Poker Face

Sit’n’Go Tournament Strategy

Sit and go tournaments have become quite popular online and thousands of poker players compete in them on a daily basis at places like Full Tilt Poker.com and UltimateBetPoker. Every poker room has sit and go tournaments and they range from single table to multi table tournaments. The most popular sit and go tournament played is the nine player single table tournament where the top three players win money. With only nine players and three players winning money this gives everyone a 33% chance of winning money and good odds for gambling. If you want to practice by playing sit and go tournaments for free, you can try FullTiltPoker.net

If you’re just starting to play poker sit and go tournaments then I would suggest that you start with nine player single table tournaments as there fairly easy. The goal is to obviously finish in the top three so that you win money every tournament you play. The following percentages are the payouts for each position.

1st – 50%
2nd – 30%
3rd – 20%

As you can see you make money for the top three positions, but you make more for finishing first then you do for third. You shouldn’t worry about finishing in first or second place until you’re in the top three though as your strategy is to finish in third.

Early Stages

In the early stages of the pocker tournament you want to play fairly loosely. You want to get into cheap pots to see the flop in case you hit a hand. It’s important to try and win some chips in the early stages before the blinds go up too much because they’ll begin to eat you up if you don’t have chips.

Middle Stages

The middle stage of the tournament will settle down quite a bit due to the fact there will only be about six or seven of you left and the blinds will be on the rise. Your hand selection should become firm now and you shouldn’t play marginal hands unless you’re trying to bluff and steal the blinds. This will work sometimes, but don’t do it often. If you aren’t getting any cards in this stage try to stay above 1000 chips and move into the final stages of the tournament.

Final Stages

If you’ve made it to the final stages of the tournament on www.pkr.com or Full Tilt and there are four or five players left then you’re getting close to the winnings. If you’re in fourth or fifth place you need to act soon because the blinds will be high and you’ll need chips. Now is the time for you to begin making all-in plays, you’ll either need to get lucky and win the pot if someone calls or everyone will fold and you’ll win the blinds. If you’re in the top three to begin the final stages then your goal is to stay in whatever position you’re in. When you have a monster hand you need to play it, but make your hand selection very firm.

If you make it to the final three you’ve done your job and won money in the tournament. Now you can do whatever you’d like as most hands will be all-in confrontations anyways.