2. You can call with a pocket pair (e.g., 88) if what it costs you to call is less than about 1/15th of your chips. For instance, if you have 1000 chips, if you can call for less than 60-70 chips, do so. Your plan is to flop a set or an overpair. If you don't flop a set or an overpair, you get out. If you flop a set, try to get all your chips in the middle. If you flop an overpair, you may be willing to get all-in - you may not. Tread carefully.
3. If you're the second person to put in a raise, it's usually not correct to raise the minimum amount. A good rule of thumb is to raise about the size of the pot. For instance, suppose everybody has 1000 chips, and it's 20 to go. One person calls, the next makes it 40. If you have KK, you should not raise to 60. There are a few options here:
a)Raise the pot. That would be a raise of about 130 chips (including the 10 and 20 already in the middle).
b)Raise a large amount that will really commit your opponent to the pot after the flop. For instance a raise to 400-500. When the flop comes down, if there's no dreaded ace, then move the rest of your chips in.
c)Raise all-in right there. If somebody wants to call you with AJ or QQ, fine.”
Howard Lederer also recommends tight play:
“Since the size of the blinds relative to your stack size should always play a major role in you hand selection, I recommend starting out with pretty conservative starting hand requirements. This serves two functions: First, the blinds dictate that you play fairly tight early; the blinds are small and you are nine-handed, so they don't come around as often. Second, this helps you establish a tight image, which you hope will pay off later when the blinds are high and you might really need a timely ante steal.”
Phil Gordon gives similar advice:
“15/30 Level: I play very, very tight during the first level while I'm getting a feel for the table. At the lower limits (100 buy-in and below) there are always a few players at the table that are maniacal. I try to stay out of the way of these guys unless I get a big hand. I'm not scared to put the chips in the pot with pocket aces, kings, queens or ace-king, but I'm not looking to commit a large part of my stack before the flop without one of these premium hands. I'm looking for betting patterns here that I can exploit at critical stages of the tournament -- I'm particularly looking for players that play a very loose, aggressive game from late position. I note these players and plan to take advantage of them later. It will not surprise me to see one player eliminated at this level, but one or two players eliminated early will not change my strategy of tight play.
20/40 Level: Again, I play very tight. It will be rare that I'll have to post more than three total sets of blinds by the end of this level -- if I fold every single hand in the 15/30 and 20/40 level, I'll still have, on average, about 1,350 in chips at the end of this level. In my experience, the average number of players remaining at the end of this level is about eight: tight is still right.
25/50 Level: I have a tight image now, and I'm ready to make my first move. If a loose player "limps" into the pot in middle or late position, I'm willing to raise and try to win the pot from superior position. I'm willing to try to steal the blinds from late position as well. Remember, I've been playing absurdly tight for the first two levels, so my raises will get some respect.”
What is the optimum strategy? Middle Stages.
During the middle stages, the pros suggest that you make use of your tight image and open up your game a little bit. However, they also stress that you don’t want to overdo it unless you find yourself as one of the short stacks.
Phil Gordon recommends the following:
“30/60 Level: This is a very, very small increase in blinds from the previous level. Much of the strategy from the 25/50 level still applies. I am very careful here to not raise the blinds of short-stacked opponents without a premium hand. Short stacks here will be about 350-500. If I raise a player with that stack and they move in, I'm 100 percent committed to calling them because I'll almost always be getting the correct odds to do so. However, having a sub-premium hand in this spot is a recipe for becoming a short stack. I'll take a shot at stealing the blinds if it presents itself.
40/80 Level: By this time, there are usually seven players left in the tournament. I'm going to loosen up my starting hand requirements just a bit, but I'm still going to be very selective preflop from early position. Remember, this is an extremely small increase in blinds from the previous level. I no longer consider limping a valid strategy preflop. If I'm ever going to play a hand and I'm the first to voluntarily commit chips to the pot, I'm raising.
50/100 Level: Usually, there are five or six players left in the tournament at this level. That puts the average chip stack at around 2,600 or so. Players are not feeling the "squeeze" unless they have about 1,000 in chips or fewer. But I still have to loosen up a bit because the blinds are coming around very quickly. "Sitting out" for the entire level will be catastrophic to the stack -- I'll lose at least three sets of blinds for a combined 450 loss should I get too tight here. I try to pick up at least one blind steal during this level. If there are still seven or eight players left in the tournament, realize that big conflicts are coming -- a raise and a reraise virtually force the players all-in.
With five players, remaining, just two spots to the money, this is a great time to get aggressive. In my experience, there are usually five players left in the tournament at around the $80/$160 level of blinds. The average stack at this level is $2,700.
•If I am below five or six big blinds at this level ($800-$1,000 in chips) I will play very aggressively and just take a shot at stealing the blinds or doubling up. I find that most players are waiting for players to bust out and are unwilling to commit $800 to the pot to do so. I particularly look to steal the blinds from players with average stacks -- they can afford to fold and are unlikely to want to commit a large number of chips to the pot.
•If I am a big stack ($4,000-plus) at this point, there will be at least one or two small stacks. But I realize that the small stacks are still capable of inflicting some damage. Even a loss of $800 at this point in the tournament can bring me from big stack back to average. I'm looking to steal from the average stacks and get the money in with the best hand against the small stacks. If there is another big stack at the table, all the rest of the players remaining will have small stacks -- I am very careful not to get into a situation where I can get squeezed and frozen out of the pot (i.e. the "Fish and Chip Sandwich" play).”
What is the optimum strategy? Late Stages.
Again, the experts agree—the late stages are the time to open up your game. As Moneymaker describes: “As you get near the cash, and particularly on the bubble (one more player to bust out before everybody is in the money), many players will become extremely tight and play very conservatively, unwilling to be the last one to bust out before the money. Take advantage of this - you should be able to steal blinds frequently. This will set you up with a good stack once you've gotten into the money.”
Or as Lederer puts it: “There is a not-so-obvious reason to play tighter earlier and looser later: The payout structure rewards tight play. Most SNG's pay 50% to first, 30% to second, and 20% to third. This payout structure dictates that you play for third. Why? Looking at the payout structure another way might help. Basically, the payout means that 60% gets awarded once you are down to three players, 20% gets awarded when you get down to two players, and the final 20% gets awarded to the winner. If you can just get to third, you get at least one-third of 60% of the prize pool, or 20%. You've locked up a profit, and you have a chance to win up to 30% more. It's only now that you're in the top three that your strategy should take an abrupt turn. Now it pays to gamble for the win. Let's look at the numbers again: 60% of the prize pool is off the table, and moving up one spot is worth only another 10%. But move up just one more spot and it's worth a whopping 30% extra -- that's three times more for first than it is for second. And with the blinds going up, gambling for the win is even more clearly the correct play.
I see many players employ a nearly opposite strategy. They figure they have nothing to lose, so they go for the quick double-up early. They take chances too soon when, in their view, there's "nothing on the line". Then, once they're in the money, they tighten up, thinking about that extra payout for moving up a spot. If you start to rethink your SNG approach and adopt a "slow early, fast late" strategy, you will see an almost immediate improvement in your results.”
Phil Gordon also weighs in similar fashion: “With four players remaining, one spot left to the money, most players in the sit-and-go will play far too tight for the blinds. Instead of raising three times the big blind, I find that a minimum raise will often get the job done -- any raise is enough to get the remaining players to fold. I am very careful here about playing a hand from the small blind if the big blind is a short stack -- this is often a way to get caught in the chip sandwich. The real key to a four-handed game is to make sure that if you put chips into the pot, you'll get to see the flop if you don't have the best hand or you'll get all-in before the flop with the best hand. One of the worst things that can happen to you in a four-handed game is having to fold the hand after raising the pot -- with the big blind often at $200, a preflop raise of three times the big blind ($600) will always be nearly one-fifth of your stack.
After the bubble has burst and the sit-and-go is reduced to three players, it is time to get very aggressive -- the shorter the stack, the more aggressive you have to be. Remember, if you have the shortest stack, you're expected to go out in third place. Give yourself a fighting chance to win by taking a stand early and often.
If you get to heads-up, realize that the blinds will nearly always be quite significant and that both players will have an average of about 15 big blinds. Heads-up is tough, and with the blinds so big, it is even tougher. I recommend playing almost every single hand you're dealt when you're on the button -- raise 2½ times the big blind with about 65 percent of the hands, limp and just complete the blind 30 percent of the time, and fold 5 percent of the time. When limping, make sure that for every three times you limp with a bad hand you're willing to fold to a raise, you limp with a good hand you're willing to move all-in with before the flop.”
Conclusion:
All in all, sit-and-go tourneys are a great way to develop your final-table skills. If you follow the expert advice mentioned above, start tight—slowly open up— finish aggressive, you’ll improve your results in no time.
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