Sit And Go Texas Holdem Strategy

Posted on 3/15/2022 by admin

Carlos Welch

Texas Hold'em Sit And Go Strategy
Sit And Go Texas Holdem Strategy Rules

A Beginners Guide to Equity in Standard Situations in No-Limit Hold'em; How to Win a Sit & Go: Heads-Up Strategy. Once you get to the end game, you still need to seal the deal. You've learned all the tools; now you just have to apply them one-on-one. So our focus now is heads-up play.

Welcome to the fourth in my Texas Holdem Strategy Series, focusing on no limit Texas Holdem poker tournament play and associated strategies. In this article, we'll examine the 'Sit and Go' tournament - the most popular online poker tournament format today.
Sit and Go tournaments (a.k.a SnG's, Sit & Go's, Single Table Tournaments, STT's) are an exciting format of poker than has become very popular. Sit and Go's offer the thrill of a regular multi-table tournament but every game is like you've reached the final table. One of the other attractive features of Sit and Go's, and where the name.

Last week, we discussed beginner strategy for the bubble of a standard, nine-handed, single-table sit & go in which the top three spots pay (50/30/20 percent). This week, we will discuss strategy for three-handed play. We are in the money and our main goal now is to take the lion's share of the prize pool and all the glory.

Play for the win

First, let's take a look at the math of a hypothetical scenario to see why playing for the win is the correct strategy in these kinds of SNGs such as are popular when you play poker online.

Let's imagine you can choose to play so conservatively in a SNG that you completely eliminate the possibility of taking third or first — a low variance strategy that would guarantee you 30 percent of the prize pool.

Then let's assume you could instead play so aggressively that you would never take second, and half the time you take third and win 20 percent of the prize pool and the other half of the time you take first and win 50 percent of the money.

This second strategy guarantees you 35 percent of the prize pool on average (i.e., better than the 30 percent for second). Even if you ran badly and only got first twice every five times, you would still win 32 percent on average and outdo your nitty, second-place finishing opponent. Embrace the variance my friends.

As the short stack, gamboool!!!

When you are the shortest stack, you don't have anything to lose. You've already locked up a cash and it will be difficult to ladder given how cautious the middle stack should be playing. With only three players left, the blinds will be coming around fast and furiously, so you are forced to gamble to keep yourself from blinding out.

Make standard Nash shoves and calls against the medium stack, but open up your range a bit against the big stack. He may he less inclined to call your shoves because the longer the bubble lasts, the more chips he will make. Also, you can call his shoves slightly wider if he had to go through the middle stack to get to you. Oftentimes this shove will be wider than normal because of how tight the middle stack has to call with you sitting behind him.

The flipside of this is also true. You should call tighter if the big stack shoves and you have to act before the middle stack. If you call, the middle stack will be incentivized to call as well because you have to win the pot outright to survive whereas he only has to beat you to get second place.

As the middle stack, attack the short stack and trap the big stack

When you are the middle stack, you really don't want the short stack to hang around. As long as he's there, the big stack can have a field day. You shouldn't pass on any +EV spots against the short stack, but you also don't want to get too out of line and double him up unnecessarily.

Against the big stack, you have to be cautious with your marginal hands, but you can widen your value range a bit. If he is playing well, he will be coming after you with a wide range of hands. This opens up an opportunity for you to get an easy double-up if you happen to pick up a strong hand and induce him to bluff shove on you.

As the big stack, attack the middle stack and consider protecting the short stack

When you are the biggest stack, you want to steal as many pots as possible before someone wakes up with a hand. The middle stack will be the easiest to steal from, especially when the short stack has folded. When this is the case, you can go crazy against him. Force him to pick up a real hand.

If the shortest stack is close in chips to the medium stack, neither player will be overly tight. This means that you should just stick closer to the Nash ranges. On the other hand, if the short stack has a lot less than the middle stack, then you can crank up the aggression on the middle stack who will be insanely tight.

For this reason, you may even consider keeping the short stack around by giving him walks when he starts to get pot committed (i.e., down to around 2-3 big blinds). As stated earlier, the longer the bubble last in this scenario, the more pots you will win without a fight.

Conclusion

We play poker for money, so if you get to three-handed, getting second is a nice consolation prize — but that should rarely be the goal. The vast majority of the money is up top, so you should give yourself a fighting chance to get to heads-up play with a competitive stack. Next week, we will examine the best way to approach the end game.

Also in this series...

Ready to start giving sit & gos a try? Put these tips into practice at 888poker.

Tags
tournament strategyno-limit hold’emstack sizesstarting hand selectionpreflop strategysit & go strategyonline pokershort-handed strategysatellite strategy
Related Room
888poker

In this section of our Advanced Guide to Online Poker, we teach you the exact strategies and tactics used to beat online sit and gos at all levels. Sit and gos are excellent for learning the basic poker strategies used in almost every other online poker game, and also help your end game in multi table tournaments.

Single Table SNG Strategy

This is the basic sit and go strategy - the tactics used to beat standard single table (9-10 handed) sit and gos. Read this article first to learn the basics of SNG strategy, then move on to the other articles.

Heads Up SNG Strategy

Heads up sit and gos are becoming more and more popular everyday, and this article will teach you how to beat the heads up SNGs at the microstakes, mid-stakes, and high stakes levels.

C-Betting in SNGs

Continuation bets (c-bets) are a very useful tool in poker sit and gos, especially in the later stages of the game. This article teaches you when and how to c-bet in the early, middle, and late stages of a sit and go.

Push-Fold Strategy in SNGs

Learn about the push-fold strategy, and how it can be used in SNGs when you have a short-stack in relation to the blinds/antes. By pushing or folding you simplify your decisions and put pressure on your opponents.

Playing the Bubble in SNGs - General Strategy

The bubble in a SNG is when only one more player has to be eliminated before everyone makes the money. This can be a nerve-wracking time in a sit and go, but these bubble strategies will guide you through into the money.

Short Stack Bubble Strategy

Playing the bubble with a short stack is one of the toughest situations in poker. This article teaches you what moves you have as the short stack on the bubble, and how you can advance to the money.

Deep Stack Bubble Strategy

Playing the bubble with a deep stack is an excellent position to be in, but it is no time to get complacent or hyper aggressive. This article teaches you how to leverage your stack size on the bubble.

Changing Gears in Sit and Gos

Sit and gos are different from cash games simply because the blinds increase periodically throughout the game. This requires you to change your strategy on the fly, and that is exactly what we discuss in this SNG strategy article.

Expected Variance in SNGs

Variance is something that every single sit and go player has to deal with. This article will teach you what amount of variance is normal, and when you should start getting concerned and consider moving down in levels.

Sit and Gos vs. Multi Table Tournaments

Sit and gos have a very similar structure to multi table tournaments - there are just a lot fewer players. However, the proper strategy for sit and goes is quite different from the proper strategy for multi table tournaments.

Turbo Poker Tournament Strategy

Turbo sit and gos and turbo multi table tournaments have quickly-increasing blinds which speeds up the pace of play considerably. This article will teach you how to beat the soft turbo SNGs/MTTs.

Texas Hold'em Sit And Go Strategy

Turbo SNG Bubble Strategy

The bubble of any turbo SNG is a pretty stressful time, as the blinds are increasing quickly and each player is trying to advance into the money. Use this turbo SNG bubble strategy to build your stack and hopefully win the SNG.

Ultra Turbo Poker Tournament Strategy

Ultra turbo sit and gos/multi table tournaments have even faster-increasing blinds than turbo tournaments, so the pace of play is quite frantic. This article will teach you how to keep up and make a profit in ultra turbo SNGs/MTTs.

Restealing in SNGs and MTTs

Learn about restealing for both sit and go tournaments and multi table tournaments. This article explains why restealing is profitable, how to resteal, when to resteal, and how to defend against the resteal.

Five Other Resources for SNG Learning

Check out five of my other favorite resources for learning sit and go strategy. These sites offer top-notch content and will turn you into a vastly improved online sit and go player.

The Seven Most Common Leaks for SNG Players

Read this article to discover the most common mistakes that beginner SNG players make. By eliminating these mistakes from your game, you will earn more money and avoid tough situations.

How to Isolate the Short Stack

This article explains what it means to 'isolate a short stack', and also discusses why isolating the short stacks is important. You will also learn exactly how and when to isolate short stacks in SNGs/MTTs.

When to Ignore SNG Wizard

SNG Wizard is a great tool for SNG players, but sometimes the tool makes mistakes. Read this article to learn when you should ignore SNG Wizard's advice and make your own decision.

When to Keep the Bubble Alive

Although it seems like you should always want the bubble to burst as quickly as possible, there are a few situations where you might want to extend the bubble. Learn when and how to do it here.

45 Man Sit and Go Strategy

This article (from our How To Poker blog) is a complete guide for winning 45 man sit and gos - specifically 45 man turbo sit and gos. The article walks you through the entire tournament from start to finish.

180 Man Turbo SNG Strategy