Sit and Go Guide - PokerTraining.org

Sit and Go guide
Mastering the art of SNGs

2)      You´re playing with chips instead of real money and usually the three players that were eliminated last are                eligible to receive a share of the prize money. Once you lose all your chips, your buy-in is lost.

3)      The blinds are increasing over time in contrast to being constant in a ring-game.

4)      The bigger your stack, the more power you have on the table.

Now let´s take a look at how these settings influence your strategy in a regular SNG. Due to the fact, that your opponents stay the same throughout the game, you have a great opportunity to gather information by watching them closely. Try to find something out about their style of play; do some of them develop a certain pattern when it comes to betting? How do they play the flop? Who is a continuation-better, who is not? Try to accumulate as much info as possible but be aware that different circumstances (chip-stack, pressure, bad beats) often lead to different results. So if you caught the small-stack bluffing, it doesn´t necessarily mean that the same player bluffs in a similar situation if he managed to double up once or twice.

When looking at the tournament itself, one can identify 3 very different parts:

The first part contains the start of the tournament up until the first players have been eliminated and the blinds start to increase notably. Usually, the blinds and the pot sizes are pretty low and no player really dominates the action on the table.

The second part can be described as the bubble-phase, when one or two players have yet to be kicked out before anybody else reaches the money. You find it very often that you have one or two chip-leaders in that situation, one or two small-stacks and the rest being caught in between. Of course, to the guys with the biggest stacks, the blinds are not worth mentioning, while the small-stacks on the other side of the spectrum have to fight to stay in the game.

The third and last part is the heads-up, where the final two contestants battle it out for the no. 1 spot. There are two different possibilities: Either you have one player leading the other by a vast amount of chips, or both of them are pretty much even. During this stage of the game, the blinds will be noticed by everybody involved.

Now please remind the basic set-ups I mentioned before and try to imagine how you can combine those settings with the information I just gave you! What kind of strategy does make the most sense when playing in a SNG?

The answer is relatively simple: Your strategy steadily has to adjust to the circumstances and a very effective way of doing so is by playing in ultra-tight fashion to start the SNG and switching your style up in order to be more aggressive once the tournament reaches the second and third stage. The reasoning behind that concept lays within the settings every SNG shares:

Your opponents stay the same throughout the game, making it easier for you to watch and analyze them. On the other side however, your foes are closely monitoring you, too. So if you stick to your game-plan during the first 20-30 minutes, the other players on the table will sooner or later realize that you seem to pick your spots that you´re only interested in playing when you have a hand. You´re building up a tight image you can easily exploit later on.

Now you might ask whether it makes sense to forfeit some pots and chips during the early stages. Well, simply look at the structure of the blinds and compare the size of the pots in contrast to the blinds and pot-sizes during the later parts of the tournament. What do you think is more profitable for you? Bluffing someone out of a pot containing 100 in chips or stealing a pot containing 1000 in chips?

Don´t get me wrong, I´m not saying you should pretend that you´re dead during the first minutes, but you should pick your spots, especially with marginal hands. When you´re on the button and you hold QTs and you want to look at the flop for cheap, go for it! However when you get a feeling that your opponents raise with strong hands, I´d rather fold those marginal hands. On the other side, great hands and monsters still have to be played as usual.

To me, the most difficult part of an SNG arrives when the bubble-phase starts. A lot of players, and I´m not only talking about rookies that are new to the game, keep making terrible mistakes that sometimes leave me shaking my head.

Let´s assume we witness the following scenario:

Four players are still sitting on the table, the first three reach the money and the blinds are already pretty high. We have one chip-leader, one small-stack and two guys being caught in between. This is the blueprint for making mistakes because many players have absolutely no clue how to adjust their game to that specific situation. Remember what I wrote earlier? The amount of chips represents the amount of power someone has on the table! If you have more chips in front of you than one of your opponents, you can force him to make a decision that not only determines whether or not he wins a certain hand but also whether or not he stays in the tournament. Another factor that becomes incredibly important in that situation is the factor “time”. The blinds increase steadily, putting constant pressure on the small-stack to make a move before it´s too late and he gets blinded down. On the other hand, the chip-leader has time working for him.

So if you want to be successful, how do you play in such a situation?

Being the chip-leader: As the chip-leader, you should think about constantly pressuring your opponents. If you make a mistake, you´re probably not the chip-leader anymore, however you still stay in the game. The same cannot be said about the other guys. In such a situation, attacking the players being caught “in between” is a good idea, as they don´t want to risk being eliminated from the tournament while having more chips than the small-stack. In case you attack the small-stack, think about that he might be desperate and willing to call you with every hand that looks solid. While being the chip-leader, switch your style up, if your opponents find out that you´re raising every hand, they will call you with weaker hands and might even trap you into raising by slow-playing strong hands.

Being caught in between: Being caught in between is probably the most difficult situation, you´re not really in danger of being blinded-down, however you still feel the burden of the blinds. You don´t want to risk too much as you´re close to reaching the money, but you still feel the necessity to win a few pots. When you´re in such a situation, you have to stay calm and focused and try to be the one who acts, not the one who reacts. If you have strong hands, don´t be afraid to raise and if you probably don´t want to see a flop (pocket-pair like 88, 99) or if you want to see the whole board (AK, AQ) don´t be scared to go all-in, especially when the blinds are very high. One thing you have to look out for is not to fight with the wrong guy! Avoid any kind of confrontation with the chip-leader. I´ve seen it numerous times that players were angry about someone bullying the table around and called a raise with AJs or so. It doesn´t matter if you have the better hand in such a situation when you lose after only being ahead 55-45. In case you don´t hold AA, KK, AK or QQ, I´d rather fold in that kind of situation instead of battling it out with the chip-leader.

On the other hand, you should try to put pressure on the small-stack and the other player being caught in between and again, don´t be afraid to go all-in.

Being the small-stack: Being the small-stack is not the best situation you can find yourself being in, however at least you have nothing to lose and you can attack the other players. The question is when do you consider yourself being in “attack-mode”? Some people say once you only have 10 big blinds left. I think that´s a stupid assumption! You have to take a look at your opponents, at the style they´re playing. If those guys are passive and don´t attack your blinds, you might wait a little longer for the right situation to go all-in. If those guys raise you constantly, you probably don´t have much time to waste. Deciding when to attack with less than optimal hands and when to hold back a little is a decision that is heavily influenced by experience and needs to be perfected by practicing.

However, even if you wait until you only have 5 or 6 BBs left, there will be the time when you have to go all-in with every marginal playable hand. If you don´t have enough chips left, an all-in with 2 or 3 BBs will not make anybody fold their hands, especially not the chip-leader. Unless you managed to double or maybe even triple up, you should play every hand in the same way. Whether you go all-in with JTs in order to steal the blinds or you decide to raise with AKs. Every move should be an all-in!

To conclude this article, let´s finish it up with the heads-up. After reaching the money, you should try to be even more aggressive, use the image you built up during the tournament to your advantage and maybe you have a read or two on your opponents. In case you reach the heads-up, the most aggressive player usually wins. Let´s face it, the amount of luck is incredibly high in those one on one situations, especially with the blinds usually being extremely high. If you´re the small-stack or the chip-leader, the only thing you can really do is to attack, forget about your starting-hands chart and hope for the best! Don´t be afraid to re-raise all-in with K-high or with a middle-pair.

In case both players have the same amount of chips, strategy might be a little more important. In case the heads-up doesn´t turn into an all-in-fest, try to find something out about your opponent and con him into a trap. Maybe he bluffs on the turn if you checked on the flop, maybe he only bets on the flop in case he hit something, try to find that information and use it against him The other guy is watching you too, so you might try to give him a look and cross him over in case he falls for it. But you have to be aggressive in order to win as much heads-ups as possible!

Back to top