Surviving and Thriving in the Beginning Rounds of a Sit and Go Poker Tournament

The beginning of a sit and go at any level is an interesting time that is very dependent on the cards being dealt as well as the skill of the players in the tournament. There is a little basic strategy that should be considered but also one should think of the type of tournament (what the cost of the buy in was) and the level of players involved in that type of buy in, the cards being dealt, and also the overall speed of play and environment that is created as the players begin to figure each other's playing styles out.

The first consideration above all in a tournament is the cost of the buy ins and the skill of the players who buy into that type of tournament. On lower cost buy ins (the $10 and under sit and go's online and the lowest buy in sit and go's at the casino), the play of the players is relatively loose and poor. Their skill level is hopefully not up to par with yours and therefore you should not try and guess what cards they are betting big with because you will generally see AA as much as you see something like KJ or KT (K10) when someone goes all in at the beginning of a low level buy in. On a higher buy in (and hopefully higher skill level) sit and go you can assume that players will be betting big with big hands and folding everything else to try and maximize their expectation in the hand.

The second thing that should be considered when you're at the beginning stages of the tournament is the speed of play and the environment that is being created in the sit and go. Often, the cards that are being dealt will cause most of the action (or lack thereof) in a game and you will need to be aware of this. With games that see a lot of high cards and pocket pairs in the beginning, there could be a much faster style of play than you are used to regardless of the skill level of players involved, but in many cases it will continue for the rest of the sit and go. Since the environment here determines what the rest of the sit and go will be like, you should make sure to pay special attention to how people play in the beginning.

Make sure to take in everything from the beginning of a sit and go because things that happen here will have a butterfly-effect like affect on the rest of the game. Fast games tend to stay fast and slow games will most likely remain slow but also if lots of players get good cards here you will notice that your game is surprisingly less crowded as you go on.