Turbo tournaments – whether Sit and Go or multi table tournaments – are games where the blinds increase at a much faster rate than in regular tournaments, and require that you play a little looser than you would in a standard game to ensure that you do not get in an uncompetitive situation (and ultimately blinded out) at an early stage.
Whereas in tournaments with a 15 minute blind structure it is acceptable to wait for the premium hands to be dealt to you, when blinds are increasing at 6 minute intervals (and sometimes even faster) or the game starts with an ante almost immediately, it is necessary that you get involved with more marginal hands early in the game to avoid falling behind.
Inasmuch as it is still good to present a tight image at the table, you should be looking to add more marginal hands to your opening hand selection and play the odd hand or two from out of position.
In addition to playing less selective opening hands, attempting to steal the blinds is a must if you want to stay in a prominent position – particularly when a tournament reaches its middle stages. There is a school of thought which suggests that stealing the blinds too early may find you in a position against a player with a better hand when the rewards are not worth the risk, but the biggest negative of trying to steal too early is that you may get caught doing it and be unable to use this strategy to such great effect when it matters.
Furthermore, getting caught too often stealing the blinds at a low blind level, destroys any tight image that you may be trying to construct and will influence how other players react to your bets later in the game. Although this may be of advantage to you should you be dealt pocket aces later in the game, it is not an action that you should play without consideration for the consequences.
One positive side-effect of unsuccessfully trying to steal the blinds is that you may steal the button instead. This would happen if you were to raise pre-flop from mid-position and those in late position folded, but you were called by an early seated player. Stealing the button means that you are the last to act in subsequent rounds of betting, so at least you have the option of controlling the betting with full knowledge of the other player´s action.
With this in mind, your opening hand selection in turbo tournaments should still remain high in early position – AA, KK, AK and high ranking suited connectors are recommended – with a much looser mid-table selection – add mid-high pairs, aces with mid-high kickers, pocket gallery cards and lower suited connectors – and, subject to what has been bet in front of you on the table, practically anything with potential from late position.