Poker Strategy > Sit and Go Strategy Guide
Sit and Go Strategy Guide (SNG)
Sit and Go tournaments, commonly called SNGs, have become amazingly popular thanks to the growth of online poker.
Our Sit and Go strategy guide will teach you how to dominate SNG tournaments and profit from the fish who play in them.
Sit and Go poker tournaments are a format that was basically unheard of in casino poker rooms (outside of single-table satellites) but are now very much in demand. Many online professionals play strictly sit and go tournaments and make an outrageous income from it.
The single-table tournament (STT) is the most basic form of SNG. Created as a way for tournament players to play without the long time commitments necessary to play multi table tournaments, the STT has really found a niche in online poker. Since then, the single table SNG has evolved into multi table versions, seating as many as 180 players, but the basic single table SNG still remains the most popular.
Sit and Go Structure
Sit and go tournaments are named as such because there is no scheduled start time. Instead of registering in advance for a tournament that starts at a fixed time regardless of how many entries there are, the SNG starts when all of the seats have been filled. The field size is fixed, and the start time is flexible. At some poker sites, the wait for a low limit single table SNG can be less than a minute during peak times. Higher buy in tournaments do take slightly longer to fill in most cases.
A single table SNG (STT) will typically seat nine or ten players. The cost of entry consists of a buy in plus an entry fee. This is usually expressed as $10+1. The $10 buy in goes to the prize pool, and the $1 entry fee goes to the poker site as a fee for operating the game. Most single table tournament formats pay the top three players, and a common payout structure is 50% to first place, 30% to second, and 20% to third place.
A multi table SNG (MTT) will range in size and common MTT sizes will be 18 players (2 tables), 45 players (5 tables), 90 players (10 tables) and 180 players (20 tables). They work in exactly the same way as the single table SNG with the only difference being that as players are eliminated tables are closed and the number of tables slowly reduces until you are just left with the final single table who fight it out for the money. The bigger the field size the bigger the prize pool however your odds of cashing in the tournament also get longer.
There are two main types of structure to a Sit n Go tournament. The first is the standard structure where the blinds increase every 10 minutes. The second is the Turbo structure where the blinds increase every 5 minutes. The turbo structure leads to a faster tournament but it also means you have less hands to play with early on in the tournament before the blinds become very big compared to your total stack size.
Aim of this SNG Strategy Guide
The strategy revealed in this guide is aimed at No Limit Texas Holdem Sit and Go tournaments with the standard structure and although it can also be applied to turbo SNG tournaments there is some variation you would have to apply to it to take into account the speed at which the ratio of blind size to your total stack changes.
Due to the top heavy payout structure, the top 3 finishers take the majority of the prize pool and our aim throughout this guide is going to be to finish in the top 3. The most optimum strategy to achieve this is to play tight early, cautiously on the bubble, and aggressively when in the money and this is the strategy that we will outline in more detail in this guide.
The guide will talk you through the 5 stages of a Sit and Go Tournament and the strategy that should be applied in each stage. It will also look at some advance SNG strategy situations to give you everything you need to be a successful SNG player.
We will also guide you through how to manage your bankroll and turn a starting bankroll of $50 into a bankroll of $1,000 by the end of the guide with a strategy that will enable you to consistently earn a regular income from playing online Sit and Go tournaments.
Sit and Go Strategy Guide Modules
- Module 1 - Introduction to Sit and Go Tournaments
- Module 2 - Sit and Go Strategy - Through to the Bubble
- Module 3 - Sit and Go Strategy - In the Money
- Module 4 - Sit and Go Tournaments - Advanced Strategy
- Module 5 - The Sit and Go $1,000 challenge
Module 1 Contents
- 1.1 Where to play SNG Tournaments
- 1.2 Sit and Go Bankroll Management
- 1.3 Basic Poker Strategy revision
Continue to the next section - 1.1 Where to play SNG tournaments
