Sit and Go Tournaments
written by BeatTheFish.com
...Fishy says, "Shouldn't it be
called a swim and go?"
The sit and go tournament is a
direct byproduct of the greater poker explosion of the past 5 years.
It is a fast-paced single-table tournament that was created simply
for online play. While the sit and go has become so popular online
that it has found its way into many brick and mortar cardrooms, it
truly thrives online. Action-hungry players and tournament junkies
don't have to wait around for scheduled start times and can pick and
choose the table size and entry fee.
Sit and go tournaments have become so
popular that online poker now has strict "sit and go specialists"
that make six figure incomes focusing solely on single-table events.
These professionals often take sit and go tourneys to an extreme,
investing in monstrous displays simply to stack 20-30 SnG windows
across the screen. For the rest of us, the sit and go is an
enjoyable, quick, and simple way to experience tournament poker.
In this article, I'd like to address the
most important aspects of sit and go tournaments beginning with an
overview of what they are, continuing with sit and go strategy for
each stage, and finally detailing several online poker rooms in
respect to their sit and go traffic and structure.
What Is a Sit and Go?
The Sit and Go is essentially a
miniature poker tournament. The most popular variation involves 9 or
10 players, although 6 player, heads-up, and multi-table Sit and Go
tournaments have also become common. Sit and Gos share the same
structure as classic tournaments in that all players begin with a
set amount of starting chips, blinds escalate at regular intervals,
and play continues until one player has all the chips. In a
single-table Sit and Go, the winner usually takes 50% of the prize
pool with 30% and 20% going to 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
What makes Sit and Go tournaments unique
is the fact that there are no scheduled starting times. Its name is
appropriate because players literally "Sit" and "Go" on to start the
event once the table fills up to its designated capacity. This is a
huge key to their popularity as anyone can sit down at a table
anytime they feel like a tournament as opposed to worrying about
scheduled start times and setting aside hours for a popular event.
The time commitment for a 9 player Sit
and Go is typically only about an hour or so. That time can be cut
down even further with "Turbo" variations that reduce the time
between blinds to as little as 1-2 minutes. While a poker site's
traffic is key to the waiting time, at many popular sites players
can begin a full Sit and Go under $50 within 10 minutes.
Sit and Go Strategy
Sit and Go tournaments are excellent
practice for full multi-table tournaments as you get to play a
sampling of every tournament stage in under an hour. Players
surviving to the final 2 get to experience the tight early stages
with low blinds, shorthanded bubble play with blind-stealing
becoming more important, and finally heads-up play.
Below you'll find links to strategy
articles we've written specifically for Sit and Go tournaments. Each
focuses on a different stage:
•
Early Sit and Go Stages
•
Middle Sit and Go Stages
•
Heads-Up Strategy
•
General Sit and Go Tips
Best Sit and Go Poker
Sites
•
FULL TILT POKER
(full review)
Now one of the largest online poker
sites, both the sit and go structure
and selection is excellent. Not only
do standard single table events up
to $100 or so fill up within
moments, but they offer tons of
variations such as low-cost options
for tournament tokens, turbo events,
and multi-table sit and gos. If
Full Tilt Poker is the only site
you play for sit and gos you should
be completely satisfied.
•
POKER STARS (full
review) This is another one-stop shop in the online
poker world. With their massive
traffic, you can't go wrong playing
here for sit and go tournaments.
Virtually every popular variation
fills up within a minute or two up
to the highest limits. Also,
Poker Stars offers a deep
structure that tends to reward more
skillful players. This is another
can't-go-wrong site for sit and gos.
•
SPORTSBOOK POKER (full
review) While the traffic doesn't equal that of the more
established sites, I still rate this
poker room highly because of the
extremely weak player skill. Sit and
go tourneys under $20 fill up fairly
quickly. Perhaps the best aspects of
Sportsbook Poker is the ability
to process US credit cards without
issue.
•
BODOG
(full review)
This mid-sized poker room is
infamous for its weak player base.
While this has held true, they do
also have an attractive sit and go
structure.
Bodog has 10-player events,
meaning an extra player to knock out
but also more money added on to each
of the prizes. Another interesting
choice are "Beginner" tournaments,
which pay out half of the field.
Back to
Poker Strategy
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