Sit and Go Strategy by Collin Moshman

A great book to read if you’re starting out in Sit and Go’s is “Sit and Go Strategy” by Collin Moshman.   Although it is quite a tough read at times, it is worthwhile reading through from start to finish and then dipping back into as required.  It is set out mostly as hand examples and you have to read a situation and make a decision as to what the “correct” play is.  The answer (at least for me) was often counterintuitive and not what I would have done in the given situation!  However, there’s no arguing with Collin’s logic and maths and if you are able to take on board his information and use it whilst online there is no doubt you’ll become a better player.     The only thing i’d say is that if you are multi-tabling at low level Sit and Go’s at “Speed” or “Turbo” levels then you may not have the necessary thinking time available to apply some of Collin’s techniques… often in those sorts of situations you just have to play Shove or Fold poker….

Basic Strategy 101

Read pretty much any basic sit and go strategy article or book and they will say roughly the same thing with regard to high level strategy:

– play very tight in the early stages, only getting involved when holding AA, KK, QQ and maybe JJ and AK depending on position

– loosen up gradually as the blinds increase and the number of players reduces

– be ultra aggressive on the bubble and whilst in the money, trying to accumulate your fair share (and more!) of the by now huge blinds and antes

This is classic strategy, and it does work. However, I would add a couple of other thoughts:

– premium hands like AA, KK and QQ do not come along very often. There is a very real danger that you could wait too long to see such a hand, allow the blinds to get too big and eat your stack, and eventually be forced into playing an inferior hand before you are “blinded out” ( this is the biggest sin you can commit in sit and go’s). Instead, you could consider playing some marginal hands when in position and when you are not being forced to pay too much to see the flop. For example, medium pairs and mid to high suited connectors give you the possibility to hit a monster flop (trips / straights / flushes etc). If you do hit, you may be able to double up against somebody trying to slow play AK or a big pair. Unless they are a good player, they may find it very difficult to fold a good starting hand that has not connected with the flop.

– conversely, if you do have a premium starting hand it is generally unwise to try to slow play it by limping into the pot. Make sure you enter with a raise, or possibly just shove all-in to maximise your fold equity. I learnt my lesson on this when trying to slow play AA by limping into a multi way pot. My subsequent continuation bet on a rainbow flop 8 9 J was quickly re-raised by a fellow limper holding 7 10 off! Dumbly not spotting the straight possibilities (Q 10, a more reasonable limping hand, also has me well beaten) and becoming very attached to my pocket rockets, all the chips quickly made their way to the middle, and I duly busted out.

A great start!

Well that was an awesome start to my public Sit and Go career!   Played 2 games, busted out not cashing in both.  Balance down to $65.  Both of these were “coin-flip” bust outs where I was on the Button and pushing all-in with semi-marginal hands.  Game 1 I lost pushing with KJ of Diamonds which was called by A7 offsuit, Game 2 I lost pushing a low pair which was called by something like 10 J off.  I will plug these into an ICM analyser at some point to see if I made +EV pushes, I think I probaby did, but sometimes that is just the way of it.

Date: 11/11/2011

Opening Balance: $71.20

Closing Balance: $65

UK Sit and Go – welcome to my (part-time) world

Hello, and welcome to my blog.  I play quite a bit of Sit and Go poker on Party Poker at low levels, although to some extent I am still very much a “newbie”.  The idea of making a full time living (or at least a bit of extra cash) from Sit and Go’s I find fascinating and on this blog I am going to record my efforts to move through the levels and build a bankroll.   At the time of writing I have around $70 in my Party Poker account and I play at the low-level “Turbo” 10 handed tables.  First target is to try to get that $70 up to around $250 before deciding to move up a level.

Along the way i’ll share with you my results, thoughts, frustrations, emotions, highs, lows and everything in between.  I’ll let you know about any great poker books or sites I come across so you can filter out the wheat from the chaff (believe me, there is a lot of chaff out there!).

I won’t cover the basics of poker, you can find out plenty about that from other sites, but I hope to give you a good read and perhaps some useful tips as we go.   Good luck at the tables!