A beginners guide to sit and go tournament poker
Sit and Go’s are a vital part of online poker. They are usually one table tournaments with anywhere between 5 and 10 players. To the experienced player SNG’s are a relatively quick way to build a bankroll. Many players have even made their fortune playing these tournaments exclusively. Becoming one of these players requires a lot of skill. Most beginners make too many mistakes; i.e. over betting the pot, playing weak starting hands, and playing out of position.
I have compiled a list of things from my experience for the beginners to avoid.
1. Choose your hands carefully.
In low buy in SNG’s it is fairly common to see a pot three handed to the river, and someone takes it with ace four off suit. This also makes it tempting to put your money in with weak aces and face cards. A fatal mistake that will come back to haunt you more often then it will pay off. Even though it is boring, as a beginner you should be holding out for mainly the top ten starting hands; i.e. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, AQ, AJ, 10 10, QK…etc
I would not advise the average beginner to get involved in a pot with anything less then pocket 8’s.
2. Betting and Calling Strategy
So, you have aces and your first instinct is to put all of your money in the pot, but nobody called your bet. This is a very common mistake that is made quite frequently at low buy ins. You should never bet more than 5x the big blind preflop. The reason for this is that it gives your hand away and brings in very little profit for such a big hand. The object of this game is to maximize your profits and minimize your losses; it is inevitable that you will have both profit and loss. After the flop betting becomes a complex issue. With your aces you just flopped a full house with an ace and two eights. Go all in now right? Wrong! This is where being disciplined is a requirement. If there are four other players in this pot and you are the UTG player, you have to ask your self what am I trying to accomplish here? What you are trying to so is keep this pot four handed all the way to show down, however this is not likely. What you want to do in this position is make a bet small enough so the players that did not hit will try to draw on you, and at the same time make it big enough so other strong hands will just call and not go over the top of you; this way nobody folds. You want to think this way all of the time when betting is a concern.
Calling can be just as complex as betting, but for the beginner if you so not have the best hand possible, I advise you to just fold. You will make it much further folding questionable hands than you will by calling just because you have a big pair; i.e. Now you have KJ off suit. The under the gun player has just raised all in. KJ is a strong starting hand right? Wrong! KJ is easily dominated, and you almost called.
Personally I am not a big fan of just calling. For me it is usually raise or fold, but I’m also not in the pot with a weak hand. The most important thing to remember about calling is that you need a better hand to call with then you need to raise. And for the uber rookies out there… Calling is not an effective bluff.
3. Managing the Big Stack
Most rookies make the mistake of playing too loose once the have gained a lead. When I first started playing poker I made this mistake repetitively. Let’s get back to our game. So far you have only been playing strong hands, and you have been maximizing you gains. Now the tournament is four handed, and you are the chip leader with about 65% of the total chips on the table; for this topic we will just say that amount is 6500. The other stacks are getting low; one player has 1500, one has 1750, and the other has 250. You are on the button with K5 suited, and the player with 1500 chips has just gone all in. You should call, because it is your obligation as the chip leader, and it will not cost you too much right? Wrong again. With the big chip stack with one player riding the bubble, you should be concerned about which player you are going to have to face heads up. You want to find the player with the weakest game, and help insure that they make it to the end. Why? Because you know you can easily beat this player, and chances are that you will have them greatly out chipped.
4. Playing the Short Stack
Playing the short stack is another one of those unavoidable factors of tournament play; even if you make it deep into the game. There are hundreds of articles on short stack strategy out there, so I will just give you mine. When I’m short stack I pay very closer attention to my position. If I am on the button and there are only a few players are in the hand I will move all in with any two high cards, any ace, or even sometimes suited connectors. Out of position I will move with two high cards KQ, KJ, or QJ. However if you are one the bubble in a SNG, you might just want to try mucking everything (except AA, KK, QQ or JJ). This way you might get lucky and make the money.
5. Knowing When You’re Beat
The down side of having aces or kings in the hole is that these hands can lose, and the do quite frequently. Part of playing winning poker is determining when your hand is no longer good, and being able to put it down. This time you have been dealt a pair of kings, and you made a preflop raise of 4x the big blind with three callers. The flop comes out 8d 9d 7h it is checked all the way to you. Here you make half pot sized bet, and all three of the other players call. The turn card is 6d and again is checked around to you. This time you make a pot sized bet and two of the three players call. The river card is Ks and the UTG player has just made a one third pot sized bet. The second player has just called, and now you have to make a decision. What now raise, call or fold? A rookie player would call here and give the excuse that they are pot committed. The correct answer is to fold. Yes there is a chance that your set is good but you should have checked the turn or made a smaller bet, because you had no chance of beating the flush, a straight, a set, or even pocket aces. This situation happens frequently, and is the measure of a good player. It also enforces my philosophy that a good player is not determined by what hands they play, but the ones they fold.
For the beginner this information should be given a certain amount of consideration. The purpose of this article was not to teach you any particular strategy, but it was meant to give you an understanding of the mind set of a skilled player. There are many other subjects of poker to study as you gain experience and develop your game. These topics include playing position, knowing when to bluff, picking up on common tells, poker etiquette, and bankroll management, etc… With that in mind get out there and play. See you at the tables.
