15 Steps To Sit And Go Success

Things you will learn:

• How to approach Sit & Go tournaments
• What to look for in opponents

Sit & Go tournaments are the perfect learning ground if you’re new to the game. They can be very cheap to enter and take you from the early stages of a tournament, past the bubble and into the money spots in less than an hour. By playing Sit & Go tournaments, you get to appreciate the shifting worth of hand values and the importance of chip stack sizes, position and aggression. Follow our 15-step guide and Sit & Go glory…

Play tightly during the early stages when the blinds are small in comparison to chip stacks. There's nothing to be gained in stealing the tiny blinds with substandard hands. You'll also set yourself up with a solid table image which will strike fear into other players when you crank up the aggression in the later stages. Play big hands strongly and fold your trash hands.

Try and see a lot of cheap multi-way pots early on with hands that have the potential to do damage. Suited connectors, small pairs and aces with a suited kicker can all decimate an opponent's stack if you hit the flop big. However, fold these types of hands to pre-flop raises or if you don't make a major hand on the flop.

Play big pairs (A-A, K-K, Q-Q) aggressively. If four players have limped in before you've acted with the blinds at 25/50, stick in a pot-size raise to about 400. You'll now either pick up all that dead money when everyone folds, get the hand down to heads-up where big pairs are most effective, or someone will make a mistake, re-raise and over-play their smaller pair or two 'big' cards. If someone has aces and you have kings or queens, well, that's just bad luck, but you should be looking to exploit opportunities to pick up these sorts of pots, or force others to make mistakes all the time.

Don't be afraid to jam the pot after the flop with big hands. You'll find a lot of players think top pair/bad kicker is enough to call an all-in. If the flop has come K-J-5 and you've managed to flop two-pair in the big blind with J-5, don't slow-play it and wait for another king to arrive on the turn - make your opponent make a mistake.

A check, followed by a bet from someone else, should see you re-raising heavily or moving all-in. At this point they'll either fold and you'll pick up a nice pot or, as is the case so often, players will call with K-x and will be about a 3/1 underdog to hit one of their few outs and win the hand.

If you're the short-stack early on, you've still got time to hang around. You CAN come back from just 200 chips if you pick your spots. Be patient for one or two rotations. Make it hard for others to get their grubby mitts on your last few chips.

You’ll see other players frequently bet the minimum. Don’t follow their example. You'll see it time and time again online - players getting into a flop reasonably cheaply and thinking they can then steal the pot with a bet of 50 into a pot of 400. Punish those fish with a big raise (if you have a hand) or call along with drawing or marginal hands. Usually they fold or make bad calls and turn over middle pair or an underpair to the board at the end.

For the gambler in you, turbo STTs are great fun, but you have to make moves very quickly. While normal Sit & Go tournaments require patience, these require you to push any edge you have and hope your hand holds up. Overpairs, top pair/top kicker and even flush draws (when you're a big stack) become pot-jammers.

Continuation betting is essential in Sit & Gos. Generally, a pre-flop raise, followed by a bet will take down most pots. If someone plays back and re-raises, you can simply lay down your hand if you're weak. Essentially, a bet of around half to two-thirds pot after the flop will be a profitable play in the long run and allow you to accumulate chips when you don't have anything more than two cards in front of you.

It's crucial that you know when to back down with marginal hands. Your hand requirements might be less than when playing long large-field tournaments. But even so, top pair/bad kicker in the face of a big re-raise usually means it's time to take cover.

If you've accumulated a big stack you should put pressure on smaller stacks all the time. Pick the right times and right hands to raise with but as you approach the middle stages of an STT, the short-stacks will be looking to hang on or double through to make the money. Raise their blinds, move them all-in (with hands which you won't mind being called with) and generally terrorise them into making a mistake.

Observe all the players' chip stacks fluctuate wildly as the blinds increase. Keep an eye open for the big stacks you don't want to mess with and make a note of the small stacks you want to bully. Also, never believe you're dead and buried just because you drop into last place. Use it as an opportunity to become the danger man. As a short stack you can use the force of the chips that you do have left to prise unopened pots away from your opponents with an all-in push. You'll either pick up lots of blinds or potentially double-up and head back towards the top of the field.

If you're imperilled in the latter stages (about seven or fewer big blinds left) you must be prepared to stick your chips in with lesser hands, which can still make something. Look to get your chips into an unopened pot with hands like K-8 suited, J-10, 6-7 suited, small pocket pairs, etc. If you pick up the blinds, fine. If you get one caller, you're usually not worse than a 2/1 underdog. Don't get blinded down to a stage where you have no fold equity and don't put yourself in the position where you won't get much back if you do double-up.

On the bubble it's often correct to get aggressive as play often tightens up when people can smell the money. With a biggish stack try moving all-in a lot and you'll find you pick up blinds uncontested or have a good chance to knock someone out. If you're a short-stack, wait for a big hand and chuck in your chips in the attempt to double-up, or move all-in on the button with any two cards if the pot is yet to be raised.

When short-handed (three or four players) it's time to get even more aggressive, with you raising from the button virtually every hand. With escalating blinds there's no time to wait for premium hands. Don't be kamikaze about it but raises and re-raises in position followed by aggressive play after the flop (when you've made a hand) are the keys to getting to the heads-up confrontation.

When it's down to two, it's time to raise, raise, raise. Don't let the big blind have free flops, realise that most of the time the other player doesn't have a hand and you can bully with a big stack. If it's your big blind being raised every hand then you need to push back. Try a big re-raise and more often than not you'll pick up the pot and send a message out that you can't be bullied. Also, consider that pot odds can often dictate that it might be correct to call an all-in when you're an underdog if there's a good chance to win the tournament. Remember to push every small edge, as top pair on the flop will often be good enough to win the hand.