As with Multi-table tournaments (MTT’s), 'Sit and Go' (SNG's) or 'Single Table Tournaments' (STT’s) are also booming in the online poker community. Along with the standard cash prizes, many of the poker sites offer special promotional Sit and Go's. Titan Poker's Jackpot SNG's offer a shot at winning as much as $100,000 for winning a set number of consecutive sit and go's. Other sites like absolute poker set up many sit and go's as qualifiers to World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour events.
Players enter for a set “buy in”. Registration is normally the same as for a ring game – you select your table and take your preferred seat. When the table is full, the tourney begins. Each player is given the same number of chips, and play continues until one lucky (or skillful) player has all the chips. Prize structures vary, but normally the last three players win money, with the winner taking roughly 50% of the prize fund.
Why are STT’s becoming so popular? MTT’s can be hard work, especially if you bust out after two hours, just outside the money. And we’ve all experienced the frustration of sitting patiently in a ring game, only to have AA cracked on the river by 98o.
STT’s offer the chance of first rate recreational play and, for a winning player, steady gains with far lower variance than that offered by a ring game. Here’s how:
Fun - With an STT you’re always in the game. You have to be. With games rarely lasting as long as an hour, you have to bet sooner or later. You must expect to bluff at some stage, and All-Ins are a certainty. Lots of All-Ins! And if you bust out early, there is no need to wait several hours for the next game at your level – just sit down at a new table and off you go.
Variance - For winning players, Single Table Tournament variance is far smaller than that dealt up by ring games. Your exposure to a bad beat (or a bad decision!) is limited to the entry fee for that tourney. And that very fact promotes bad play from the “gamblers” and “bluffers” – bad play that will fund your STT bankroll.
Easy! All you need to do is to work out how to be a winning Sit-n-Go player, and then the money will flow! Well its not that simple. All poker is situational, and this is especially true in the fast moving environment of the Single Table Tournament. But the basics set out in these pages should be enough to get you started on the way.
Although there are limit and high stakes SNG’s available, this strategy is based on experience of online, low stakes (up to $20), no limit holdem.