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General strategy for SNG Sit and Go

First of all, the basic principles of NL tournament strategy should be respected in SNGs as well.
So, first goal would be to end up in the money. Considering the fact that your average SNG player is not the most patient guy on the planet, that means playing real tight in the early stages. Many SNG players tend to take rather high risks very early on, trying to buy small pots with sometimes oversized raises, going all-in in obvious coinflip situations.
So it is important to stay out of those kinds of situations initially and control the pot size unless you have a strong hand. Hands can escalate pretty quickly here, to a point where you find yourself pot committed with a mediocre hand.

For your general strategy, consider the following:

1. Even if you do not play any hands at all at the beginning, you will very often be among the final two or three players because many of your opponents will get themselves eliminated even without you being involved. Due to the fact that the total number of chips is somewhat limited, none of your opponents will have so many chips that you are left without a chance in the final stage.
Example: A table of ten players with normal blind structure and 1500 starting chips, total chipcount is 15,000.
Let’s assume that you fold 90% of the time during the first 30 hands, for the hands you do play the winnings should equal the losses. In this case, after 30 hands let us assume you will still have 1200 chips after giving up all the blinds. Very frequently, after 50 hands many of your opponents will already be eliminated.
Down to three opponents (let’s assume you have managed to hold on to your initial 1500)  your opponents will have a total of 13800 chips now, meaning an average of 4600 chips per player.
By the time you are down to two opponents (which means that you are already in the money!) these two would share the total of 15000 chips minus your own, meaning they would have an average of 6900 chips per player. So you already have doubled your  money, with a chance of further  improvement.
Both of the above situations are not as bad as they may seem. Improvement is still possible. First, there is a good chance that one more player will be eliminated, and second, since the blinds are higher now and the other players' readiness to gamble at this point will give you plenty of opportunities to double up your stack.

2. After having played a very tight game in the beginning, the remaining players (usually the better ones) will give you a lot of respect when you start raising more often now. Instead of winning small blinds with relatively big raises and the risk of running into a big hand at the beginning, you will now be able to make more profitable steals. Add to that the fact that you have more information on the remaining players, and you will be able to cash in on your tight table image.

3. In the final stages, you will of course have to play a more aggressive game, but you still have to consider the opponent’s character. Against a player who has not defended his hands against raises and steals, you should play aggressively. If he waits too for a good hand, try to reduce his stack by taking his blinds. If the opponent is aggressive it is often more profitable to let him make the first move when you have  a strong hand.

In any case you have to think in advance:

 

What do I want to achieve?
How can I best achieve this goal?
What will I do if the opponent does not react the way I want him to?

 

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Sit and Go SNG Strategy – Early and Middle Phase

 

Early

Playing a very tight game is the right strategy in the early phase of an SNG. There is always that guy who will get all-in after three or four hands, and some of the players will be eliminated rather early. Sometimes the table will be so loose and aggressive that even without playing much you will end up in the money. During the first three blind levels, focus on simply surviving. By the time the competition is down to a few players, you can always start outplaying them.

Since the game tends to be rather loose – especially in the beginning – you will need to play your strong starting hands more aggressively. That means to raise 4-6 times the blinds in order to narrow down the competition, especially with hands that do not like to play multiple opponents. Given the looseness of the game, even after a big raise with a big pair you will get a caller most of the time, and the chances of your big pair getting beaten are much smaller when playing against a single opponent.
You should not call all-in raises early except when you hold AA or KK. Most of the time, calling an early all-in raise is an unnecessary gamble. Let’s assume you hold AKs and someone raises you all-in. Chances are the other guy holds a pocket pair, so it is a coinflip. Do not risk most of your stack in situations like this.
Be careful with continuation bets when the flop has missed your hand. Bad players are perfectly able to call your continuation bet with any hand, and you loose even more chips trying to bluff and buy the pot.
Do not worry when you see that everyone around you is increasing their chip stack, while yours stays the same. You will still have enough chips to start building up later, and you can still win the tournament even if after 50 hands your chipstack is still the same you started with.

SNG Middle Phase

This is approximately the phase between the 4th and 6th blind level. 3 or four players should have been eliminated by now.
The blinds have become bigger now, and there is more pressure now because a) you need to defend your blinds and b) you want to start building up a stack now.
In order to build up your stack, the observations made in the early stages will help you. Weak players can be bluffed out of hands when you have a good read on their holdings, and you should now have a decent read on what the other guys actions mean. Other players have proven to be loose aggressive, and by playing you strong hands in a clever and deceptive way, you can bring all their chips in and stack them.
Continuation bets are now more successful, especially against weaker players. Pot-sized continuation bets in situations where you can assume that the flop hasn’t helped you and your opponent will win you the pot most of the time.
One thing you need to do now is watch out for the stack of the player you are playing against, because the big stacks ands the very small stacks are more likely to call your bets now. Trying to bluff a player out of a 2000 chips pot when he has only 300 chips left does not make any sense, because if he has even a mediocre draw, he wil have good pot odds to call. If you are able to build up your stack, you will be in great shape for the late stages.
Later (when there are only around 5 players left), when the blinds are much higher and especially the smaller stacks cannot afford to give up too many blinds, your strategy must be different. You need to play more aggressively now. Most of the remaining players with medium stacks will now focus on making it to the money, and will be adverse to risks. Of course, by doing so, they will finally loose their chips because of the blinds. Initiative is now of the essence. Raising first in gives you a good chance of not seeing any flop and win the blinds. Calling a raise means that you will see a flop – which is going to miss you most of the time, and then what?

So in order to call a raise, you need a stronger hand than what you would need to raise yourself (the Gap Concept). When you get a real big starting hand like KK or AA, think about how you can bring all the opponents chips in. If he raises, you can just flat call, because he is very likely to make another big bet after the flop, no matter what.Re-raising might actually scare him, and he will be reluctant to push all-in after the flop. You also must consider now that it is not only about winning chips now, but also about eliminating players. On the other hand, when you see a situation where there is a chance that a player might get eliminated without your participation, do not get involved unless you have a real good hand.

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SNG Sitn Go tournament strategy - Introduction

 SNG or Sit and Go tournaments are a special kind of tournament that start when a pre-defined number of players have registered, instead of starting at a predefined time. Most of those SNGs allow 6 or ten players, although some rooms also offer multi-table Sit and Gos.
SNGs with 6-player tables normally have a payout structure where the first two players get paid, mostly two third of the total goes to the winner, one third to the runner-up.
At a table of ten players, the first three normally get a payout (50/30/20%).  Sometimes you will also find variations where the winner takes all, or half of the players will get twice their buyin.

Which are the best rooms for Sit and Go?

From the number and frequency of SNG tables offered, PartyPoker (Bonus Code PKR100), Full Tilt Poker (Bonus Code COACH100) and Bet365 Poker are the ones that we would recommend most for SNG play. As a special feature, Bet365 Poker offers a SNG Jackpot – win 6 in a row and win a jackpot of up to 50.000$. Of course this is not easy, but even for ending among the first two six times in a row, a smaller jackpot will be paid out.
Sit and Go’s are especially attractive because of the fact that you will end up in the money more often,  and because you will be playing heads-up more frequently. In order to make money from SNGs, as a rule of thumbs you need to end up in the money half of the time. Most of the profit will come from the Sit and Gos where you win or end up second.
Deposit options for US poker fans

If you are based in the US, finding a poker room that accepts US players is only one of your problems. It is also difficult to make money transfers. But there are a number of options for deposits and withdrawals for US gamblers and we have described them here ... read more

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All the big poker rooms are offering freeroll tournaments. There is no need to deposit, but you can still win real money. To find a permanently updated schedule of all freerolls starting in the next few minutes, across all rooms - click this link!

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European Poker Tour qualifiers

The European Poker Tour is becoming more and more popular. With moderate buy-ins, but very large prize pools, a lot of money can be made at these events. In consequence, several rooms are offering satellites to qualify for the offline EPT events. To find out which rooms offer the best chances for EPT qualification read this article.