Sit N Go Short Stack Strategy
It is quite common place to be playing a sit
n go, and see a player lose a major hand early
on, as well as lose a major portion of his
stack, and then proceed to play by shoving all
in on the very next hand, and on the following
several hands. Usually you see a player resort
to this after they've taken a horrible beat, or
made terrible play, and the player has simply
accepted the fact that they're going to lose,
and is already focusing on his next sit n go. If
they are on major tilt, they may even look to be
moving up to another level which is an even
worse idea.
The bottom line is that if you play a lot of
sit and go tournaments, you're going to run into
situations where your stack is diminished
immensely early on. You'll find yourself in
situations where it is both your own fault that
this happened, as well as situations where you
have taken a bad beat. Having your pocket aces
get beaten by a lesser hands often results in
this happening. Believe it or not, there are
actually some advantages to being in this
situation early on. There are also some
profitable ways that you can play in this
situation. If you start a sit n go with 1500
chips, and are dwindled under 200 after pocket
aces get crushed by another players J8, you will
find yourself in a sticky situation. If blinds
are at 20 and 40, you realistically have about
20 hands to make something happen. You will want
to be looking for those situations to shove all
in but also for other opportunities to pick up
chips as well.
Being on the short stack, really negates any
advantage that position gives you, but you do
gain the ability to play hands like 97, 68, 89,
T9, and other hands that you would never have
thought of playing otherwise. The reason these
hands are great to play is because it is a rare
situation that they are going to be absolutely
dominated by your opponent who is doing the
raising before the flop. In comparison, a hand
like 78 suited, is not that huge of an underdog
to hand like AJ offsuit, as opposed to waiting
for a hand like Queen Jack and being faced with
opponent holding Ace Jack.
Without having any real advantage due to
position, or a stack of chips to push players
around with, the odds you get on these hands
make them your best option. Look for someone in
an earlier position to make a raise to try and
isolate against your small stack. You often find
a player to be surprised when you're able to
double up with that mediocre hand against a hand
like a squeeze. Knowing your opponents raising
range is key, and you also want to make sure
that you have live cards. I would much rather be
in this situation with suited connectors or one
gappers than I would with Ace-rag off suit!
