Sit-And-Go Online Poker Strategy

Sit-And-Go Online Poker Strategy


Sit-and-go poker tournemants are very popular, at any given time there are thousands of sit-and-go's being played online, for a wide range of stakes.  They are great fun and prove to be very profitable, if played the correct way.  These posts will outline everything the average poker player must consider if he is  to go from sit-and-go rookie to steady, profitable sit-and-go winner.
Part one will focus on low-blind play.

Sit-and-go play is a completely different than cash-game play.

It's more similar to multi-table tournaments  There are no re-buys and once your chips are gone, you are gone.

So you need to protect the chips you're given at the start.
When the blinds are low you should employ a very conservative strategy.

There's no need to get over involved and risk tons of chips when the blinds are low.
 

When the blinds are low, tight is right.


Avoid Confrontation Early

In the early stages of a sit-and-go you'd like to avoid large-scale confrontations.

There's no need to run up large bluffs or overplay marginal hands. There will be plenty of time for being ultra-aggressive later, so don't worry.

What we're trying to do is stay out of the action early. While I advise you to play very tight, you should still be playing strong hands aggressively.

If you have a premium hand, by all means bring it in for a raise.


For Example:

Effective stacks $1,500. You have 9? 9? in the big blind. The blinds are $20/$40. There are four limpers to you.

In a cash game, this is a very easy raise. In a sit-and-go I would argue this is a check.

If you want to raise this hand, you'll have to make it at least 5 or 6x the big blind. You'll be out of position for the rest of the hand and there are four limpers in front of you.

For the sake of the example, you raise the pot to $240. The first two limpers fold and both the cut-off and the button call.

The flop comes Q? 4? 2?.
 

Now what?



This flop is fairly decent for your hand. Only one overcard and you took the lead pre-flop so you'll have to continuation-bet this flop.

You bet 2/3 the pot or about $500. The cut-off folds and the button calls.

Now What?

Now look at the spot you're in. You've just put half of your stack into the pot.

What are you going to do on the turn? The pot is now $1,800. If you fire again on the turn it will be for all your chips.

How much can you like your hand?

The answer is probably not that much. Checking and folding is also a pretty bad move, as you have half of your stack in the pot.

This is why I advocate the check pre-flop while the blinds are low. It allows you to avoid a sticky situation like this one.
If for example you had only called and hit a 9 on the turn you are in a great position.  There are 4 players in the hand and the chances another player connected with the flop are high.

There are lots of situations like this.

With speculative hands try and keep the pot small, small hand small pot, big hand big pot.

Rather than trying to push your small edges now it's better to conserve your chips for the higher blind levels.

Playing Your Position

Just like in cash games, you should play tight from early position.

By playing tight pre-flop you simplify your decisions after the flop. What you want to avoid early on in sit-and-gos is tough situations.

Avoid weak hands out of position.

As you know, tough situations lead to you losing chips, so avoid those tough spots as best you can.

One way to do that is to play even tighter from early position. You have to preserve those chips you have because when they're gone, you're gone.

So avoid playing weak hands out of position - you'll just be burning money.

Fold All Dominated Hands in Early Position

If you're in early position you should fold all dominated hands. Hands like A-T, A-J, K-Q and worse should hit the muck.

They may look like decent hands but believe me they can get you in all kinds of difficult situations.

You should still bring in your premium hands for raises.  Remember we are playing tight, not at all.


If the table has been playing passive, you can also try to limp decent pocket pairs (TT-66).

Add Hands to Your Raising List in Middle Position

From middle position you should play a similar tight game.

You can also add hands like AJo, AJs and KQs to your raising list.

You can start opening up your game a little bit more by limping pocket pairs and good suited connectors, but you don't want to to put yourself in situations where you're playing large pots with marginal hands.

Add Hands to Your Limping List in Late Position

From late position and the button you don't need to open your game much more than you already have in middle position.

You have a little more freedom, but you shouldn't be raising up your ace-rag hands or J-Ts just yet.

You can however start adding some hands to your limping range.

If you can get in cheap to a multi-way pot with a good suited connector or a pocket pair, that is a fantastic move.

You should be looking for spots where you can see a cheap flop and maybe hit a monster and double up as described earlier with the pocket 9's.

If you can do that early, it will make the later stages of a sit-and-go much easier for you.