Sit and Go Success

Some time ago I used to play single table poker tournaments for a living (SNG’s). These basically play as they sound, an entire poker tournament that starts with only one table and the last three surviving players qualify for prize money. Usually this prize money breaks down as 50% for first place, thirty per cent for second and the remaining twenty percent for third.

The poker strategies that I used at levels up to $200 are not effective now at those levels as powerful poker strategies and ICM (Independent Chip Modelling) have taken over. But this does not mean that these strategies cannot be successful playing poker lower down. At levels up to and including the $20 level then good solid tight to start and then loosening up as you near the money type strategies can still be very successful.

It is no different to any other type of poker with regards to dead money being in the low levels. Basically many recreational poker players come in at the low levels. In fact I have been playing a lot of low level poker myself over the past few months so I am perfectly aware of how many bad players are at those levels.

But people play Sit & Go poker for lots of different reasons and the main one is basically for entertainment and to have a little fun. They achieve these objectives of course but that also means that they can become fish food for good solid players at those levels. I know many working professionals who only ever play low levels simply because they don’t have to work too hard for the money.

There is a lot to be said for this and simple solid strategies that don’t work at higher levels work lower down simply because too many poker players don’t bother educating themselves in the art of utilising even a half decent poker strategy. Basically at the lower level SNG’s then too many players look to get involved in action too soon when the blinds are low in relation to the stack sizes.

This means that they end up getting themselves knocked out without good cause when they could have simply sat back and given themselves good opportunities to get into the last five places without much risk at all.

Another good poker strategy to adopt is to attack the remaining players when you get close to what is known as “the bubble”. This is the stage of the tournament where you are either one or two places from the prize money. This is precisely the stage where weaker novice players start to go into their shell. They can sense that the prize money places are within touching distance and they instinctively tighten up.

This is precisely the wrong approach but yet this is exactly what most players do at these levels. Playing in a $10 SNG is not going to bankrupt anyone and this mentality means that many players take shots at these lower levels with no underlying strategy or game plan whatsoever. But yet even though they started this tournament with the mindset of not placing any value on the $10, it is amazing how that mindset changes when they get close to the money.

Suddenly they don’t want to finish empty handed, all that time and effort wasted by busting out in fourth place. Suddenly the carefree attitude that they had at the start, the attitude that helped them to amass a decent stack has now evaporated and they switch to survival mode waiting and hoping that other players are eliminated without them having to take any risks.

Suddenly that big chip stack that they had at the end of the third level is now dwindling and the blinds are very high now. The smaller field means that those blinds are coming around very quickly. Suddenly our chip leader is now the lowest stack at the table and going all in just to survive…..make sure that this is not you.

By Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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