Texas Hold'em: Sit and Go Problems

Question
Maybe it's just a bad run, but I seem to finish in fourth place far too often in Sit and Go's. Is this just dumb luck, or am I playing bad?

Answer
To answer that I'd obviously have to see your hand histories. However, I can say that many decent players find themselves in 4th a disproportionate amount of the time because they haven't learned how to ratchet up the aggression factor when the game gets five or six handed. As you probably know prudent hand selection alone can usually get you into the middle stages of a Texas Hold em Sit and Go, since you almost always have at least three total idiots playing the tournament with you. But once you get down to the final five or so you need to put a greater emphasis on stealing blinds, and playing your decent hands fast (this includes any top pair hand or better).

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in Texas Hold em Sit and Go tournaments is to get in the habit of calling pre-flop. Do NOT call away all your chips. If you're finishing fourth too often do you frequently find yourself folding, folding and folding, only to go all-in with something like A9o when your stack has been reduced to 2-3 times the big blind? If so you're playing too tight in the middle stages. With the blinds escalating so fast you just can't wait for a pair, an ace or a big kind. You have to get in there and mix it up (again, by betting and raising, NOT by calling) with hands like suited connectors. 'Waiting to see what the flop brings' is a losing strategy in tournaments where the blinds escalate rapidly. You have to be aggressive and steal more than your share of blinds to consistenly end up in the money in these tourneys.

Related Articles:
NL Sit and Go Strategy Part I
NL Sit and Go Strategy Part II

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