Playing Out of Position in Sit N Go Tournaments

Sit N Go’s provide a very unique situation in terms of tournament poker. For the most part everything in a Sit N Go takes place in about an hour or so, even quicker for a Turbo SNG. One thing you will notice is that you need to be well versed in how to handle a lot of situations. Because of the volatile nature of Sit N Go’s you must be able to deal with being in bad situations a lot. Sit N Go’s don’t really favor any one player and sometimes you’ll find your self in crappy situations all the time. One of the more common situations is being out of position. This article will address how to best handle situations where you are out of position and help you make the most of them.

Who are you up against?

If you find yourself out of position and with a lot of money on the line, or the potential to have a lot of money on the line, you have to seriously consider what players are remaining or who is contesting for the pot. Playing out of position against good or great players is very difficult and you should rarely, if ever, do it. The point then here is that you need to quickly try and identify your opponent’s style so you know how to handle them when you run into tough situations. Here are a few quick pointers:

· If you have a lot of chips and you find yourself out of position against what you perceive to be just a fair or poor player, then it is okay to take a chance and attempt to outplay them. Essentially eliminate position as a factor by making them put their chips at risk. I’ve found the starting chip structure at a new site called Aced is perfect for playing big stack poker.
· If you find yourself against a good player, or a hand that you are less than fond of, then this is clearly a bad situation and you again can eliminate position as a factor by simply folding the hand!
· Playing out of position with excellent hands is much easier to manage. The main considerations are as to how you can extract the most money from your opponents while taking the disadvantages of position into account. Check and raise is a viable strategy but don’t overdo it. Another alternative is an obvious over bet that a savvy opponent will respond to.

Starting hand selection is gravely important

When you are out of position it is critical that you enter the pot with only the best hands. Obviously late in the tournament you will need to be less selective and play more hands to win, but you need to keep all things relative. In early position or out of position, even though you are playing more hands late in the tournament, the speculative hands you play out of position should be less speculative than the hands you play in late position. For example, it would be okay to come in for a raise in late position with QT suited however if you were out of position, you would want to consider a stronger hand such as KQ suited. Remember, these are late tournament examples. In the beginning of a Sit N Go, its okay to generally play tight and especially tight when out of position.

The main thing to remember when playing out of position in a Sit N Go is how can you either minimize your losses or maximize your gains. Usually playing out of position can be fairly clear-cut in Sit N Go tournaments but you ultimately have to remember one thing. Unless you are playing against complete nincompoops you usually will be at a disadvantage when out of position and either your chips or cards are going to have to make up for the difference!

Try the great Sit N Go structure they offer at Aced, I’ve really enjoyed playing there for the last few weeks.