Mastering Sit and Goes - Table Selection

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 fifth of 5, will cover table selection in sit n go's, which is actually better described as site selection. Because each poker room has a different blind structure, and different starting chip count, sit n go's at different sites will play differently. It may be the correct play to be maniacally aggressive in the early rounds on one site, but the wrong play on another. This page will help you decide which poker room has the best sit n go's for your style of play.

Party Poker
First up is the 900 pound gorilla in the room. It is the largest site, and the sit n go's fill up almost instanteously. If you have a slow internet connection, it might be too fast for you, as the sit and go's will be full by the time you can claim your seat.

Lowest Buy In : 5+1 and 10 + 1 - I mention both the 5+1 and the 10+1 because I think it is a mistake to play the 5+1 tournaments on this site, 20 % rake is too much to overcome. If you want to play 5 dollar tournaments move to another site. If you like Party, move to the 10 + 1, which has a 10 % rake, which is more or less industry standard.

# of players : 10

Pay out structure : 50%-30%-20%

Rounds : 10 minutes - They just changed the length of the round from 10 hands to 10 minutes. Although it is about the same in the early round, this makes the later round much longer, since there are less people and more hands are decided preflop. This is good for people who like to wait for strong hands before committing themselves, bad for people who are very aggressive and push others off pots.

Starting Stack : 2000

Starting Blinds : 20 - 40 - Big blind is 5% of the starting stack. This is high blinds to begin with, but they go up slowly and by the time you are at 2 or 3 players the blinds are not significant.

Overall : Much better than it used to be, before they changed the blind structure and the chip count. The best style of play at this site is almost opposite of that of the other sites. Due to the high starting blinds, and low ending blinds, a player needs to be much more aggressive than average at the beginning, but near the end can rein it in some and wait for the good hands to bust their final opponents.

Poker Stars
Poker Stars is pretty famous for having good tournaments. After all they did send two of the last 3 wsop winners to the main event. They are a fairly large site, with very loyal players, so you know they can't be doing anything too bad.

Lowest Buy In : 5 + .50 - 10%

# of players : 9

Pay out structure : 50%-30%-20%

Rounds : 10 minutes

Starting Stack : 1500

Starting Blinds : 10 - 20 - Big blind is 1.33% of the starting stack. The blinds are fairly low to start with. This combined with the relatively slow rate of blind increase makes Poker Stars one of the sites wich favors tight play the most

Overall : Although the software and the structure of the sit and go's are both good at poker stars, the players there are some of the best on the web. Although playing there will be sure to improve your game, it might not improve your bank account as much. Which is not to say you shouldn't play there, but play there is you are looking for some practice before hitting tougher games, not because you think you will break the bank.

Bodog
I must say that personally I love Bodog. I think they have excellent sit and go's, and have been one of the most profitable sites I have played at. However this is not to say that is doesn't have it's drawbacks. The most significant of which is the software is very bad compared to most big name sites. You can only multitable 3 tables at once, compared to the 10 you can do at Party. Additionally you can't have the all the games windows open at once. One is open and the other two shrink to a thumbnail view. The big advantage that Bodog has is the players there are not good. If you thought they were loose at Party, you will be happily suprised by Bodog. My hypothesis for the reason is that all of the casino players try their hand at poker, and they are looser than the average person who joins a site just for the poker.

Lowest Buy In : 5 + .50 - 10%

# of players : 10

Pay out structure : 50%-30%-20%

Rounds : 10 hands

Starting Stack : 1000

Starting Blinds : 5-10 - Big blind is 1% of the starting stack.

Overall : Like I said, I very much like this site. The best style play here is exactly as described in this sit and go series, tight beginning play, semi-aggressive middle, very aggressive end, and by the time you are heads up you are going all in every other pot. This style has been a consistent money maker for me at this site, and will probably continue to be my go to sit and go poker room unless I feel like doing a lot of multitabling.

Titan Poker
Titan Poker is a newer site that has come on strong and is gaining market share. They have very streamlined software, which I think is in the top 2 or 3 of all the sites I have played on. The sit and go's unfortunately don't fill up as fast as in some of the other sites, but once there are started are generally filled with relatively loose players.

Lowest Buy In : 5 + .75 - 15 %

# of players : 10

Pay out structure : 50%-30%-20%

Rounds : 7 minutes- This is a fast blind structure, especially in the opening rounds. It can be very annoying if the game is on the second round before you post your first blinds. In the later rounds, when people drop out, it slows down a bit and is more comparable to the sites where the blinds are 10 hands.

Starting Stack : 1000

Starting Blinds : 5- 10- Big blind is 1% of the starting stack.

Overall : This site caters to an aggressive player, who is willing to get in the hand and fight without premium cards. Lots of action, so if that is your game I highly recommend this site as one of the best that you could find. If you are a tighter or more passive sit and go player, you may be wise to look elsewhere

Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt is an established site that is heavily endorsed by a lot of pros that you see on the tournament circuit. So I guess if you like name dropping you could play here and say that you played against Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey. If you like making money then you might want to avoid them and stick to juicier games.

Lowest Buy In : 5 + .50 - 10 % rake

# of players : 9

Pay out structure : 50%-30%-20%

Rounds : 6 minutes- Fastest rounds of all the reviewed sites

Starting Stack : 1500

Starting Blinds : 15- 30- Big blind is 2% of the starting stack.

Overall : Although the blinds start out high, and the rounds go quick, the blind structure is set up in such a way that the blinds do not increase very fast. In level 5 you have blinds of 40 / 80, which is only 5.33 % of the starting stack. At sites such as Bodog, by level 5 the blinds are 10 % of the starting stack. However, Full Tilt does lend itself to aggressive play. You play here should be full of steal attempts, since the blinds are high and the players are tight. You should also make continuation bets on the flop with hands like good aces or two overcards since often many players will fold. I would rate this site as just average among sit and go's. The blinds are a little too fast for my taste, and the players slightly too good.

Ultimate Bet
The final site reviewed for now is Ultimate Bet. It has very solid software, with quick deals, and a nice ability to multi-table. I would rate the players as about average on the internet. Slightly worse than players at Poker Stars, better than players at Bodog.

Lowest Buy In : 5 + .50 - 10 % rake

# of players : 10

Pay out structure : 50%-30%-20%

Rounds : 10 minutes

Starting Stack : 1500

Starting Blinds : 10- 20- Big blind is 1.33% of the starting stack.

Overall : This site is very tight and the sit n go's tend to last a relatively long time, over an hour and 15 minutes. The site favors tight players who will wait for good hands and then double up. However, since the players there are usually tight, it is often a good idea to steal blinds at least once a round.

Summary : In general, sites with timed rounds favor a tighter player, as there are many more hands per round near the end of the game. If you are that kind of player, go to those sites. Sites with hands per round are generally best played tight at the beginning, with increasing aggression as people drop out. By then end, on these sites, you should generally feel that you are playing like a maniac with how often you are raising it up preflop.

Well that's it for this page on site selection, as well as my 5 part series on sit and go's. To view the other parts go

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