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- How to Play Sit and Go Tournaments for Beginners
Sit and Go (SNG) tournaments are poker tournaments that immediately start when a preset number of players are seated.
SNG tournaments are a popular online poker tournament format and they’re great for new poker players.
They don’t cost much to enter.
They’re less time commitment and you can be done in under an hour.
You can experience every phase of a tournament in a short time.
You can choose from various formats to fit your playing style.
Besides being tons of fun, SNG tournaments can also be highly profitable.
Keep reading to learn about SNG tournaments, how they work, and tips to start playing.
Table of Contents
What Is a Sit and Go Tournament?
An SNG tournament is an on-demand poker tournament. Instead of a scheduled time, the tournament starts right when your table is full.
SNG tournaments are typically single tables with 2, 6, or 9 players. Poker Arcade offers 6-player SNG tournaments.
There are also different SNG formats with varying stakes, speed, and blind structures which we’ll cover later.
How Sit and Go Tournaments Work
Think of SNG tournaments as mini tournaments—your goal is to be the last player standing at your table.
Every player starts with the same amount of chips (usually 1,000 to 2,000 chips).
Blinds increase at set intervals.
Once you lose your chips, you’re out.
The last player standing wins the majority of the prize pool.
Here’s an example using Poker Arcade.
Playing in the Poker Arcade
The tournament starts when 6 players have joined the table. All players are given 1,200 chips, which you can see under each player’s avatar.
Along the bottom of the screen, you’ll see:
Prizes
Tournament position
Current blinds
Next blinds
Time until next blind increase
For this specific SNG tournament: Blinds start at 10/20 and increase every 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, the blinds will be increased to 15/30. And after another 3 minutes, it’ll increase to 20/40.
Formats
SNG tournaments come in hundreds of types with varying sizes, buy-ins, speeds, and more. We’ll cover some of the main types below.
Heads-up: These are 2-player tables where you go heads up against another player.
Deep stack: Increased starting chips and often have longer blind levels.
Turbo: Fast-paced gameplay with quick blind increase times.
Hyper Turbo: If Turbo wasn’t fast enough for you, these tournaments offer even quicker blind increases.
The world of SNG tournaments is diverse and constantly evolving with new game variants.
Check out the Poker Arcade SNG tournament schedule for a list of our current offerings.
Payouts
Typically, the top 30% win the prize pool from SNG tournaments. The general prize payouts are:
6-max SNG
1st place: 70%
2nd place: 30%
9-max SNG
1st place: 50%
2nd place: 30%
3rd place: 20%
To learn about Poker Arcade’s SNG tournaments and prize structures, check out our Poker Arcade guide.
Basic Strategy
Tournaments can be broken down into 3 phases: Early Game, Middle Game, and Late Game.
Here’s a quick overview of each.
Early Game
Don’t be too eager to get involved at the start.
With low blinds, play conservatively and tighter than normal. There’s no need to risk a lot of your chips early when the reward is low. Wait until a couple of players are eliminated before jumping in and being ultra-aggressive.
Patience pays. Preserve your chips for the middle and late stages of the tournament when the blinds are high enough to steal.
Middle Game
Alright, some players have been eliminated and the blinds are rising. Now what?
The table will become tighter overall as blinds increase. While other players are scared of losing too many chips, this is where you can be more aggressive.
Eliminate limping, and watch for situations where you can accumulate chips by stealing blinds.
Late Game
You’ve made it down to the final 2 players—time to bring it home.
In heads-up, it usually comes down to whoever gets the best cards quickest. Your range should widely expand at this stage. Be aggressive as much as possible, especially when in position.
Ready to Hit the Tables?
Hop into the Poker Arcade to start entering SNG tournaments and practicing your skills.
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