Texas Holdem Sit and Go Strategy Guide
Texas Hold'em Sit and Go Strategy Guide
Sit and goes are one of the simplest forms of online poker to beat, yet the vast majority of players lose. In this simple sit and go strategy guide I am going to point out the five most common mistakes made by most beginning players.
Mistake One: Playing too many hands early
In a cash game, the optimal strategy is the one that wins the most chips on any given hand, since one chip is equal to one dollar, or whatever unit you are playing in. In a sit and go, each chip is actually worth less than one chip, because of the nature of the prize structure. If one has all the chips in the end in a 1000 chip, $10 SNG, they will only win $50 for 10000 chips, yet if someone manages to hold on to a single chip until they are one of the last three, that single chip is worth $20. The result of this is that an early strategy favoring survival is the correct one, because each chip you gain is worth less to your potential profits than what you stand to lose by losing another chip. To get all your chips in the middle, you need to be a big favorite, which means you need to be playing top-quality hands. Yet many players are quick to push with ace-rag, top pair no kicker, and worse hands hoping to "double up early". Don't fall into this trap.
Mistake Two: Limping
Many players will limp in early, hoping to see a cheap flop with marginal hands like small pairs or ace-suited. Position is important in all forms of poker but even more so in the sit and go, as you need to have a big edge to play profitably early on. While losing 20 or 50 chips with one of these hands may seem like a small loss, the reality is that you are losing far more than that, due to the concept described above as well as losing your ability to induce folds from your opponents with a big stack later on.
Mistake Three: Making too many calls with borderline hands
Once again, going back to the concept that chip stack does not equal cash value discussed earlier, one of the single worst mistakes players can make is making a marginal call with a hand like ace-medium or a small pair for all your chips, when if you lose you are out of the tournament. In many situations you need to be a 60-65% favorite for calling to be correct due to the chance of busting out, and few opponents are pushing such a wide range that these marginal calls will give you such an edge.
Mistake Four: Folding too many hands when the pot is giving great odds
Many times late in a sit and go someone with a very small stack, say less than 3 times the big blind, with push all in hoping to win the blinds or double up. Often times the big blind will fold getting 3 to 1 or even 4 to 1 on his money, one of the worst plays you can possibly make. Unless calling will bust you or totally cripple you and there are four players left, you should just about always call if it is costing you less than two additional big blinds to do so, and you should call many hands for three and four big blinds as well. Even the lowly seven deuce is only about a 2 to 1 underdog against most hands, so getting 3 to 1 or more you have a very profitable situation for a call.
Mistake Five: Not pushing all-in enough in the late game
If you have a stack of less than ten times the big blind preflop, you should always either push all-in or fold. Limping or minimum raising is a huge mistake. By putting the chips in the middle you have two ways to win: your opponent can fold or you can win in a showdown. Because your opponents face the risk of busting or losing a lot of chips to your all-in push, they will have to fold many hands, in some cases hands that are even beating yours. This makes it correct to push all-in with some very raggedy cards, especially if you are in the small blind and no one has entered the pot. In fact if you simply pushed every time in this situation with a stack of ten big blinds or less you would be making the correct decision the vast majority of the time.
I hope this sit and go strategy guide has been helpful to you. To truly crush these games can require more complex strategy, but almost all of it revolves around these simple fundamentals. To learn more about texas hold'em and read many articles just like this one, go to my strategy articles blog, donkeydevastation.com [http://www.donkeydevastation.com].
Brian Stubiak
Sit and goes are one of the simplest forms of online poker to beat, yet the vast majority of players lose. In this simple sit and go strategy guide I am going to point out the five most common mistakes made by most beginning players.
Mistake One: Playing too many hands early
In a cash game, the optimal strategy is the one that wins the most chips on any given hand, since one chip is equal to one dollar, or whatever unit you are playing in. In a sit and go, each chip is actually worth less than one chip, because of the nature of the prize structure. If one has all the chips in the end in a 1000 chip, $10 SNG, they will only win $50 for 10000 chips, yet if someone manages to hold on to a single chip until they are one of the last three, that single chip is worth $20. The result of this is that an early strategy favoring survival is the correct one, because each chip you gain is worth less to your potential profits than what you stand to lose by losing another chip. To get all your chips in the middle, you need to be a big favorite, which means you need to be playing top-quality hands. Yet many players are quick to push with ace-rag, top pair no kicker, and worse hands hoping to "double up early". Don't fall into this trap.
Mistake Two: Limping
Many players will limp in early, hoping to see a cheap flop with marginal hands like small pairs or ace-suited. Position is important in all forms of poker but even more so in the sit and go, as you need to have a big edge to play profitably early on. While losing 20 or 50 chips with one of these hands may seem like a small loss, the reality is that you are losing far more than that, due to the concept described above as well as losing your ability to induce folds from your opponents with a big stack later on.
Mistake Three: Making too many calls with borderline hands
Once again, going back to the concept that chip stack does not equal cash value discussed earlier, one of the single worst mistakes players can make is making a marginal call with a hand like ace-medium or a small pair for all your chips, when if you lose you are out of the tournament. In many situations you need to be a 60-65% favorite for calling to be correct due to the chance of busting out, and few opponents are pushing such a wide range that these marginal calls will give you such an edge.
Mistake Four: Folding too many hands when the pot is giving great odds
Many times late in a sit and go someone with a very small stack, say less than 3 times the big blind, with push all in hoping to win the blinds or double up. Often times the big blind will fold getting 3 to 1 or even 4 to 1 on his money, one of the worst plays you can possibly make. Unless calling will bust you or totally cripple you and there are four players left, you should just about always call if it is costing you less than two additional big blinds to do so, and you should call many hands for three and four big blinds as well. Even the lowly seven deuce is only about a 2 to 1 underdog against most hands, so getting 3 to 1 or more you have a very profitable situation for a call.
Mistake Five: Not pushing all-in enough in the late game
If you have a stack of less than ten times the big blind preflop, you should always either push all-in or fold. Limping or minimum raising is a huge mistake. By putting the chips in the middle you have two ways to win: your opponent can fold or you can win in a showdown. Because your opponents face the risk of busting or losing a lot of chips to your all-in push, they will have to fold many hands, in some cases hands that are even beating yours. This makes it correct to push all-in with some very raggedy cards, especially if you are in the small blind and no one has entered the pot. In fact if you simply pushed every time in this situation with a stack of ten big blinds or less you would be making the correct decision the vast majority of the time.
I hope this sit and go strategy guide has been helpful to you. To truly crush these games can require more complex strategy, but almost all of it revolves around these simple fundamentals. To learn more about texas hold'em and read many articles just like this one, go to my strategy articles blog, donkeydevastation.com [http://www.donkeydevastation.com].
Brian Stubiak
