The Contrarian’s guide to Sit & Go strategy Part 2

In Part 1 I discussed the early stages of Sit & Go tournaments, and how when playing low stakes games I take very odd lines with how I play my hands. In this installment I’m going to talk about the strategies I use during the middle-stages of S&G tournaments, focusing on the 25/50 – 75/150 levels.

This is the stage of the tournament where the bubble is often burst, and players position themselves for the end-game of the tournament.

>50/100 Blinds

Unlike the early stages where you can see some flops and play a regular poker game, once the blinds hit 25/50 you are in a very different world, as a re-raise at this point basically has you playing for your entire stack. Because of this you have to play very carefully, and only get involved with good hands or in good spots.

The real problem with the 25/50 level is that a blind steal is still fairly inconsequential, adding only 75 chips to your stack, which should still bed in the 1,200-chip range at this point. This same principle holds true up until the 50/100 level of the event. It all boils down to what I said regarding the early stages of the tournament, and risk to reward.

Because of this dynamic I don’t even consider blind steals (unless a player has shown they are extremely tight in their blinds) during these stages, or raising light. These are the stages where more mistakes are made than any other, as players think the blinds are now worth fighting for; which they are not.

<50/100 Blinds

When the blinds reach the 50/100 level (or any level where the blinds and antes are more than 10% of your chip stack) it’s time to start playing cards, and you should be willing to steal blinds and three-bet loose players to build up your stack. By this point you should have a decent idea of the other players’ style of play, who is playing to just survive the bubble, and who is going to fight back, while at the same time you are about to go from super-nit to agro.

Your earlier play will also be an advantage here (especially if you open-shoved a hand like AA or KK) as players think you are only playing and pushing your best hands, and by the time they realize you have loosened up you should have picked-up a couple blinds and/or come over the top of a raise.

If you do this you will position yourself for a deep run in the tournament, and won’t have to play a desperate style on the bubble.

Go to Part 3