Sit & Go Money

When you play Sit & Go you need to know that you are at the right level. You can play a lot of tournaments without finish in the money even if you are a great Sit & Go player. Here we discuss the price structure and what you should focus on.

Payout

The payout structure differs between the different types of Sit&Go's. You should always check what places pays and how much, because this will effect your play. A normal payout structure for a 10 player Sit&Go are that the winner gets 50%, the second place pays 30% and the third gets 20%. You see that the difference are between the second and first. Therefore you can take some extra chances when you are 3 players left in a tournament if you believe that would help you to finish first. The extra risk that you will finish third is worth taking if you can get higher percentage victories. It al comes down to expected value.

If you play a 5 or 6 player tournament the normal split are 70% to the winner and 30% to the second place. But there are a lot of different structures. So my suggestion is that you check this out before you start playing. Also if you are playing the special pyramids or stage-tournaments there is no difference in coming first or second, then you should just get in there and don’t think about winning. There are also multi-table Sit&Go. An example that is common is that out of 20 players 4 get paid. Then the winner could get 40%, second 30%, third 20% and the forth get 10%.

This chapter is just in here to get you to think about the payout. There are different structures and you need to be aware of them. If you do not know what you are playing to achieve you will have a hard time getting there!

Example hand 1. You are in a 10 people Sit&Go. The amazing thing has happened that you and the two other remaining players have exactly the same amount of chips. Playing at Partypoker and you all have 6667 in chips. The two first players both goes all-in. And you are last to act with a A,J off suit. What should you do? Well if you just fold and lean back you know that you will, if they don’t tie the hand, getting one step up the price pool. And with a hand that isn’t very strong you are probably laying it down. On the other hand you will be a 2-1 chip underdog in the heads-up against the winner of the hand. Depending on what think about the player’s skill I probably would fold and take my chance in the heads-up. But if you hold a nice pair, maybe QQ which could be in deep trouble if your opponents are holding the hands they are representing with their betting, then you might want to take a shoot at it risking running in to a high pair to ad the extra possibility that you actually win the tournament right now. 

Example hand 2. An other odd situation has come up. You and three other players are still in a 10 people Sit&Go on the Partypoker. Again you all have the same amount of chips; 5000 each. You haven’t had a playable hand for a long time and your previous chip lead have now become tied. You look down and find KK. Finally! You get ready to make a healthy raise, but before that the 3 first players goes all-in. Now what do you do? You have a really strong hand, but playing it could get you into fourth place. Even in this situation you should lay your hand down, for several reasons. Not playing it probably gives you second place. Not playing it stops you from looking into someones AA. Even some poker experts advocate that you should lay down AA in these situations. Say that you are playing a rounders tournament and the 3 players goes up to the next level. Well, get out of the way. Let them kick each other out. With AA you should try play against one single opponent, because then you have great odds.

 

Make money

If you want to make money out of your tournament game you need to find the games you master. One important thing is to get into the levels where you don’t are afraid of loosing your entry fee. That’s why I mostly play on 5-20 dollar levels. If I put down 50 dollars it seems like a bit to much for me and it might effect my play. That’s one of the important things about gambling. Stay at levels where you feel comfortable. The other important lesson is never play for more money than you can afford to lose.

Your over all result in the tournaments are very long term. You can play a lot of tournaments and not get ITM. But in the long term you need to get ITM more than 30% of the time. If you win a lot of tournaments you can get down fewer than 30, but normally a bit over 30% is what it takes. The math behind this is simple. If you are playing a game that cost you 10+1 to enter, it will cost you 110 to enter 10 times. If you finish one time at every place you will win money 3 times. The one time you win the tournament you are awarded 50 dollars, you get 30 for the second place and 20 for the third place, a total of 100 dollars. That is not enough to get you break even. Your Expected Value (EV) for every tournament are –1 dollar. But if you manage to get into the money 4 times instead of 3 and manage to add a second place extra you will get a total of 130 dollars. And you expected value are up to (130-110)/10= +2. That means that if you can hold a ITM of 40% you will earn an average of 2 dollars for every tournament you enter.

If you are serious about becoming a long term winning Sit & Go player I suggest you start making notes about your results. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Use an excel-spreadsheet. Just so you know where you earn your money and were your weakest spot are. What information should you have there? I suggest you include. What pokerroom, number of players, buy in, fee,

If you are able to improve and become a master in those special small tournaments you will make a nice income. Don’t be in a hurry to go to higher levels. If you easily can beat the 10 or 20 dollar levels you will probably do very well on a 50 dollar level to. But you need to consider your bankroll. If you for instance are getting ITM 40% of your tournaments you will have more times going out without money than with them. This could cause a problem if you can’t stand the short-term fluctuations. Even if you are as good so you should be ranked as a pro (50% ITM) you can play 10 tournaments without winning anything and that can drain your bankroll fast. So before you move up in levels make sure you beat the level you are at now and that your bankroll is big enough to handle some bad days at the poker table.

Don’t forget to read the chapter about other ways to make money, it shows you how to get an extra edge to your poker play.