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Sit-and-Go
Strategies
Here we'll look at some of the basic concepts involved
in proper Sit and Go tournament play. In the next installment of this
two-part series we'll explore some additional ideas that should help to
improve your results.
One nice thing about Sit and Go's-and, for that matter, all tournament
play-is the fact that a player can usually expect strong results after
only having mastered a couple critical ideas. Here we'll look at three
of those concepts, and explore how they should inform your play.
Concept 1-Don't 'gamble' early on the tourney.
What we mean by this is that you shouldn't go all in, or commit the
majority of your chips, on those hands where you believe you only enjoy
a marginal edge. This is because the best thing that can happen if you
win is that you double up, while the worst thing that can happen is that
you bust out. If you bust out, you've lost your buy-in. But if you
double up, you haven't guaranteed yourself of doubling your money (i.e.,
coming in third).
Consider this- we each put twenty bucks in the pot, and we agree to flip
a coin for the full forty bucks. In a case like this we'll both expect
to break even over time, since half the time I'll lose, and half the
time I'll double my money. Make sense? Of course it does. But now let's
extend this logic to a Sit and Go. For example, let's say it's the
second hand of the tournament and you have 7c 7d. It's folded to you,
you raise to $50, and now the next guy goes all in. All fold to you.
Now, because of some quirk in the software, your opponent's cards are
exposed and you see he has the As Ks. Even though you're a mathematical
favorite to win the hand, you're only favored by a few percentage
points. Thus, you're basically in a 'coin flip' situation. Which means
you should fold, even though you know you're a favorite. Why? Because if
you lose you're guaranteed of losing your buy in, but if you win and
double up you're not guaranteed of doubling your money since you could
still bust out before you finish third. Thus, even though you'll win
about half the time, you're not getting 'even money' or better on your
bet, which makes calling here a -EV play.
Situations like this come up all the time in these tourneys, and you'll
be doing yourself a huge favor if you learn to spot them. Another
example would be flopping top pair with a good-but-not-great kicker
(e.g., holding AJ on an A96 flop, or JT on a T75 flop) when an opponent
who has at least almost as many chips as you moves all in. As long as
you still have most of your original chips left in front of you it's
usually a good idea to get away from these hands and look for a better
spot for your money
.
Concept 2-So long as you have a decent sized stack, and the blinds
haven't yet escalated, don't be afraid to take flops with some marginal
hands-especially in late position.
One problem that winning limit players have in the tourneys is that they
don't take enough flops when the pot hasn't been raised. In a normal
ring game you wouldn't limp in on the button with a hand like A7o, or
Q6s or 74s, even if only a couple players have yet entered the pot. But
in a no limit Sit and Go's these types of hands are usually worth taking
a flyer on if you're in the cut off or on the button. The reason for
this can be seen in the fact that you're getting huge implied odds
before the flop-which means you can get away from your hand if you miss
the flop, but can often double through if you hit the flop hard. With a
hand like 6h 3h, you're only paying ten or fifteen bucks to see the
flop. But if you get all the flop (by flopping two pair, a straight, or
trips) you can frequently bust one of your opponents. Another bonus is
that if everyone misses the flop you can often steal it with a small bet
(by which we mean a bet that's sized at about ½ to ¾ of the pot). To
borrow from Vince Lombardi-'in limit poker the button is everything; in
no-limit it's the only thing'. Position is so important in no limit that
you can take flops with all kinds of wacky hands on the button provided
that it doesn't cost you much (relative to your stack size) to call.
Concept 3- Get aggressive in the middle stages of the tournament.
As the tournament progresses the size of the blinds begins to become
significant. This means that it becomes essential to take some risks,
since you simply can't wait around for the nuts. So long as your stack
is at least moderately sized, you should be making more than your share
of blind-steal attempts, even with hands that wouldn't appear to warrant
it. Of course you can't try this if someone else has already limped in,
but so long as everyone has already folded you shouldn't be afraid to
take a shot at the blinds with some fairly weak hands (for example,
hands like J8s, or 97s, or K9o). When the tournament gets into the
middle and late stages, most players make the mistake of folding too
much in the blinds. When the tournament gets into the late stages this
phenomenon no longer exists, since you're usually down to four handed
(or less) and everyone is 'on the lookout' for blind steals. But in the
middle stages most players are still entertaining dreams of sneaking
into the money, which means they don't want to lock horns with crappy
hands. Obviously you'll have to pattern you blind-steal play after your
opponents-if they're loose cannons, for example, you can often just wait
around and break them once you catch a real hand. But the typical Sit
and Go player starts getting real risk averse after about five orbits or
so, which allows you to help yourself to their blinds.
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