Mastering Sit and Goes - Beginning Play

There are five basic stages to every sit and go, table selection, beginning play, middle portion, late portion and the endgame. By mastering all five stages of sit and goes, you should be able to sit down at any of these tables, and walk away with a profit the majority of the time.

This section, the fourth of 5, will cover what to do during the beginning of sit and goes, during the first round of blinds, before anyone has been eliminated.

The key to this stage is to play tight. You don't want to get involved too heavily in too many hands, unless you have a monster. The reason is that, since the blinds are so low, any one giving you action probably has a good hand, or else they would toss it and just wait until the next one.

Because of this, the way to play is to pound your good hands preflop. Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks, AK, AQs, should all be raised preflop. People are going to play against you no matter what, so you might was well get money in when you are the favorite. On the flop is trickier, if the board is scary, or there are a lot of people in the hand, you have to be mentally prepared to toss it if you get too much action. There is no point going bust on the first hand because someone's QJ flopped two pair, and you weren't able to dump the Kings. However, if you feel like you have the best hand, don't let people draw out on you for free. Make them pay for it, and establish a good chip stack early in the game.

Other good hands to play are small pairs, and middle suited connectors. Your objective with these hands is to hit a killer flop, i.e. a set, or a straight, and then bust someone who was unable to throw away their top pair top kicker. If you don't hit something on the flop, it generally isn't worth while to try and draw out on it, unless of course the pot odds are so heavy that it can't be tossed. The reason drawing hands are worth less in the opening segments of sit and go's is that most people know that there is still a lot of game left to play, and when the 3rd card to a flush hits the board they are going to be wary, and more likely to dump the hand than to pay you off.

In this stage of the game, as in all of them, you should be using your time to observe the table and pick up players weaknesses. Is one player always raising from the button? Then you should limp in with your aces. Is one person going all in a lot? Then don't play mediocre hands like QJs that you will just have to dump to his all in raise any way.

By playing the opening segments of sit and go's in this manner, you will occasionally double up and be a dominant chip stack, but you will almost never be one of the first three out, and after they are gone there is usually plenty of time to battle for the money.

To view the other section of my sit n go strategy go here

1) Playing Sit and Go's --- End Game

2) Mastering Sit and Go's - Late Portion

3) Mastering Sit and Go's - Middle Portion

4) Mastering Sit and Go's - Beginning Play

5) Mastering Sit and Go's - Table Selection