Sit and Go tournaments are a very popular format of the much more disciplined multi table poker tournaments and a lot of advice is available in the online poker schools about how to approach them. Much of this concerns the early and mid stages of a sit ‘n’ go tournament – advocating tight play at the beginning of the game, loosening up as the blinds increase and then tightening up once more once you reach the bubble.
However, when you have already made the money, how should your game develop from there? Much is going to depend on the relative chip stacks of the three players involved in the endgame, but there are several tips you can use to transform that contended feeling of a third place finish into the joyous abundance of being a winner.
Most Flops Miss the Hand – This is a well known part of heads-up play, but rarely noted when the table is three handed. Irrespective of where you are in the betting, if you make a large bet it places a great amount of pressure on your opponents. Aggressive play is vital at this stage of the tournament and placing your opponents under pressure will lead them into making mistakes and chasing hands that they should never get involved with.
Play Hard on Face Cards – Any gallery card is a premium card in these circumstances, even when you do not have a strong kicker to back it up. Low pairs and low suited connectors are usually only valuable as pre-flop tools when you get to this stage of a game, as often a top pair will take the hand and you will be second favourite holding 66 against a player holding Q8.
Ax is Better than You May Think – Ax, particularly offsuit, is a combination that you well may have mucked earlier in the game but, when playing short handed, an ace will win the majority of hands for you. The odds of either of your opponents holding a pre-flop pair is over 8/1, so your single ace is usually winning the pre-flop battle, and with a 30% chance of connecting with a partner on the board by the river, is a leading candidate to win the majority of hands.
Be Aware of Your Position in the Game. If you are naturally a tight player, and you have two aggressive opponents, whenever the blinds allow, let them knock each other out. If the reverse occurs, and you find yourself up against two ultra-tight players, loosen up and help yourself to the blinds. Eventually one (or both) of them will have to act as the blinds increase, but then it is through necessity rather than the cards they hold.
Changing your natural game from being a tight player to an aggressive one may take a lot of effort or discipline, but it can certainly be worth your while. If you consider that in a regular nine player $10.00 + $1.00 sit ‘n’ go tournament, the prize money for coming third (usually 20% of the total pool) is $18.00 – a net gain of $7.00 – whereas the net gain for winning the sit ‘n’ go tournament is $34.00, it would take five third-placed finishes before you showed more profit than when sticking your neck out and winning the game.
One of the best poker room for sit and go tournaments is Bwin Poker, not open to players from the United States but one with a large player base. If you use a bwin bonus code you can get up to $1000 bonus and find many loose sit n go poker tournaments available 24/7.