Basic Sit and Go Strategy

Basic sit and go strategy is fairly straightforward; it requires a basic knowledge of no limit poker and a little bit of self discipline. The strategy presented in this article will give you a solid foundation to build on as you progress up through the ranks in sit-n-go tournaments. You will eventually want to proceed to advanced strategy but let us first provide you with an introduction to basic sit and go strategy.

The Tight-Aggressive Style

The tight-aggressive (TAG) playing style is generally recognized as the best style for winning money in poker. Whether you play sit-n-go tournaments, MTTs or cash games, the tight-aggressive style will give you the best results and bring you the most money.

The tight-aggressive style is used to describe a playing style in which you are tight in selecting which hands you play but you are aggressive with the hands you do decide to play. In other words, the TAG style only plays strong hands before the flop and it plays those hands strongly after the flop. If you have a strong hand, the style dictates, you should play it by betting and raising, not by checking and calling.

A lot more can be said about the TAG style but for now, we’ll say that it dictates you should only play strong hands before the flop. Don’t limp in with a bunch of weak hands and hope to get lucky. Those weak hands don’t turn into strong hands often enough to make up for all the times you spend money to see the flop and end up having to fold. You want to stick with strong hands because they are time-proven to win money.

Adjusting Your Play

An important part of basic sit and go strategy is to adjust your play as the game dynamics change. Most importantly, you will need to alter your strategy as the blinds grow larger and the players become more desperate. If you have ever played in an SNG before, you probably already know what I’m talking about – that time in the tournament in which the blinds become frighteningly large and the players start making desperate moves to stay alive.

Basic sit-and-go strategy states that you should play the early stages of an SNG with a tight playing style and then increase the aggression as you move up to bigger and bigger blinds. When the blinds are small, you need to conserve chips because there is little reward but much risk. As the blinds grow larger, you’ll have to amp up the aggression and steal those blinds because they represent a significant supply of chips.

In the early stages of an SNG, you should play a normal tight-aggressive style. There’s no point in getting involved in a lot of pots or trying to bully the table around. The other players are still feeling confident and are willing to gamble it up. The perfect strategy to take advantage of such players is the most basic strategy of all: fold when you have a weak hand, bet when you have a strong hand.

When the blinds get up to about 50/100 or so, you can consider yourself in the middle stages of the tournament. At this point, you will want to get a little more active and start stealing some pots. The goal now is to win as many chips as you can without having to see a flop. Most of your work should be accomplished during the preflop stage. Look for soft spots at the table and steal from those players as often as you can. Do not waste chips trying to limp in and hit big hands.

Near the end of the middle stages, you will enter the “bubble.” The bubble is the stage in the tournament in which only one more player needs to be knocked out before everyone else reaches the money. This stage is the prime time for you to get active and start stealing even more blinds. Most of the other players will be hunkering down and trying to outlast one another. These are the perfect targets to go after because they don’t defend their blinds.

After the bubble breaks, you can consider yourself in the late stage of the tournament. From here on out, you’re going to have a tough battle on your hands. Keep the aggression high but get out of the way if someone else enters the pot first. Your goal now is to keep the chips coming in without getting involved in many postflop pots. The blinds will be so large now that almost any confrontation will result in both players getting it all-in.

Think of yourself as a guerilla fighter who darts in, does his damage and then escapes before anyone can return fire. You want to avoid confrontation and steal as many chips as possible. If you continue stealing those chips and hit a strong hand or two along the way, you’ll soon find yourself with the biggest chip stack at the table. From there, you’re only a few minutes away from taking first place.

Go for First Place

If you want to be a profitable SNG player, you need to go for first place finishes. That’s where the majority of the money is and that’s how you develop a positive win rate. Nobody becomes a profitable SNG player by trying to sneak into the money as many times as possible. The key to winning is to have a decent rate of first place finishes.

Play SNGs without fear and act like you want first place or nothing at all. It’s better to take a risk and go for a first place finish than it is to settle for a more certain 3rd or 4th place finish. Go for the throat and don’t let up until you have that first place prize in your hand. It may sound over-aggressive but it works. Sit and go players make money by taking first place on a regular basis.