Sit and Go Poker

You’re interested in playing tournament poker, but never seem to know when a tournament is happening. Or, you know when the tournaments are, but just don’t have the time to spend hours trying to cash. The online sit-and-go is the perfect solution for you. Here are sit-and-go basics.

A sit-and-go is a tournament that starts as soon as everyone takes a seat, and on huge poker sites like Poker Stars, it only takes seconds. The most common type of sit-and-go is the single-table sit-and-go, where either nine or ten players start with a predetermined number of chips and play until one person has all of them. In most cases, three places are paid, with 50 percent of the prize pool going to the winner, 30 percent to second place and 20 percent to third. You can play sit-and-gos with as many as five tables, or as few as two people.

In most cases, the blinds in a sit-and-go go up every fifteen or twenty minutes, or after a prescribed number of hands. This tends to move the action quickly, so your single-table sit-and-go from start to finish should take no more than 45 minutes, in some cases less. Sit-and-gos can be run with any buy-in depending on the site where you play, from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars, or more. You will find the caliber of play increases the higher your buy-in. In the very low buy-in sit-and-gos, players seem willing to push all their chips in at the drop of a hat.

Successful sit-and-go poker requires that you be aggressive. You’re only competing against the players at your table, so there aren’t many places to hide. The table will also get short handed quickly and the blinds rise fast. In these games, slow, tight play may have you in a tough spot fast. To win a sit-and-go, you have to put pressure on your opponents and fight off the pressure they put on you. You have to steal blinds and protect your own. You have to forget a little what you’ve learned from the hold em calculator and basic holdem-strategy books. Sit-and-go tournaments are about aggression more than starting hands.

Many online professionals swear by sit-and-go tournaments. You can often find them playing four, five or more at once. Since casual poker fans tend to play many sit-and-gos, especially at the smaller buy-ins, a skilled player can have great success if they master the sit-and-go. If you’re going to try to master sit-and-gos, be sure to start with small buy-ins and work your way up. Try to make sure you are cashing at least 30 percent of the time before you even consider adding tables or playing at a higher level.

Be sure to take notes on your opposition, since as long as you play on the same site at the same level, you are likely to see some of the same players again and again. If you have detailed notes on how they play, this will make the sit-and-go a lot easier.