When you play Sit & Go tournaments you will see that a lot of players making mistakes. Some mistakes are small and some are huge and making them over and over again makes loosing easy. Of course we all make mistakes but it is important to try to minimize them and therefore we have added this chapter to our Sit & Go poker school. The chapter will show some of the most common mistakes we have seen in Sit & Go tournaments.

When you play poker mistakes cost you money! So please learn how to avoid some of them.

Don´t play cash game poker in tournaments

Some players don´t seem to understand that they are playing in a tournament. To play in a tournament requires a somewhat different thinking from playing in a regular cash games. At a cash table each pot contains money. In a Sit & Go tournament only the top three players get paid. In extreme cases you do not have to win a single pot to be able to finish second and you do not have to eliminate more than one player to win a tournament. In other words a play that would be mediocre in a cash game can be highly successful in a tournament. Your first focus is to stay a live, and maintain the chip stack, not necessarily to build a stack.  Be selective when it comes to starting hands. Be careful when it comes to chasing flush and straight draws. A chip gained is always worth a bit less than a chip lost. Also remember that you can not get eliminated in a hand you don´t play. So sit back and wait for the other players to eliminate each other.

Another factor is also that the blinds increase in tournaments. This put´s pressure on players to open up. If you play tight to long you´ll end up with no chips. We understand that this is a bit contradictory to what we said above but when the blinds go up we have to loosen up. The players playing to tight get eliminated. Even so remember when blinds are still low play more carefully, when you’re out your out!

Changing gears

In poker it is important to change gears every now and then. Sit & Go tournaments are no exception from that rule. What a lot of players does not seem to understand is that the circumstances changes a lot in a Sit & Go tournament. You start of at a full table with 10 players and go down to a short handed game. As mentioned above blinds are steadily increasing. Both these facts point out reasons to become more active. It is extra important to put in a higher gear if you’re starting to get shorthanded otherwise your situation will soon be hopeless. But be careful. Just as some people seems to not be able to gear up some people just can’t let go of the gas-pedal. They overdo it and get what we would describe as wild and crazy. (If they do, wait for good hand and eliminate them or let them eliminate each other.)

Position

Another common mistake is not to take advantage of position at the table. When you are in late position and the blinds have gone up a little bit it is usually worth the effort to try to steal some blinds. A lot of players actually fold the small blind if it is folded all the way. A raise might win the big blind right away! If you have played tight in the beginning a steal attempt might have a better chance to be successful.

Stack size

Some players have a basic game they play no matter what´s going on around them. They don´t understand that they should watch out for big stacks who can eliminate them. They don´t understand that the risk of getting called is bigger if they try to bluff a short stack or a huge stack.

One of the most surprising and probably one of the most costly mistakes you see is the following. You are one of the four players left and you are in trouble since there are three big stacks and you are yourself short stacked. Then something strange happens when two of the big stacks get involved in a big pot and they get all-in. The outcome is that one of them gets eliminated! If they would have stayed away from each other and tried to eliminate the small stack (you) they would almost for sure ended up ITM and now one of them is out! Instead of folding they jeopardize the whole tournament. Of course this will happen sometimes when they are holding hands of great strength like AA against KK. But we see this happen with a lot of hands. Maybe like someone trying to play Q,Js finding himself up against a KK. The conclusion is that it´s hardly an effective tournament strategy to go up against a big stack with any mediocre hand!

Calling raises

Players that will call raises to much will see their chip stack get smaller and smaller. In poker terms you are usually talking about a calling stations. You should never try to bluff them. Just wait for a decent hand and take their chips while they are calling you down.

If you decide to call someone you should have a clear picture of what you want to do after a flop. And if you are frank with yourself you will find that most of the time you should fold or raise, not call.

Think about what Sklansky said about the gap concept. If you are first into a pot you can play a lot of hands, but if you are faced with an opened pot you need to have a much better hand to continue.  

Moving up to the next level to early

People that move up to fast are challenging their bankroll. Some people move up to the next level right away as soon as they win a tournament. This will usually end in a negative way. They don´t understand that they sometimes get lucky and sometimes will have a period without luck. To be able to coop with the fluctuations you need to build up a decent bankroll before moving up.

To illustrate let´s take a look at the following example. A player with a bankroll of $13 dollars decides to buy in at Partypokers $11 dollars sit and go. He gets lucky and wins the tournament and collects $50. He gets happy and right away he buys in to a $33 Sit & Go tournament.. This time he finishes second and gets $90. This game is simple he says to himself taking the entire bankroll and buying into a $109 Sit & Go tournament. Now he gets eliminated early in the tournament and his bankroll is gone! And that is despite the fact that this player showed a very impressive statistics of 67% ITM and won one out of three!

Pokerbeginner your pokerguide.

ENGLISH

SWEDISH