Sit Go and Win – Dave Tarbet

One of the most popular forms of online poker today is the Sit and Go Tournament, which is a single table tournament that starts as soon as the table is full (usually 10 players).

It’s a fun and convenient way to experience tournament poker as you have a set loss (the amount of the buy-in) as opposed to a ring game, and it only takes about an hour to play. Sit and Go’s also give you great final table experience which you can use in bigger multi table tournaments.

Everyone starts with the same amount of chips (usually 1,500) and plays until one player has all the chips. The blinds increase every 10 or 15 minutes which means you can’t just sit back and wait for a monster hand. This is especially true as players get eliminated and the table becomes short handed. The payout structure is usually 50% for the winner, 30% for 2nd and 20% for 3rd.

Your strategy in these Sit and Go’s should be fairly tight early and then more aggressive in the later stages.  In the early stages when the table is full, the blinds are quite small relative to your chip stack and don’t come around as often. This means that you can wait for a premium starting hand.

As the tournament progresses the blinds are no longer small and as players have been eliminated the blinds come round quicker forcing you to be more aggressive and play more hands, or risk being blinded away.  If you manage to make the top three and the money, this is where you should become super aggressive as a third place finish represents only a small profit on your investment whereas first place is substantially more.