sit and go tournament strategies.....

Haven't played a tremendous amount of poker in the past few months. I still attend my weekly home game every now and then but I was working on some other stuff that same night. I've also slowed down playing online due to time constraints but I still try to get in a sit and go every so often. I've still been doing pretty well in sit n' gos. It seems that people are getting better and better as the online poker industry starts to mature some more. I can tell because, in several SnGs I've played in, there are still 7-8 people left at the 10 person table when blinds are at 100/200. That's crazy isn't it. I think everyone else has figured out that the best strategy is to wait.

Here are some of my SnG strategy tips:
1) Be patient. Be patient. Be patient.

Here's a good analogy that I just read in an article by Bob Ciaffone:

"Bob, if I were teaching poker, the first thing I would do is tell my student to look out the window for two hours and watch the grass grow. And for lesson two, I would have him look out the window for four hours and watch the grass grow."

In a nutshell, let everyone else kill everyone else. Just stand back and relax unless you have monster. I've laid down hands pre-flop like A Jos, A 10, 8 8, K Q, KJ, etc... I doesn't make sense to jump in on these hands unless it's cheap to see the flop. For example, you have KJos. The flop comes K Q 3 rainbow. If someone goes all in, what do you do? Are you going to risk your entire tournament playing your KJ? If someone went all in, I would most likely fold. Just wait for the next hand.

2) If someone goes all in early, fold your hand no matter what you have unless it's the nuts. Because most likely you are beat. You could flop a set of 6s, with a 6 4 2, flop and someone WILL have the 3 5. Unless this is late in the game where someone may be short stacked, fold your hand.

3) Start making your move when there are about 5 players left at the table. On top of being patient, you still have to win one or two hands every now and then. This usually put you in a good position to sit until there are 4-5 players left at the table. Once you get to this point, start making some moves to get into "in the money" position. You'll find that the table gets very tight when it gets down to four. Everyone just wants to get in the money.

4) Final tip: as long as you have some chips left, you are still in the game. Remember this because I've come back to win a tournament when I was down to $140 in chips. With $140 anyone usually calls you to knock you out. With a little luck, you can double up a few times and get to a decent chip stack where others will not call you. So don't give up when you are down, there's always a chance when you have chips in front of you.

That's it for now.