Sit & Go Tournament Introduction
Sit and go tournaments have been popular for years now in both live poker and online poker although you'll definitely have more options online. These tournaments come in all sizes ranging from a small amount of players to massive amount of players and in a wide range of stakes. This means that players of all playing levels will be able to find action in a sit and go tournament.
The most typical sit and go tournament is a nine player one table tournament where the top three players make money. This is going to be what this article is based around and I recommend starting out playing these as there the most common. Many people choose to play sit and go tournaments for numerous reasons, but some of the most common reasons is to keep the investment minimal. You can find sit and go tournaments for as little as $1 in some poker rooms.
When you're trying to decide how much you should stake in each sit and go tournament it's wise that you use the 20x formula. This formula simply means that you should never invest more then 20x your bankroll in one sit and go tournament. So if you want to play $10 sit and go tournaments then you should buy into the poker room for $200. If you start losing and you get down to lets say $100 then you might want to jump down to $5 tournaments and try building your stack back up.
Your goal in a sit and go tournament is to finish in the top three places so that you make money. Generally you'll find that the payout is 50% for first place, 30% for second place and 20% for third place. Since your goal is to finish in the top three places you need to make sure that your playing style is geared towards surviving. The best playing strategy in sit and go tournaments is to play tight poker and make the best of your monster hands. If you get your money in the pot while you have the best hand then that's all you can ask for, and you'll just need the cards not to beat you. You should play a small selection of hands in these tournaments for the most part, although I do suggest playing a little loosely while the blinds are small because you never know what you could hit on the flop.
In order to become a winning player in these tournaments you need to become consistent and happy with the small profits. It takes roughly an hour give or take to finish one of these tournaments typically which means you could potentially play four or five games a night. If you can place in the top three in at least four out of the five tournaments you play then you'd be profitable each night. One thing most players do is end up going on tilt while playing in these tournaments, and they either increase the buy-in of the tournament there playing or they start playing more hands then they should. If you go on tilt in these tournaments you could lose your bankroll fairly quickly and you should be careful. If things aren't going your way on a given night then consider taking a break and coming back the next day. Last but not least you're going to need patience in order to become a consistent sit and tournament player, without displaying patience you'll end up finishing tournaments before the top three regularly.
I personally participate in sit and go tournaments all the time and find them an excellent source of making consistent money in poker in my spare time. It takes far less of an investment then playing ring table games and the profit margin is still good. If you're looking for a cost effective way to begin playing poker then make sure you check out more about sit and go tournaments as they might work for you as well.
