General Rules of Sit and Go’s (Online Poker Tournaments)

Online Poker Tournaments have schedule and non-scheduled tourneys. Sit and Go’s are popular tourneys because you can grab a seat at any time. The poker games are played fast and hard and then you’re done; hence the name. The game starts right after all the seats are filled with the number of players in the game already decided in advance. Normally, Sit and Go’s are a ten person single table tournament. However, Sit and Go’s can come in the form of multi-table tourneys or 6, 15, 20 and 30 player or even heads-up (two player) tournaments. Payouts are decided in advance and displayed before the game begins.

Each player sits down with the exact number of chips; with the typical starting amount at 1,500. With every five to ten stages or levels, the blinds will go up in gradual increments until one player is remaining. The cool thing about a Sit and Go is you don’t always have to take first place to win. The three top finishers in the game receive payouts. First place typically receives fifty percent, second place typically receives thirty percent and twenty percent goes to the person in third place. An example of this structure would be if the Sit and Go is a $5 +$0.50 buy-in with ten players in the game, fifty dollars would be the total prize pool; first place receives twenty five dollars, second place receives fifteen dollars and third place receives ten dollars.

A good rule of thumb to follow is to concentrate on overtaking your opponents. In the beginning of the Sit and Go, three blind levels will be at hand. Every time one of your opponents is knocked out of the game, it obviously elevates your chances of winning. One thing to remember is to keep optimistic even if you have to keep folding early on and you sit and watch your opponents chip stacks increasing in size. Although it would be nice if you had that nice size chip stack, it’s not always necessary. One last thing, play your game tight; never play your hands because you feel the need to build a better chip stack.