Part One: Start Winning Single Table
Tournaments
written by BeatTheFish.com
...Fishy says, "Can I call them
Swim and Gos?"
This is Part One of a three-part
strategy system on Sit and Go tournaments.
With the advent and explosion of online
poker, a new type of poker tournament was born: the Sit and Go.
While impractical in a brick-and-mortar cardroom,
Sit and Go
tournaments can be
both fun and profitable online. A Sit and Go is a single table
tournament usually seating 9 players (some sites may seat 10, but
traditionally full no-limit tables consist of 9 players). There are also
popular shorthanded versions with 2 or 6 players. At a full table
Sit and Go, the top 3 will pay out with the winner earning half of
the prize pool, 2nd place earning 30%, and 20% for 3rd.
As soon as the table fills up with registrations, the tournament
begins. Not only are Sit and Gos a lot of fun, they're essentially
microcosms of full multi-table tournaments. Players can get in
plenty of tournament practice without a significant time investment.
Sit and Gos can also be extremely profitable for the consistent player. In this
article, I want to introduce a simple Sit and Go strategy system
that I’ve used to regularly finish in the money. This first edition
will focus exclusively on the beginning rounds. My overall aim when
writing strategy content is to keep it simple enough for new players
to understand but still contain at least one
useful tip or two for intermediate or advanced players.
At the beginning of a Sit and Go, all players are usually given
between 1,000-2,000 chips and the blinds begin anywhere between 5/10
and 20/40 with the exact amount depending on the site's tournament
structure.
At the beginning of the tournament, you’ll have at least 50-100 big
blinds and the blind levels won’t increase for about 8-10 minutes.
My strategy is based heavily off of the current blind level as it is
a crucial factor in determining your decisions.
1. Play conservative and avoid trap hands during the early
rounds. I call the “early rounds” anything up to the 50/100
blind level. Essentially, you have plenty of
chips compared to the blinds and aren’t under any pressure to win
pots. At this level, I will play extremely conservatively because of
the low blind level. With such small blinds there is very little
reward in bluffing as most pots remain small. I would caution even
experienced players about playing mediocre trap hands like K-Q,
A-10, or Q-J at these stages, especially out of position.
It is difficult to get away from mediocre hands when you hit top
pair, but facing aggressive betting from your opponents means that
you’re likely dominated. Even hitting top pair with A-K may not be
good on the flop when facing a big check-raise or reraise. With
plenty of chips to spare early in the tournament, why risk your
tournament life so early
on? You’ll need those chips down the road for the increasing blinds
so stifle your desire to gamble for a few rounds. By eliminating
medium-strength starting hands from your game you eliminate
difficult decisions that you shouldn't have to make with such small
blind levels. Neither blind
aggression nor committing to pots with mediocre hands will earn you long-term Sit and Go
success.
2. Hands with strong double-up value are a great play from late
position. By “double-up value” I mean hands that are
likely to double you up for a small investment. Good examples of
these are pocket pairs and suited Aces. I will see a flop every
time from late position with 2-2 or A-9 suited for only $40 or so. If I
make my set on the flop and there is also an Ace or King on the
board, I stand a great chance to double up against opponents
overplaying their top pair. With suited Aces, your best hope is to
hit the nut flush or draw to the flush and trapping an opponent with two pair, a set, or a
lower flush. The benefit of playing pocket pairs and suited Aces
over mediocre face cards is that you have a greater potential to hit
much stronger hands that are often hidden from your opponents.
3. Remember that play is generally looser early on than later in
the tournament. As the blinds are so small many players like to
limp into pots from any position, eager to jump out to an early
lead. Even a pot-sized raise in the first round might only be 40 or
50 chips, which looks miniscule to players looking to gamble.
Because of this, I recommend mixing in raises of at least 5-7x the big
blind when you have a premium hand like pocket Aces, Kings, Queens,
or A-K early on in a Sit and Go. Avoid telegraphing your hand
strength to observant opponents by occasionally making these larger
raises with your lesser hands.
If you're worried about scaring off your
opponents you shouldn't be. With premium starting hands your goal is
to isolate the competition and face less than 3 opponents. The
average win rate of any Hold'em hand decreases significantly as the
number of opponents increases. Simply put, the odds of another
player hitting more than your single pair are extremely high when
several players see the flop. Check out our
Texas Hold’em hand strength page to see the average winning percentages
of every hand combination in relation to the number of players in
the pot.
4. Don't overvalue A-K in the early
rounds. In most small-to-medium stakes Sit and Go tournaments
you'll see at least one overanxious player willing to go all-in
preflop with A-K in the very early stages. While it is one thing to
trap the habitually raising table bully with a possible smaller
kicker most of these all-in situations occur with little to no
possible logic or read. Players need to realize that A-K is just a
drawing hand, albeit a very powerful one. Wait to see if you improve
on the flop before committing a large amount of chips.
When you move all-in preflop with A-K
you probably don't even want to be called. Pocket Aces or Kings,
hands that dominate your Big Slick, are the hands that will most
likely call you. Even if you can get a call from a smaller pocket
pair you're less than a 50% favorite to win. With online poker
becoming increasingly tighter overall, it's just too unlikely that
you'll get a call from a dominated hand with A-K. While flipping a
coin for an early double-up might be an acceptable risk to you the
inherent variance simply doesn't make this a long-term winning
strategy.
To summarize, here are several steps to succeeding in the early
rounds of Sit and Go tournaments:
-Play conservative in the early rounds. The blinds are low
for the first 20-30 minutes of a Sit and Go and there is no pressure
to gamble. Worse yet, the reward for doing so is often very low.
-Avoid mediocre trap hands. Even though you may be able to
limp in cheaply, mediocre hands can knock your chip stack down in
the early rounds when you can’t get away from them.
-Play hands with good “double-up value”, meaning starting
cards that would give you a lock hand should you connect and your
opponent overplays his holdings. Specific hands include suited Aces and
pocket pairs.
-Raise your premium starting hands to at least 5-7x the big blind
in the early rounds. Weak opponents will be looking to limp in and
see a lot of flops at this point so maintain your dominant position
by
thinning the field.
-Rarely risk your entire stack preflop
with A-K. While it is an extremely prevalent play in smaller Sit and Gos, players looking for consistent wins should avoid overvaluing
this drawing hand. The likely callers will already have you
dominated.
While these tips will not cover every situation you’ll face in a Sit
and Go, they’re useful guidelines to get you past the early rounds
of play. Again, the most important tip here is to restrict your play
at the onset to premium cards and those that can win you a big pot.
Many impatient players are playing Sit and Gos purely for
entertainment and will gamble it up early and often. As a result,
you can often find yourself close to the money simply by letting the
fish filet themselves.
Back to
Poker Strategy
This article or portions of this article
may not be used in any form without permission.
|
