Best way to play 2 and 3 table sit an go?

Hey guys, been playing a lot of these, cant seem to crack em, how do you tend to play them? initially i thought every good player sat back early waiting for powerful holding cards AA-1010 A-K etc limped with low pocket pairs. Now im thinking this may not be the way to actually get a return? is it better to take risks early with suited connectors, k-10 etc limp and even raise with just ok hands? look to build a chip lead on your table early an then crush everybody?

Thanks,

Paul

depending on how big the field is. your general strategy for these s&g's are to play tight to start with building your self up a tight image and when the blinds start to increase you loosen up and start to steal the blinds and take the big pots. doubling up early in a tournament is an advantage yes but a double up later in the tournament is far more important and i cant stress that enough. maybe for now just concentrate on 1 table because when you multi table you find your self on auto pilot, which basically means your doing what comes naturally not really thinking much in to your game and strategy. just keep your a game up at all times and im sure you will cash soon.

good luck with it all, feel free to ask me any questions you might have,

Ollie

When you say 2 an 3 table sit and go I am assuming you mean the 18 and 27 man tournaments. Personally I play these like and regular STT. Nice and tight at the low levels. Aggressive with big hands. Then like the previous poster said, pick your spots to steal if you are struggling in the later stages. Good luck.

it depends how big the tourney if its a 18-27 man tourney then yes i would call or raise with ok hands. And when u get a strong hand the others players should pay u off because if your looser plays before.

have to play small ball poker in the early stages dont risk too much with ak or aq even kk or qq just be patient and you should be fine

Can't say I like any of the 'suggestions/advice' here so far.

OP, the thing with the 18's & 27's, you'll be shorthanded much more often prior to tables joining when it drops to two tables (or to one). You simply MUST pick up blinds when tables get short.. &/or resteal from others in good spots (definition of 'good spots'... where you'll have fold equity... where you figure player is raising fairly wide, (etc.)).

Typically the 18's & especiallyl the 27's have softer fields than the 9plyr. games. (and you'll often see players getting it in in early levels in an effort to double up). There's not typically much time for calling with speculative hands (maybe level 1 & 2 but it depends on the table). Stuff like limping KT & then calling a raise... umm.. 'nope'. 'Small ball'.. umm.. nope (you're not deep enough in the SNG's to play 'small ball').

Poker Orifice said:

Can't say I like any of the 'suggestions/advice' here so far.

OP, the thing with the 18's & 27's, you'll be shorthanded much more often prior to tables joining when it drops to two tables (or to one). You simply MUST pick up blinds when tables get short.. &/or resteal from others in good spots (definition of 'good spots'... where you'll have fold equity... where you figure player is raising fairly wide, (etc.)).

Typically the 18's & especiallyl the 27's have softer fields than the 9plyr. games. (and you'll often see players getting it in in early levels in an effort to double up). There's not typically much time for calling with speculative hands (maybe level 1 & 2 but it depends on the table). Stuff like limping KT & then calling a raise... umm.. 'nope'. 'Small ball'.. umm.. nope (you're not deep enough in the SNG's to play 'small ball').

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Yeah bingo, read this guys^^^

Also to add to it, a common mistake i see is players misplaying it when they get deep in these things. Stuff like raise/folding with 9BB effective stack size. Read up on stuff like 'M' or 'effective BB's' to find out when you should just be open shoving. These games have pretty high variance like most MTT formats, however we pick up a lot of chips in the late game by exploiting guys with tight calling ranges.


Edit: the 'tight is right' approach in these games leaves you with a really short stack when it comes to the early/mid game it's a losing proposition.

same thing as a cash table the lesser the people the more aggresive the player must be. the reasoining for this is becasue you are seeing more hands and have more chances to capitalize on those possibilities, meaning the luckier you will become. if you sit back and get blinded out you are going to have a bad day, you must play more aggresive when the field gets smaller and smaller.

In these 2 and 3 people sngs you should start out tight aggressive at first not trying to bluff your way out of the toournament trying to steal blinds and building up some decent size pot. Then, once the blinds increase and you have a decent chip stack try to loosen up playing moderate hands soemtimes such as low suited connectors to try and catch people off guard. When you get lose big hands like aces or ace king suited then be aggressive with them and pick on the tight opponents to try and steal chips from them. Good luck and hope this works.

-----bryce said:

have to play small ball poker in the early stages dont risk too much with ak or aq even kk or qq just be patient and you should be fine

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Cant agree that Im playing small ball with KK. Ill put my money in the middle with KK and take my chances... especially at these cheaper SnG's cause youre likely to get hooked up with a whole lot less than KK.

WiZZiM said:

Yeah bingo, read this guys^^^

Also to add to it, a common mistake i see is players misplaying it when they get deep in these things. Stuff like raise/folding with 9BB effective stack size. Read up on stuff like 'M' or 'effective BB's' to find out when you should just be open shoving. These games have pretty high variance like most MTT formats, however we pick up a lot of chips in the late game by exploiting guys with tight calling ranges.


Edit: the 'tight is right' approach in these games leaves you with a really short stack when it comes to the early/mid game it's a losing proposition.

Click to expand...

+1 to PO and WiZ.

It might be 'okay' to splash around in the first two levels given the right circumstances. But a key thing to keep in mind is that you aren't supposed to be going broke with these hands unless it's like flush vs. flush. Being in position when you play these hands is also fairly crucial. I'll happily come along for the ride if I've seen a few limpers and I'm on the BTN w/78s, but I won't necessarily make the call if it's an UTG limp and I'm in MP. Position is so important I've given serious consideration to open folding 22-55 or so in the first 3 positions (on a full table).

Regarding how you change your play. Play in any SNG is somewhat similar, you pace the blinds and increase your hand range as your M and everyone else's begins to get shorter. Bigger fields tend to have more people with short stacks, more short handed tables and you play a larger portion of the tournament relatively short stacked. Thus the larger the field the more shove-y and aggressive you usually will have to be if you want to win (in the middle-late stages).