Sit and Go Strategy – Middle Stages

The middle stages of an SNG begin when the blinds are about 50/100 and a few players have been knocked out. At this point in the tournament, the blinds begin to put a little pressure on the players and the players are starting to realize they can’t survive the blinds forever. The remaining players know that they either need to collect more chips or outlast those with fewer chips.

This is the stage in the tournament in which you can start to turn on the heat. If you played a tight game during the early stages, you should have a decent chip stack and a decent read on the other players at the table. Now you will want to identify which players are trying to sneak to the money and which players are busy collecting chips. You main target from here on out are the tight players who are trying to make it to the money.

These tight players are a great source of chips because they don’t go to great lengths to defend their blinds. With 150 chips up for grabs at the beginning of every hand, blind stealing should start to take precedence over everything else. You should steal as many blinds as possible in order to grow you chip stack at a steady pace.

Of course, you don’t want to go overboard with attacking the blinds. Take note of your opponents and focus your energy on stealing from the tight players. There’s no point in tangling with loose players unless you have a premium hand. These players are just too difficult to steal from in comparison to the tightwads who fold every hand.

Preflop Play

Your play before the flop should still resemble a normal tight-aggressive strategy. You should mostly only enter pots with a raise or not at all. There’s no room in the middle stages for you to limp in with weak hands and try to hit something big. Instead, you should be trying your hardest to win as many chips as possible without ever seeing a flop.

The difference between now and earlier is that you can come in with a raise with a bigger selection of hands. In fact, the actual cards in your hand don’t matter as much as the situation at the table. If you see weak player and have an opportunity to steal his blinds, the cards in your hand don’t matter.

If another player enters the pot before you, it’s best to avoid trying to steal that pot. What you’re looking for here is low hanging fruit, not battles of will against people who have already shown an interest in the pot. If you catch a strong hand, however, feel free to make that player pay to see the flop.

Towards the end of the middle stage, the blinds will grow even larger. At some point, your blind steals will have to become all-in preflop raises. When your stack gets that shallow, you have to commit all or nothing to every pot. Nobody has enough chips to get partially involved in a pot and then back out at the last second. It takes courage to steal pots by going all in but it gives you the best chance of success.

Postflop Play

Postflop play is best avoided in the middle stages of an SNG but sometimes it’s unavoidable. If you catch a strong hand or someone calls one of your steal attempts, you’ll have no choice but to see a flop. The correct way to play after the flop is determined primarily by the playing style of your opponent.

First of all, let’s get strong hands out of the way. If you see the flop with a strong starting hand or you catch a strong hand on the flop, the best play is usually to initiate the betting right off the bat. The stacks are relatively shallow at this point so it’s not too hard at all to get someone all-in with just a single bet or raise.

With weak hands, the story is a little different. You can’t afford to play a purely straightforward game any longer because the blinds are growing larger and you need to add chips to your stack. The important thing now is to identify the playing style of your opponent and proceed accordingly. Against a tight player, you should throw out a bet and see if you can take the pot down. Against a loose opponent, you have no choice but to play a straightforward game and hope for the best.

Don’t be afraid to drop the hand if you get action you can’t handle. Any bet or raise on the flop can quickly lead to an all-in confrontation. The average stack during this stage of the tournament is only about 10 big blinds deep. You don’t have much room to maneuver and try to steal pots that aren’t easily stolen. Keep your focus instead on finding weak players to steal from.

Final Thoughts

The middle stages of a tournament are a turning point for your strategy. What was once a super tight game in the early stages should slowly become a more aggressive strategy. You don’t have unlimited time on your hands so you need to start adding chips to your stack to stay alive. There’s no need to panic yet but you should definitely keep a close eye on your chip count and look for opportunities to steal chips.