Sit and Go Strategy – Early Stages
The best strategy for the early stages of an SNG is to play a tight, observant game. The blind are small and it’s cheap to see flops but you don’t need to play a lot of hands to get ahead. Instead, you should use the early stages of SNG to wait for strong hands, let the crazy players knock each other out and to take notes on your opponents.
New players often think the early stages of an SNG are the best time see a lot of flops and try to hit big hands. In all actuality, that strategy is just a waste of chips. The time to earn chips comes later in the tournament. In the early stages, you should play a tight game in order to take advantage of all the loose players in the tournament.
The reason I advocate a tight strategy in the early stage of an SNG is because there’s no rush to build a big stack right off the bat. Sure, if something falls in your lap that’s great but you don’t need to spend chips seeing flops with marginal hands. It might appear cheap to see flops but all those bets you pay to see the flop add up quickly.
Sit and go tournaments are different than cash games because the time period in which you have small blinds and big stacks is limited. You don’t hit big hands often with marginal hands so it usually ends up being a waste of chips to see lots of flops. A much better strategy is to save your chips so that you have a big enough stack to push people around later.
Additionally, there’s no point in bluffing and trying to steal chips because the risk vs. reward ratio is poor. Most importantly, it’s hard to bluff people out of pots because they play a lot looser in the early stages of the tournament. Any time you play against loose players, you make the most money by playing a tight, straightforward game.
Conservation of Chips
It may sound weak, but the goal of early stage SNGs is to conserve chips. You have plenty of time to play a tight game and wait for strong hands anyways. By conserving chips, you ensure that you’ll have a big enough stack to steal the binds later when they become bigger and worth stealing.
You can limp in with speculative hands occasionally, but not on a regular basis. If you have late position and several other people have limped in already, you can limp in behind them with a drawing hand such as a small pocket pair or suited connector. As long as you’re willing to drop the hand after the flop if it doesn’t pan out, you’ll be fine.
In middle and early position, however, you should play a much tighter game. You need to conserve chips and wait for the blinds to grow larger. If you catch a big hand such as AA, KK, QQ or AK, then feel free to bet it for all its worth. Those hands are great for winning chips. But in all other cases, you should be quick to fold your hands. You are going to need your chips later in the tournament.
A good way to look at preflop play in the early stage of a tournament is as follows: if you don’t feel comfortable coming in with a raise, the hand probably isn’t worth playing. You should be playing a very tight game here, not playing mediocre hands and hoping to turn them into something great.
Playing After the Flop
You shouldn’t see many flops during the early stages of an SNG because you shouldn’t be playing many hands in the first place. The times you do see a flop, however, should be approached with caution. The fastest way to reduce your chip stack is through loose postflop play.
During the early stages of an SNG, you should play a straightforward postflop game. Don’t place continuation bets if you miss your hand and don’t even think about trying to steal multi-way pots. Just wait for strong hands and bet them hard when you get them. In all other cases, be quick to fold. You are in no rush right now to build a huge chip stack.
Final Thoughts
Keep in mind that the fun stuff happens later on the in the tournament. It’s not fun to play a super tight game when everyone else is having fun and splashing chips around. Don’t worry, though, you’ll get your chance to play later. For now, just play a tight and straightforward game. The time to get aggressive will arise during the middle and late stages of the tournament.