SexyAceJoker's Single Table Sit & Go Strategy Guide

Most strong online players use this widely accepted strategy, I read some of it from an online page, my common sense allowed me to play something close to it and a strong online friend of mine coached me into playing what they call the best sit n go strategy.

I am going to share with you cardchatters, what is a good strategy to build a bankroll and play a solid sit n go game. Keep in mind this mini guide is directed towards 9 or 10 players 1 table sit n go, it can work for multi tables, but some small adjustments would be need it. I Hope you enjoy it, and for the experts out there, this will just be a reminder of what your sub consciousness has already stored. The advice you are about to receive is pretty simple yet very logical and strong.

Early Stage

You will be playing only a little amount of hands. At this stage you will play TIGHT, and when i say tight i mean tight. The hands you will be playing will be :

Monster hands

AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AKo = these will be your main weapons. You will raise with them from any position to 3x BB.

You will play as follows, with AA you can't fear a lot, you will be way ahead or way behind with them, I usually put my money in with them, unless the board shows an obvious straight or flush possibly, or if the board pairs and I know my opponent was calling or betting on that card, I might fold. This hand is usually best in small pots.

KK is a little like AA, but with an obvious difference, if an A falls on the flop, this is as far as we go. If your opponent checks and you got a good read on him and know he checks when he does not have a hand you can bet (more on betting later), If someone bets into you, this is a fold most of the time.

QQ, just like stated above, if it's top pair, bet it strong, If an A or K falls on the flop you need to be very careful, as you might have been outfloped, follow the guidelines of KK.

AKs and AKo. These are a little trickier since its a drawing hand ( its not made, needs flop help ) When you flop top pair, you will most likely have top kicker, so with top pair on a ragged board play it aggressively. If you flop K with A kicker, there is no over card to you, as an A would give you 2 pair, and if you flop a pair of A's, you got the best pair with top kicker. Once again keep in mind the board and pay close attention to opponents, just because you flopped TPTK (TOP PAIR, TOP KICKER) it does not mean you can not fold.

Medium hands

These mediums are weaker and more vulnerable than our monster hands but are still very strong with a good table read and position. These hands are JJ, AQs, AQo.

I usually open with them with 3x BB raise, and prefer to be on middle and late position.

When raising with JJ, if a A K or Q flops, this is as far as we go, if you got a read on a opponent heads up and his weak bet, if its multi way pot do not even think of continuation betting unless you got a good read on the board, you are probably beat, and that is why these are medium hands, 3 over cards can hurt it.

AQs and AQo, raise 3x. When you flop your A, you have top pair and second best kicker, with is good but when its the opposite, you flop a Q for TPTK, your Q is more vulnerable, K or A can crush it, and you need to be more careful, if you hit your Q and a K or A flop, be very cautious.

The trapping hands

1010,99,88,77,66,55,44,33,22

Some of my favorite, they usually win huge pots, especially at the low limit Minis (we will refer to sit n go's as minis)

With these pocket pairs, you will usually limp and you can try a small raise and a 3x bb raise if its not a huge chunk of your stack. The reason is simple, when you hit your set, the bigger hands will most probably pay you off greatly, top pair just can't let go, and if you miss your set, you usually fold and move to the next hand. The reason we play them is for the huge implied odds ( You would need 8-1 to make the call correct, but since if you hit you will receive so much money in return, the investment is good, this is called implied odds, not what your paying to enter the pot, but what you figure to make if you hit your set )

Remember if you do not hit your set, its an easy fold unless its top pair, then you can bet and feel where you are.

This will be all for early tournament play. The blinds in the beginning are just too small to steal, and entering the pot with marginal hands just is not profitable because with hands like KQ,KJ, A10, you are looking to hit strong, almost miracle like flops, sets on the flop, 2 pairs, hitting straights or flushes. With the above hands you are coming in with a strong made or almost made hand, and figure to make just as much, if not as much, by playing this tight, solid style. In the early stage we are looking to double up and take command of the Mini.

Middle Stage

Once the low blinds are gone, and where at the 50-100 blinds, the fun begins. We turn on the aggression motors. You will be playing the above hands the same strong way, plus you can now add more hands to your repertoire. When you are coming into a pot, you will do so by raising to 3x BB, for 2 reasons, we are taking control of the pot and we are stealing blinds. This is how we kept our healthy stack growing as premium hands wont come every other hand and we can't let the competition catch up. The best place to steal is near the button and if its folded to you. If someone ahead of you limps, you need to be a little bit more precautious, but if its folded to you, you almost always attempt a blind steal. We need to be aggressive, we need to be losse, we need to bully and tight is not in our vocabulary anymore. One important factor that will help you here is, players noticed you where ultra tight in the beginning and now your coming alive, they will think you are still playing the strong hands, and this solid image will help you with stealing. When we are near the bubble, this style will ensure 2 things, either we bubble or have enough chips to take first place, we do not care about third, we should see third as a loss and second, well second just does not cut it. The money is in first place, and we either put ourselves to win it all, or just go home. This is the mind frame you will need, the mind of a ASSASSIN looking to destroy its prey.

Hands that I recommend for steals are any face cards. any Ax, any suited connector, any connector, any suited gapper and pocket pairs. These hands all have potential and when we get called, we do not want to be in a pot with a weak, no potential hand. these hands can flop strong draws with we will play aggressively. We do not want to attempt steal with hands like K2, Q7, J4, these hands just do not play well together.

Final Stage

Hopefully you paid attention to the table, you will know which of your opponents is the most dangerous, you will recognize betting patterns and tendencies. Experience from your part is very important here but always keep in mind, the most aggressive player here will usually take first and we clearly want that to be us. First off, you will enter most, if not all pots by raising, and you will play the flop accordingly. One important things to keep in mind is; you and your opponent are going to miss the flop a lot of times, as much as 66% of the time. So you can not be scared to bet after you miss your flop and raise after a opponent tries to get tricky, once again we depend on our opponent's read. Other than this, there is really no more advice to be given here, if you followed this guide you should be first in chips or second, and you will be making a lot of blinds steals that will contribute to growing your stack

Points to keep in mind

• You will NOT SLOWPLAY UNLESS ITS A BEAST HAND. No slowplaying, you just cant afford it especially if flush or straight possibilities are showing.
• When betting for value or bluffing (I am not sure if everyone will agree) you will always bet half the pot. This will create a pattern that no one can crack, are you bluffing or betting for value. They wont be able to tell and we want them to have guesses, not accurate reads. If an opponent calls, no matter what he calls with, he doesn't have the correct odds to chase,not for his straight, not for his flush, not for anything, so by betting half the pot always, you cut down a opponents call odds to 3-1 which makes it profitable for you most of the time. Even if your opponent did have the odds to chase, it will not happen often enough to make betting 1/2 pot bad.
• You will bet strong draws, when i say strong draws i mean open ended straight draws, flush draws, open ended straight flush draws and if these draws got over cards it's even better. We need to stay aggressive, but if someone shows aggression, you will evaluate the situation and choose the correct course of action.
• Be a bully, when you have a chip lead, you need to bully everyone around, do not give them time to breath, you have been short stacked before and you know the feeling, keep being aggressive in the middle and final stages.
• Concentrate on the game, recognize the weak players, the tight ones and the losses ones, this is very important. You want to steal blinds from the tighties and bet for value and trap the aggressive opponents.
• You will need discipline, being this tight can often be boring, but it will pay in the long run.
• When you get good on playing 1 table, you will add 1 more table until you can Quad table. This will cut down variance, make the good cards come faster and add to your money. Of course, you can only do this once you master playing 1 table at a time.
• The ideal ITM% you would need to be solid is 30 to 40%. Keep detailed records, if you cant beat your current level, evaluate what you are doing wrong, maybe drop down a level. Remember work on your game and fix your leaks.

I guess this is all I could think of, if anyone is interested, I can watch you play and tutor you, tell you how I would play each situation and help you improve. This type of approach to poker is good for building a bankroll, especially at the 5.50 minis with are very soft and thus great builders. Any doubts, suggestions or feedback, you can leave it here, pm me or contact me at :

Article Written by SexyAceJoker

Also see our Low Stakes Sit n Go Strategy article.

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