If you want to win consistently when you play Sit and Go tournaments, you need to understand how to approach each stage of the game. Here are some tactics to keep in mind as the tournament progresses.
Early Stages
Don’t be a hero in the early stages of the tournament. If you have premium hole cards, play them, but don’t play marginal hands early on. Your object is to finish the tournament in first place. Let your opponents compete among each other for small blinds and measly pots and if you play at online poker sites, there are quite a few players who play recklessly in the early stages. When there are fewer players at the table, your chances of finishing first will increase dramatically.
While some people will advice you to get out to an early chip lead so that you can coast to the money, this isn’t the best way to play the first few rounds. During the first few rounds, the blinds are small, and most pots are as well. Be patient. Don’t bluff or steal blinds. Wait for the stakes to increase and wait until the number of players dwindles before you start to make bold moves.
If you want to get a feeling of which starting hands actually are considered to be premium, test different holdings against each other in a texas holdem calculator.
Middle Stages
As the blinds go up and the number of players shrinks, you should become more aggressive. You can begin to limp in with marginal hands so that you can see what sort of help you can get from the pot. Patience is still critical, but a general loosening up is mandatory at this point. Your super tight style has helped you stick around, but it’s in the middle stages of the tournament that you’re going to pull out ahead. Start stealing blinds. Monitor the size of your stack, and make sure your keeping pace with the chip leader.
Final Stages
If you’ve played a tight, conservative game in the early rounds and a more aggressive, looser style in the middle rounds, you should be able to compete against the final heads at the table. By now your opponents aren’t sure what to make of you. You’ve switched tactics quite a bit, but as the tournament reaches its conclusion your aggression is at an all time high. Every hand matters so you can’t afford to get pushed around by one or two remaining opponents. Consider using pre-flop raises to show the strength of your pocket cards. Don’t bet the farm on horrible cards—you will still have to fold sometimes. Don’t play anything like you did in the early stagers of the tourney. You can’t afford to wait for decent cards.
Heads up Action
When you’re down to heads up action, you need to take advantage of betting second. Force your opponent to fold by showing strength. Even with marginal hands, don’t start checking after the flop. Always find a reason to bet, but recognize when you’re beat. Everything is just quicker and more intense in heads up play so be sure you’re up for the challenge. Your best play is to use the push or fold tactic. Push all your chips in with solid hands or fold right away and don’t participate in the hand.
If you can successfully adjust your game as the tournament unfolds, you will enjoy success in Sit and Go’s. These tournaments go by really fast. If you master Sit and Go strategy adjustments, you can earn a great deal of money in a relatively short period of time.
