Sit and Gos can either be single table or multi table tournaments. The essential difference between a sit and go and an ordinary tournament is that a sng will start when a set number of players are seated unlike a usual mtt (multi table tournament) which will start at a set time regardless of the number of players. Most sngs are 1 table with the top 3 in the money with the breakdown being 1st-50%, 2nd-30% and 3rd-20%. This is of course based on the number of players being either 9 or 10 depending on the site and as these are the most common forms of sng I will concentrate on these.

Sng's have become inordinately popular over the last few years as they have the limited financial risk of a tournament but because of the limited numbers they are more easy to achieve results in and don't usually take much longer then an hour or so. UNlike mtts and cash games sngs are generally much more formulaic. By this I mean that a set style of play can achieve fairly consistent results. Obviously, as with all poker games your style may need honing and adjusting depending on the circumstances and the style of play of your opponents but more than in any other form of poker game, you can apply a basic formula of play to achieve results.

So now you know what they are, how do you approach playing them? Well as I mentioned earlier the essential difference between sngs and mtts is the number of runners but this has a direct effect on how you approach them. In mtts alot of players will advocate playing quite a few pots in order to build a stack so you do not run the risk of being left behind by the average chip stack of the rest of the field. Due to the vast numbers of players involved in mtts the average chip stack is increasing with every elimination of which there tends to be at least one every hand. In a 1 table sng this is not the case at all. The average chip stack is far less volatile as you can see with your own eyes every player in the competition so the average chip stack is comparatively stable. This means essentially that early gambling is not always necessary, if you lose a couple of blinds you will only be a couple of blinds behind the average which is nothing. In my opinion when the blinds are low I would let the other players get involved with eachother and not play too many hands. By this I mean in the first couple of blind levels only to play medium and big pairs, ak and possibly aq and you can limp with small pairs but only in unraised pots. As the blind levels increase maybe onto the 4th and 5th levels you will need to start making some moves or to put it another way increasing the gears. Unlike mtts when you will need to frequently go both up and down the gears due to the brevity of sngs you will, in general only be moving up the gears ie increasing the aggression of your play. Another reason for this is that as players are knocked out and blinds go up the play becomes shorter and shorter handed which is not what happens in mtts as empty seats are constantly refilled. THe consequences of this are that the value of your hands will increase, hands like aj and a10 in a 5 or 6 handed game when the blinds are quite high are definitely worth raising with even if you are first to act , something which can be a dangerous move at a full handed table. If you are at this stage short stacked I would advocate going all in with them as this will force you opponents to a decision and may make them put down small pairs as they may not want to take an evens shot at this late stage of the game. This also applies if you have the small pair for the same reasons. If, however , you find that you have built quite a reasonable stack at this stage you do not want to overcommit with these kinds of hands and you need to be very aware of the chip stacks that are behind you ie players left to act in the hand. If these players are short stacked I would raise enough to set them all in and put them to a decision for all their chips. If however, they are deeply stacked a standard 3 times the big blind raise is a reasonable play and if they are deeply stacked and they reraise you I would probably pass. Obviously I would not pass any big pairs or ak at this stage but I would play them in the same way as the lesser hands as by doing this you may induce an allin from a big stack if they believe that you are trying to steal.