Sit ‘n Go tourneys are fast-paced and fun to play in. It’s like playing in a microcosm of a big multi-table tournament. The structure of SnG’s at an online poker room such as PartyPoker.com is usually that of a one-table freezeout and the top 2 or 3 places pay out. Since you’re going to be starting out with at least 9 or 10 players at your table, it makes sense to play pretty tight in the early stages of these tournaments. The logic is simple: many of your opponents will be wild and tend to gamble early on. For whatever reason, these folks just don’t feel comfortable unless they get a quick double-up under their belt. This puts you in a great situation if you’re holding pocket Aces or Kings, but you generally want to stay out of the action early on. You get rewarded for just surviving, so let others get knocked out before you take your shots. If there’s enough gamble in your opponents early on, you might not even need to win many pots to get into the money.
The second reason to play only your premium hands early on is to look at the risk/reward model for your play. The blinds start off pretty low in these tourneys, so what do you have to gain by bluffing, or even playing a mediocre hand at all? You’re not going to be picking up much if you win the pot, and you might get raised to the point where you’re paying much more than you’d like to. Especially in early position, I wouldn’t play anything worse than A-Q suited or a pair of lace w:st="on">Queenslace>. Wait until you’re table is a few opponents short and the blinds are higher. You’ll have more to gain by your aggressive play.
Especially at tighter sites, a SnG is a great place for the continuation bet. A continuation bet is making a bet after the flop after you’ve raised the hand preflop. You’ve taken control of the hand, preferably with position, before the flop so your opponents will usually check to you. At this point, you make a bet anywhere between half the size of the pot and the full size of the pot. Since you raised preflop, your opponents will tend to put you on a big hand, possibly a big pocket pair. When the board comes out with 3 rags, or they only got a piece of the flop, and they’re facing another bet on the flop, they’ll usually throw their hand away.
For example, let’s you raised 4x the big blind from late position with A-K and 3 callers stay in. When the flop comes out 9-2-5, regardless of the suits, you’re going to bet at least half the pot when your opponents check to you. If one of your opponents calls your bet, he obviously has something to stay in the hand, even if it’s only a draw. If he checks to you again on the turn and you don’t hit your Ace or King, you’ll have to check behind him. Also be aware that many opponents like to slowplay or check-raise the preflop raiser. They know that you’re likely to bet again on the flop, so they’ll often wait until you bet and raise you. If you get raised and you don’t have a big pocket pair or hit the flop in some way, you should just release your hand.
As the blinds begin to increase further into the tournament, you’ll need to open up your play a bit. Your stack will be severely crippled if you only wait for the premium hands at this point. You’ll need to learn who you can steal the blinds from, and since you’re usually playing shorthanded at this point, the blinds are going to come around faster. Start off the tourney focusing on playing your cards and position. As it progresses, start to focus more on playing your opponent and your position. Following this guide should lead you to success at Party Poker and other poker sites
