Playing Sit N Gos For A Living 4,2/5 3116 votes
Over the past couple of years, playing Sit and Go tournaments online (SnG) has become widely popular, and is even becoming more commonplace in live action as well (with casinos spreading them regularly). These quick events offer the same exciting tournament action as the much larger “MTTs” (multi-table tournaments), but require much less of a time investment to take home the top prizes. Nowadays, there are even hybrid SnG/MTTs by virtue of the 2, 3 and 5 table offerings and even the “Sit for a long time and Go” 180-player (or 20-table) events. Any of the variety of these quicker tournaments found under the “Sit & Go” tab on your favorite online poker site will be completed in much less time than even the smallest field, scheduled start time MTT, and that is one aspect that makes them very appealing.
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While a typical rebuy MTT can last anywhere from 7-10 (or more) hours to complete (depending on the number of entries), the normal duration of (i.e.) a two-table SnG is only about 90 minutes. That’s a huge difference for players who want to feel the thrill of saying “all in”, but have to wait until the kids are asleep and can’t sit down to play until Letterman is about to read the day’s “Top 10 List”. The buy-ins range from as little as $1 up to $2,000 (but be prepared to “Sit” for quite a while before the $2,000 game “Goes”), so there are options for every bankroll. (For the remainder of this discussion, we will be considering the one-table, 9-player scenario.)

Learning to play poker also includes gaining an overview of the different poker variants. A beginner should play those poker games where he has the most fun. But then we recommend to opt for one variant (e.g. Sit and Go’s) and then to focus only on those games. As an advanced player, it is of course possible to play different poker variants. I've begun to play Sit n Gos over the past week to try and avoid the negative variance I'm experiencing in the cash games. I've been playing the 9 seater Sit n Gos on pokerstars and I've found it takes a long time to get through any significant number of games. Playing 4 tables at a time it's easily taking me an hour to get through the 4 games.

  1. Many online players make a nice living playing only Sit and Go events. There is a good reason more and more players are focusing on this variation of tournament poker over cash games and/or the larger MTTs: With a little patience (and the normal amount of luck any poker player expects during any given session), the chances of making a profit are quite good.
  2. Sit and go's are a great way to make money online from the comfort of your own home. The first thing you must understand about Sit n go's is the rules. Let's start with the prize structure and the amount of players at the poker tables. There are 9 players at the average sit and go poker tournament. You can play 6, 18, 27, 45, 90, 180, etc.
Many online players make a nice living playing only Sit and Go events. There is a good reason more and more players are focusing on this variation of tournament poker over cash games and/or the larger MTTs: With a little patience (and the normal amount of luck any poker player expects during any given session), the chances of making a profit are quite good. In fact, it is quite possible to earn more profit on a given day playing only SnGs than you can in a limit cash game, with less bankroll volatility. Given that a few players receive prizes (the top three in our one-table example) makes bankroll swings even less of a worry. Before the cards are even in the air, you are technically starting with a 33% chance of making money. Pretty good odds provided some basic strategic concepts are followed.
Keep in mind that in a lower buy-in SnG (anything under $30), you will find a great number of players that are just getting their “tournament feet” wet. A lot of these beginning players pay homage to the Gus Hansen-ish, edited final table antics they have seen on TV. They are basically emulating the pros they see jamming pots with J6 offsuit, because they are taught that aggression is the key to winning in No Limit Hold’em. They play far too many hands because they see (again, in only the key showdowns on TV tables) that any two cards can win with “the big bluff”.
So, right out of the gate, they are usually playing far too loose (with very marginal holdings) and willing to enter into those “exciting TV all-in confrontations”. The simplest answer to this “monkey see, monkey do” aggression is patience. Allow these players (and there are often a few wannabe “bullies” at any low buy-in SnG table) to butt heads with one another and roar like lions. Very often, one or more such players will go all in within the first few hands of a SnG event and pound their chest after the table folds back to them and they show QT. That “success” leads them to do it again the next hand. Perhaps they will go all in 3 or 4 hands in a row!
There is absolutely no need to be the “hero” who puts an end to such madness even with hands you feel are sure to be favorites against his perceived genius. Why gamble in the early stages (first two or three levels of blinds) with your pocket sixes against this type of player’s all in move? He has already demonstrated his willingness to eventually make a huge mistake against you when you are a clear favorite! Be patient, wait for those opportunities and remember your sit and go strategy. It will prove much more effective to punish their fatal mistakes and just let the smaller ones fill their heads with delusions of grandeur.
Don’t be afraid to watch these same players getting very lucky occasionally – as long as it’s not against you! Let the other opponents make the “coin flip” all in calls at the beginning of the event. It’s okay to watch one or two players accumulate huge stacks while they continually take unsound chances acquiring them. You can just sit back under the radar and soon find yourself in the money, just by maintaining your average stack. That should be your first consideration throughout the event – getting paid!
Once you get there (the “bubble” has burst), it’s time to take a completely different approach! Cashing in a SnG is obviously the ultimate objective (otherwise you are just playing for “fun”, which will prove detrimental to your bankroll very quickly). However, once you are in the money, the prize structure usually dictates that you start to gamble a lot more than you would have ever considered in the early stages.
In a one-table SnG, the prizes are 50% of the prize pool for first place, 30% for 2nd and 20% for third. If you just take third place, you’ve made a profit and should feel a sense of accomplishment. However, you can now win another 30% of the prize pool by winning, as opposed to only another 10% by finishing in second place. Thus, it now pays to switch gears and take more chances, especially since the blinds will be much higher by now.
Ironically, very often the same “bully” we saw throughout the early stages trying to win the tournament in the first round (with his incessant all in moves) that has managed to just make the money, will now “get cheap on himself” and worry too much about moving up just one spot rather than go for the win! Now, when it doesn’t pay – he tightens up! These are the type of players that will help to maximize your SnG profits at the end of the day. Take the opposite approach and you will surely see an improvement in your results.

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Of all the questions that poker noobs ask, sit and go bankroll strategy questions are the most common. Well, maybe questions about starting hands and charts. But it’s close.

Anyway…

The problem with answering bankroll management questions is that the answers are all relative. It depends. What does it depend on?

  • You – Are you any good at sit n go’s, or do you suck at them? If you’re a losing player, you’re going to lose money at a faster clip than a breakeven or winning player will. So you’ll want a deeper bankroll to account for that.
  • Your goals – Do you just want to play a couple hours a day for fun, or do you want to eventually become a pro player? Being a pro player is like owning your own business — you need money to run your business (buy-ins, tools, coaching, etc), and then you need money on top of that to pay your bills and live. You’ll also need extra money to make it through the days/weeks/months where you don’t make anything at all.
  • The sit n go’s you play – The bigger the field, the more variance and dry spells you should be prepared for. So you’ll want a bigger bankroll for 180-man sit n go’s compared to 18 or 45-mans.
  • The stakes you play – The larger the stakes you play the bigger the bankroll you’ll want to have. For one thing, larger stakes means larger swings. And usually higher stakes games means more regulars (good players), so your edge will be lower, thus your ROI / earnings will be lower.
  • The variations you play – You’ll have more variance in turbos compared to non-turbos. Double or nothings yield smaller ROIs than non double or nothings. Etc.

Get it? This is why giving any sort of bankroll guidelines is difficult (and pointless). There are just so many pieces that you need to put together to have any sort of clue as to how much money you need to play on.

But that doesn’t mean it has to be complicated.

Your Sit n Go Bankroll — A Starting Point

I realize that you probably didn’t come to this page to be told that coming up with bankroll guidelines is pointless, and that there are a lot of variables to it. I imagine you’re here for an answer, some advice on how much money you need. So let’s see if I can help.

As a rule of thumb, most winning players aren’t going to see swings in excess of 30 buy-ins or so. I like being risk averse with my bankroll, so I would add 20 buy-ins to that. So my recommendation to you is to have 50-buyins minimum for any sit n go you wish to play. That means $150 for the $3 games, $300 for the $6s, $1,000 for the $20s, etc.

From here, it’s just a matter of adjusting your bankroll to fit the points I made above. If you suck at sit n go’s, add some buy-ins. If you’re going to play pro, add some buy-ins. Like to live life on the edge? Remove some buy-ins then. It’s all up to you.

When to Move Up in Stakes

Another common question from players is when should they move up in stakes? The easiest answer is this:

When you have 50 buy-ins for the next level up.

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So, if you start off at the $6s with $300, and the next level up are the $15s, then you’ll want to build your bankroll up to a minimum of $750.

That’s the simple answer.

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The difficult answer is that moving up in stakes has just as much to do with your skill set, sample size and goals, as it does the amount of money you have in your bankroll currently.

You can have a 200x the buy-in for the next level, but if you’ve only played 500 games of your current stakes and you’re fairly new, you might want to give it more time to let the variance average out. You’ll lose a lot of time, confidence and money by moving up based on the size of your bankroll alone. But that’s really for another article.

When to Move Down Regarding Your Sit and Go Bankroll Strategy

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As much as I’d like to say that another common question from players is when to move down in stakes, I can’t, because players don’t ask that question.

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The same idea applies though. As a rule of thumb I would move down in stakes when you have roughly 50 buy-ins for the stake below you.

For example, if you started off at the $6s with $300, I would drop down to the $3s when I hit $150 — 50 buy-ins for the $3s. You can also look at this as 25 buy-ins for your current level. Whichever way works best for you.

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Again, moving down doesn’t always come down to the size of your bankroll though. For most players it might, because no one likes to move down in stakes, and even fewer are actually disciplined enough to do it.

But you might also move down in stakes just to rebuild your confidence. Taking a beating, even if it’s due to variance, can be extremely tough mentally for a player. You might also drop down in stakes to keep your bankroll afloat at the 50 buy-in level for your current stakes if you’re taking a shot, or your current games aren’t loading.

There are lots of reasons why you might drop down in stakes. It doesn’t quite matter what or why, so long as you do it when your bankroll needs you to the most.