Ok, so how do they work?

The main difference between Sit n Go’s and multi-table tournaments is the amount of players involved. Multi-table tournaments obviously begin with a lot more players     (PokerStars once hosted a tournament with an astonishing 50000 players). This results in the tournaments taking many hours to complete, whereas the typical SnG will have 9 players and will generally take around 1 hour to finish.

Another big difference between the two games is that in tournaments as soon as a player is knocked out there will normally be another player waiting to take his seat, therefore you will always be playing on a full table. While in SnG games, when a player gets knocked out the table gets smaller. You could see this as an artificial way to increase the antes as even though the blinds have stayed the same there will be less people for each cycle around the table, hence you will be paying the blinds more often.

Adjusting Your Play

Right, so you understand how SnGs differ to tournaments. But how should you play them to maximise your winnings? When playing SnGs you should always be adjusting your play depending on the size of your stack in comparison to the size of the blinds. Because of this, at the start of a sit and go I always recommend for you to be only playing a small range of starting hands, but playing them aggressively. Considering the blinds will be small, and there will be a full table (you will be seeing blinds less often) you can afford to see more hands so don’t bother playing them unless you would be willing to go all-in with them.

Another reason to play tight is that you will make a profit by just getting to 3rd place.

Payout Structure:

• 1st  = 50%
• 2nd = 30%
• 3rd  = 20%

So get to third and you will already got your buy-in back plus a profit, and you still have a chance to win an extra 10% or 30% of the prize pool.

In The Money

Now that you’re in the money you want to be completely changing your strategy. Considering there is only a 10% difference between 2nd and 3rd place you want to be taking risks to try and take 1st place. There are some very detailed guides on heads up play HERE if you want some more help on getting the win. There is far too much to heads-up play to include it in this guide.

Best Poker Sites for Sit n Go Games

• For the softest Sit n Go tables we highly recommend Full Tilt Poker . They have an extremely high amount of tables to choose from and are known to contain a lot of weak players at the low stake games.

See you at the tables!

When most people think of Sit n Go games they normally associate them with 9 or 10man tables. Whilst these are the most popular type of SnGs, I would highly recommend everyone to try Six Handed Sit n Gos. The most noticeable difference between these two games is the speed. If your used to playing 9man SnGs you will be accustomed to the blinds changing every 6 minutes allowing you to see a lot of hands. Whereas in six handed games you will start off short handed, keeping the play much more fast paced.

Winning at Six Handed SnGs

To beat six-handed games you will have to play fairly differently to how you normally would. Considering your stacks will be much smaller in comparison with the blinds, you will need to open up your range of starting hands. Obviously you should still be throwing away your trash hands but you will need to be seeing more flops with good hands and playing them aggressively to improve your stack size. Although, don’t fall into the same mistake that a lot of other players do in these games which is playing too loose – too early on. These players will often knock each other out fairly early on, quickly leaving the table with only 4 players.

Getting Into The Money

In six handed sit and gos only the top 2 players get paid, with first place taking 3x your buy-in and second place only taking 2x your buy-in. If you’ve been lucky enough to double up already you want to stay cautious. Don’t risk losing your lead by excessively trying to steal the blinds or calling raises out of position. Instead keep playing tight – aggressive poker whilst trying to take another player’s stack when you’ve got a good hand.

If, on the other hand, your short stacked your going to want to try and double up as soon as you can. You will often have the big-stack trying to bully the rest of the table by constantly trying to steal pots (remember.. you shouldn’t be doing this). Take advantage of this by getting your stack in when you’ve got a good hand. Chances are the big stack will fold to a re-raise and if not – chances are you’ve got the better hand and you’ll double up.

Always Go For First Place

As I mentioned earlier, first place gets paid considerably more than second place, with first getting 3x the buy-in whilst second place only gets 2x the buy-in. So you should always be going for the win. As you get closer to the bubble you need to be applying more and more pressure onto your opponents. Try to target the player who is just trying to sneak into second place as they should be the easiest to exploit by being much more likely to fold under any pressure. At this time the blinds will be quickly catching up to the third place’s stack so you will soon see your opponents going all-in with much less than premium hands. Then you will be heads-up which you can read up on in a lot of detail HERE.

In summary, you can beat six handed SnGs very easily with this simple but very effective strategy. Just remember to play moderately tight from the beginning until you get to the bubble where you want to be very aggressive to allow you to go for the win.

Best Poker Sites for Sit n Go Games

• For the softest Sit n Go tables we highly recommend Full Tilt Poker . They have an extremely high amount of tables to choose from and are known to contain a lot of weak players at the low stake games.

See you at the tables!

The trick to consistently win 9-man Sit n Go games is to adjust your playing style as the tournament progresses. Due to the constantly changing structure in SnGs you will need to continually adapt to keep the edge over your opponents, but do this correctly and you will be finishing in the money over and over again.

Getting Through the Early Stages

Surrounded by fish going all-in every other hand?

At low stakes Sit and Go games this will happen very often, which is a great thing! The more players who knock each other – the closer you get to finishing in the money. So, what do you do?

Leave them to it.

The best strategy for the early stages of a Sit n Go tournament is to play tight, very tight! At this stage you will have many fish going all-in, often with very weak hands. These players normally have no strategy behind them and its best to stay back for now and let them knock each other out.

So for now, your main aim is simply to survive, fold 95% of your hands and only play premium hands.

When you do hit a premium hand (JJ, QQ, KK, KAs, AA) you need to play very aggressively. Pre-flop you should be raising by at least 6x the big blind. A lot of new players will slow play these hands by min-betting or even just calling these hands. Do NOT do this! In these situations you want to isolate your opponents and avoid multi-way pots so that you can minimise the risk of someone overtaking you with a weaker hand. Post-flop you should be looking to continue bet for value and get as many chips as possible out of your opponent.

As the blinds increase, this strategy will no longer be feasible and you will drastically have to change your starting hands range and betting patterns.

The Middle Stages

By now the table should be down to around 6 players, the skill level will be getting slightly higher and your getting ever closer to the money. This stage is often overlooked, but it is essential you make the correct decisions here to get yourself in a strong position ready for the late game.

In this stage we must start getting more aggressive as the blinds will be making more of an impact on our stack. You can no longer afford to sit back and wait for premium hands as the blinds will eat into your stack far too quickly. Instead you must make use of two main strategies.

• Steal the blinds.

Blind stealing is very important now that the blinds are getting larger in relation to your stack. At this point you need to make the most of your hands when you are in late position. Typically when your on the button you want to be raising 3BB or 4BB with a very wide range of hands to take the blinds without having to see the flop. A successful steal will then cover your costs for a whole cycle of the table and so providing you with more time to find a good hand to play.

Although, be very wary of a re-raise. Calling these will put you in a very tricky situation post flop and will have a large impact on your stack size.

• Double Up

Here the aim is to re-raise with a strong hand (preferably a high pair) after someone has already bet. By doing this you have two ways to win the pot. Either they will be trying to steal the blinds and will very likely fear your bet – leading them to fold or if they call, there’s a very strong chance of you having a stronger hand than them allowing you to take their stack.

The middle stages will normally be over very quickly, so don’t take too many risks.

Late Stages – Go For The Win!

There should be 4 or 5 players left by this point. Well done, your very close to the money! But your going to have to make a few adjustments to your game. First of all, your going to have to be even more aggressive. Most of the table is going to become more passive as they will be afraid to get knocked out so close to the money. Take advantage of this.

Make bets – big bets. Your main aim now is to steal the blinds and your stack will grow extremely quickly. Your main targets are the short stacked players, these will be the most likely to fold. Attack these regularly, but make sure to back off once their stacks get lower than 3 big blinds. At this point they will be close to being pot committed and so will likely call with any cards. You must have a strong hand to play against them at this stage.

Players should get knocked out very quickly at this stage, and you should soon be in the money.

The payout will be looking like this:

• 1st Place – 50%
• 2nd Place – 30%
• 3rd Place – 20%

There is only a 10% difference between 2nd and 3rd position, so you want to be taking risks to try and get 1st place. You will have to play most hands now and extremely aggressively. Your main aim here is too put as much pressure as possible onto your opponents and try to get all-in when you get a strong hand.

Best Poker Sites for Sit n Go Games

• For the softest Sit n Go tables we highly recommend Full Tilt Poker . They have an extremely high amount of tables to choose from and are known to contain a lot of weak players at the low stake games.

See you at the tables!