18 Seat $5+.50 Sit and Go's at Full Tilt Poker - Strategy

I have found the $5+.50 18 Person NLHE Sit and Go’s at Full Tilt probably the easiest game at Full Tilt. In no way will my strategy be recommended for any other games except this specific game, simply because I haven’t tried it anywhere else. It probably will work just the same on the $2+.25 18 Person NLHE SnG’s at Tilt as well, but I haven’t played those. This strategy is fairly unconventional, I know that. This strategy is one I have formulated after playing many of these SnG’s, and so far, when I’ve stuck to the plan, it has worked unless I get unlucky, which happens as I’m sure you know.

Ok so first things first. The general idea of the strategy is to let the idiots knock themselves out, then come in with about 6 people left and make the money, hoping to get Heads Up and take 1st.

We will want to play to only get monster hands to either double up on or take down blinds (most of the time). This means that starting hands that we will play basically consists only of:

See below on how to play these hands. I can only tell you how to play them pre-flop. Post-flop play is going to have to be based solely on your evaluations of hands and opponents.

-Suited Aces
* A2 - A9
* AT - AJ
* AQ
* AK

-Pocket Pairs
*22 - 66
*77 - TT
*JJ
*QQ - AA

-Other Hands
*KQ s
*TJ-K9




Ok, now that you know the only hands that you will be using in this strategy (unless you get a random hand on BB, then play it as needed), there are certain ways to play each set of hands.

Suited Aces:

A2-A9: These hands are only played in late position, and only if there is no raise in front of us, and usually if there are few limpers in front of us as well. We are nut flush mining with these hands.

AT-AJ: These two hands are played in middle or late position only, and we are also limping with these. These are also played with no raises in front of us, limpers aren’t as big of a deal as the A2-A9 hands. With AJ call small raises on button or cut-off. Call no raises when these hands are not suited, but maybe limp in late position.

AQ: This hand can be limped from anywhere on the table and raised with cautiously in late position. In late position call small raises and raise in late position if folded all the way around to you. Only limping in middle or late position with this hand.

AK: This hand can be raised from anywhere on the table when its suited, in middle or late position when its not suited. This is one of the hands where we want to push it hard to get some chips (suited). Make a good raise pre-flop and see what happens on the flop and take it from there.



Pocket Pairs:

22-66: Limp with these from anywhere. We are set mining with most pocket pairs. Even call small raises with these hands from any position. If you hit your set on the flop, generally speaking, you’re golden to double up.

77-TT: Limp with these from anywhere. In late position if there have been no raises yet and very few limpers and table has been fairly tight, you can consider raising it up, especially with 99 and TT. Call small raises with these as well because we’re still set mining. TT you can be a little more liberal with than the rest in terms of raising.

JJ: We want to raise it up from all positions. We want to push it with this hand. When you are the only raiser in the pot preflop, raise the pot, no matter how many limpers it is (unless blinds are fairly high and pot is more than maybe half your stack--we want to raise about 1/5-1/3 of your stack preflop with this hand--depending on your stack size of course)

QQ-AA: We want as much money in the middle preflop as we can get without just straight up pushing. Raise it up to Pot preflop usually. Stop-and-Go’s are usually a good way to maximize profit off of these hands (depending on your stack size of course, don’t get stupid with a nice stack).

Other Hands:

KQ s: We are only playing this hand from cut-off or button position along with small and big blinds, and we’re limping.
TJ-K9: We are generally only playing this from small and big blind positions.






Some effective plays with nice hands are:

*Stop-and-Go’s (make a pre-flop bet, with the intention on going all in on the flop)
*The “Fake Missed Flush” (call to the river if there are 2 of a suit on flop, and if no other card of that suit comes, make a nice bet, they will generally call with top pair and stuff like that)
* The All-In “Blind Steal”--this works decently in the late stages of the game. Only do it with really nice hands such as TT-AA, AK.

Sure those are very donk-like plays, but you’re playing against donks, and you have to think like a donk and use their tactics to shove them back in their face. (sorry a little too competitive of a statement there?)

Fold all hands that are not in the hands that I have listed and discussed above, even if you are in small blind, even if they‘re suited. Also fold them if you are in big blind and there is even a minimum raise.

This strategy will most likely get you in the money most of the time. When it gets down to about 6 people, you will need to use more of your own skills in order to make it to the money and hopefully win the tournament. Of course, if you're running up against big hands when you also get big hands or getting unlucky just in general, then just take a break as you should in every poker session you play. I personally find my best results when 2-tabling these 18 seat sit and gos, simply because you have to be patient in these games and wait to pick your spots.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me as I‘m sure I missed a couple things while writing this (but hopefully I did not). Either post them in the thread or PM me.

Great guide! I will certainly try these strategies out. I agree with you about the position stuff. Poker is all about position.

This guide seems great, however you must remember that if everything is done the same everytime, opponents will be able to easily read you.

these are the 5 dollar games. remember that. you will rarely play the same people over and over again. a lot of these people are either multi tabling or just straight up not paying attention close enough to notice a lot of your habits.