Sit-and-Go Stages: Playing on Low Blinds Level

• 31.06.2025 2:29 pm
• Helen
• 0 Comments

This is the first part of a four-part series, giving out details on every single thing that the average poker player needs so as to move from sit-and-go to steady, money-making sit-and-go winner.

The first part will look at low-blind play.

The single-table tournament (STT) popularly referred to as a "sit-and-go" is one type of poker that has really gained popularity online.

The Online poker sites have all these running continuously. A new one begins just as it has got enough players who have registered, so there's never a dull moment.

Sit-and-go has a lot of differences compared to cash-game play.

The sit-and go is more like the multi-table tournaments where the number of chips you have is limited.

The chips you have at the beginning of the game need to be protected.

The essentials

You should be very careful with the plan you use right when the blinds are very low.

Ensure that you do not get caught up and risk a heap of chips the moment the blinds are very low.

You should be tight when the blinds are low.

If you have a lot of work to do around the house, start up the game and then continue with the rest of your work.

By the time you are done with your work, you should be prepared to play the game.

This is good action than getting aggressive early.

Do not confront early

Just when you start a sit-and-go, you should stay away from large-scale confrontation.

You do not have to play the big bluffs or even exaggerate the marginal hands. There will be so much time for being ultra-aggressive.

You should stay out of action. Play tight and also play the strong hands aggressively.

If what you have is a premium hand, then use it to raise.

There is no point in making use of the small edges early.

Example

Useful stacks $1500. In the blind you have got .the blinds are $20/$to you, there are only four limpers.

This is a very simple raise in a cash game. This would be a check in a sit-and-go.

If you want to raise such a hand you have to make it five or six times the large blind. You have four limpers in front of you and you will not be in position al through the rest of the hand.

Because of the example given above, you raise the pot to $the first two limpers fold, the button and the cut-off call.

The flop comes as .

So, what next?

Such a flop is fairly good for your hand. Just a single overcard and you took the lead pre-flop so as you may have to c-bet the flop.

You bet 2/3 or around $the cut-off folds and the button also calls.

Now what?

Take a look at what you have gotten yourself into. You have placed half of your stack inside the pot.

What are you planning to do on the stack? Now, the pot is $1800. If you fire on the turn once more, the turn will be for the chips.

How much can you like you hand?

Since you have got half of your stack inside the pot, you should not check or fold.

When the blinds are very low, I advice you to check the pre-flop. This gives you the chance to stay away from a sticky state such as this one.

There are quit a lot of situations such as this.

With the tentative hand that are good bit are not going to be a big favorite, you should not balloon a pot so as to use the small edge you may be having.

The number of chips that you have to place so as to know if you have got an edge us very risky when your stack is limited.

Instead of pushing your small edges it is better to keep your stacks and use then for the higher blind levels.

Playing your position

You should always play tight just when you start positioning.

This helps you make simpler decisions right after the flop. (For more, check,Playing in Position). You need to stay away from in the sit-and-gos tough situations.

Stay away from the weak hands when you are not in-position.

Tough situations make you lose a lot of chips, so stay away from such situations.

The best way of staying away is playing tighter from early position. You have to keep the chips you have because when you lose them, you are out of the game.

So ensure that you do no play weak hands out of position.

 

Fold all the dominated hands in early position

If you happen to be early in position, you should fold all the dominated hands. Hands such as A-T, K-Q and A-J should always hot the muck.

The dominated hands may seem to be good hands but they are normally a trap for a lot of players. As I have stated above, you want to be give full protection to your chips, so be very careful.

Always bring in your premium hands for raises. This is called the ABC TAG which is also known as tight- aggressive play.

As a player, you want to play tight, so if you come across the big hand, get aggressive. You should never be afraid to raise certain hands like A-K or AA-JJ and so on.

If all the time the table has been playing passive, you can as well try to limp the good pocket hands.

Add all your hands to your list of raising right in the middle position.

When you are in the middle position, you should always play the same tight game.

You do not want to struggle too much with the marginal hands when you are out of position. You will be raising you hand for a price.

You can as well add hands such as ASJs, KQs to your list.

You can begin to open up your game by limping the pocket pairs and good suited connectors, however you need to be careful not to put yourself in situations where you are playing big pots using the marginal hands.

Add your hands to your list of limping in late position

There is no need of opening your game too much in middle position.

Always remember the Gap theory.

You should be careful not to raise up your ace rags hands or even the J-Ts.

But you can add some hands to your range of limping.

If it is possible to get in cheap onto a multi-way using a very good suited connector, this is a very perfect move.

You need to be searching for the places where you can see a very cheap flop and at times hit a monster and make it double.

This will make the later stages of a sit-and-go very easy for you if only you can do that as early as possible.

Get to know the Gap theory

All through the game, you must familiarize yourself with the gap theory.

This is what the gap summary refers to when the hand is raised the moment it reached you, you need to have a good hand that you can use to call with.

If you happen to be at the center position, you can as well raise using A-J but always ensure you do not all a raise using the same hand.

So in simple terms, you should play tighter when the pot happens to be open right in front of you.

In the second part of this article, we talk about the mid-level blind play.