Tip #1: Sit And Go Starting Hands Selection

While in cash games it is possible to define a starting hand chart for each position at the table, sit and go players need to adjust their starting hands depending on which stage of the tournament they are in. A hand which may be a clear fold in the early stages can easily become good enough to raise all-in at the bubble. This sit and go tip shows how you can profitably adjust your starting hands for each of the SNG stages.

During the early stages of sit and go tournaments you have the seemingly contradictory goals of maintaining chips for the later stages and taking advantage of the weakest players in your games. The key to early game selection is to avoid ‘easily dominated’ hands and to play those hands which provide fast feedback on the flop.

Easily dominated hands usually involve an ace along with a card 10 or below. The problem with playing these is that you are rarely sure whether you have the best hand. If you call a raise an the flop contains an ace then you might be behind an ace with a better kicker. If you pair the smaller card then you need to be concerned about an opponent holding a higher pair. They key factor is that it will cost you chips to find out where you stand – chips that could have been used valuably in the mid to late stages.

Small pairs are excellent hands in the early stages of sit and go tournaments, especially from late position where there is no raise before the flop. With these hands you can hit a powerful set on the flop, but those times you miss there is little temptation to continue.

During the middle stages of sit and goes maintaining your stack by ‘stealing’ blinds and antes is a great strategy while you wait for a strong hand. With fewer opponents and bigger blinds you no longer have the luxury of waiting for monsters. Hands that you would have folded in the early stages including unsuited picture cards and suited aces not become strong candidates for raising.

The key here is that you should be the first to enter the pot with a wide range of hands, but should avoid calling raises when an opponent has already shown strength. Since your chip stacks will too ‘shallow’ to accurately define the relative strength of hands post-flop the decision should be kept as simple as possible.

As the bubble approaches sit and go starting hand selection becomes mathematical in nature. You can rarely raise a hand and not call a re-raise (since the pot-odds will make the call mathematically correct most of the time), so instead you push all-in with any playable hand. Which hands you choose are dependant on a combination of stack sizes and the range of hands your opponents will call you with.

If you have a big stack and tight opponents, pushing all-in with almost any cards can have a positive expectation. Where there is a mini-stack out of the hand and a big stack pushes to steal your blinds it can be correct to fold hands as strong as queens in some situations.

Starting hand selection at the bubble can seem confusing at first – stay tuned – all will be revealed here in our series of Sit and Go Tips.