A Review of the Basics of Sit & Go Tournaments
This text has been prepared by The Eureka Kid, on behalf of TheOmahaSplit.com
Hand Values
A key to being successful at sit & go tournaments is knowing the value of your hand at particular stages of the tournament. For example in Texas Hold 'Em A-J could routinely be folded from early position at a nine or ten player table when the blinds are in their first few levels. However, as the sit and go progresses and players get knocked out and the blinds go up, your A-J becomes increasingly more playable, a raising hand and maybe even a hand to risk your tournament life upon. Using an Omaha/8 example, at a full ring table a hand like A-5-Q-Q in early position is questionable, but later in the tournament it is a hand to play more aggressively. As you can see it is important to gain an understanding of how the value of your hand changes as a) the number of players at the table changes and b) the ratio between the size of your stack of chips and the level of the blinds changes.
Position
When you are 'in position' more hands become playable because you have a lot more information presented to you to make your decision and will have in future betting rounds as well. In the later stages of sit & go tournaments you can pick up healthy pots just by playing your position. This may involve raising pre-flop and 'stealing' the blinds when in late position or betting on the flop when it is checked to you in late position.
Odds
If you are going to play sit and go tournaments in any form of poker you are going to need to know the percentage match-up of hands simply because a lot of the time you are going to be facing all-in or fold situations and you will need to know how your hand will fair against your opponents likely holdings. In Omaha/8 these match-ups are a little harder to identify, but someplaying around with an Omaha Hi-Lo odds calculator can be invaluable if you intend to play a lot of sit and go's.
Stacks Size to Blinds Ratio
As the blinds increase, if you don't increase your own stack, the ratio of the blinds compared with your stack is going to increase. As this ratio increases your situation in the tournament is going to increasingly become more desperate and thus aggression is going to be a more favourable approach. This ratio will be affecting your opponents as well, in sit and go's more so than any other tournaments this ratio can become quite high as the tournament gets later and later. The ratio eventually becomes high enough that every decision you have to make is all-in or fold. The point to take out of this is that as the ratio increases you should be looking to play more and more all-in or ram and jam pots. However, you should also take into consideration that size your relative stack size is small, you are more likely to have your bets called because your opponents are effectively priced in.
Stack Size Compared To Opponents
When you have a big stack it makes no sense to clash with another big stack, some may say it makes sense to pick on the short stacks, but this is also untrue. If you think about it the short stacks are desperate and are likely to put their chips in, try and double up. The medium stacks are the ones you want to identify and put pressure on. They still have enough chips that they aren't feeling desperate and at the same aren't feeling that they don't want to risk being elimianted by getting involved in a pot with a big stack when they can just wait for their spot. So when consider whether or not to play a hand and how to play it, consider your opponents stack size. You want the strongest of hands against a short stack because you are more likely to get action, you want to keep the pots small and play good hands against fellow big stacks and you want to apply pressure with a wider range of hands against medium stacked opponents.
Aggression & Blind Stealing
Early in a sit and go it is important to identify the players that don't defend their blinds or are just generally very weak and passive. As the blinds increase becomes important to raise from late position and put pressure on these players as they will only play back when they have a real hand, which odds are, they won't. You should just generally be getting more aggressive in the way you play as the tournament progresses and the blinds and antes represent a larger and larger gain to your stack, but be aware that it is even more effective against the weak players.
Changing Gears
Table image is important in a sit and go, if you have been folding ever hand for the first few levels and then decide to come in raising, you are going to get far less action than if you had been playing every pot up until that point. Before you act in a pot, consider your table image and how other players will perceive your actions. Sit and Go's are very situational and Omaha/8 is even more situational, so the ability to change gears and adjust for the situation is crucial. Many players struggle with playing the tight early on and more aggressive later approach because once you start folding a lot of hands it becomes a hard habit to break as the tournament progresses. The best players are able to implement their game plans to full effect because they are able to carry through on the process of changing gears.
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