Sit And Go Tournies Require Their Own Special Set Of Strategies
Online poker offers some very diverse tournaments. The Sit N Go is one type that should not be overlooked. Early on, you don’t want to give away too many chips on speculative hands. An example would be a medium pocket pair like 88. If you miss the flop, you have to be prepare to fold. Betting this type of hand from early positions can be a recipe for disaster.
In other poker games, you might do very well by raising with weak pocket pairs (22-88). This can create some deception to set yourself up with a huge win. It’s safer with these hands to limp or call small raises. You will only hit your set one in eight times, so it’s better to be careful.
As the blinds get big in relation to your stack, you need to play aggressively. Whenever you can, you must try to steal the blinds. These tourneys become a game of chicken, steals, and resteals. If you don’t get involved, you will find yourself with too small of a stack. You might get called and knocked out even when you finally get a good starting hand.
At some point, the blinds get so big in relation to your stack size, that an all in bet is your only option. You can do this in part for variation, but once you bet, you shouldn’t be folding. This is when you need to risk losing so you can have a chance to win.
When players are folding, you can go all in with more hands expecting to get no callers. How many chips you’re up against is important also. The big (has enough chips to risk) and small (desperate and looking for a spot) stacks will call more often. The middle sized stack folds more, protecting their chips.
Bubble play has a lot to do with everyone’s stack size. With the same two cards, you might go all in versus a short stack, and fold to a medium or large stack. This will protect the remaining chips that you have.
Now is when you look to go all in, but don’t think only about your cards when deciding. Anything is playable sometimes, especially if your stack will damage the others enough to scare them. When betting at a big stack you need better cards as you will get called more frequently.
If you have most of the chips, you can steal the blinds. It’s easiest against the mid sized stacks. These guys need to protect their chips and don’t want to get bounced out.
The problem here is you want to get to the money before losing your stack. The monster stack will knock you out, while the shorties will gamble with anything to survive. This is not an easy place to be in.
There is a mathematical formula to tell you if going all in or folding is the better choice. But, one factor in determining equity value (EV) is which hands will call you. After you “guess” at that, then you know to push or fold.
Equity value (EV) is the value of your hand when you push all of your chips in. EV helps determine which hands to play. Once you decide what that range is, then it is either better to put all your chips in or fold.
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