Sit N Go (or Sit and Go, or SNG) is essentially a small scale (usually) single table poker tournament which will start when a pre-determined number of players have joined the table.

Standard Sit N Go’s can feature as few as 2 player’s heads up straightaway or up to 10 people playing. All players will start with the same number of chips. Often 1,000 – 2,000 each and the game will progress until one player has accumulated all the chips on the table. Depending on the number of players starting the game, a percentage of the buy-in (the fee it costs to play the game) will be awarded to the winner and sometimes second and third place finishers. If the Sit N Go tourney is a heads up game between two players only then the winner will take the spoils, but if there are 10 players the payout will usually be shared between the first second and third placed players. A common split is 50/30/20 if three placed are paid out upon. If two places are paid, a common split is 75/25. All of the major online poker venues offer a wide variety and Sit N Go games ranging from buy-in’s of a few dollars to several thousand dollars at a time.

At any one time PokerStars will have tens if not hundreds of Sit N Go’s running at any one time so you will always be able to find a Sit N Go tournament at any time of the day or night to play in. It is great practice to play against set number of poker players at any one time as you can choose the size of the Sit N Go tournament that you enter. You may prefer playing on a small scale against 6 players in total, or you could join a larger Sit N Go that contains 40 starters. Sit N Go’s are excellent practice for the final table of MTT’s (multi table tournaments) and as the buy-in fee is fixed they can be good practice for beginners that are initially too anxious to play cash games with their own money.

Psychologically the thought that you buy-in to a Sit N Go and that buy-in is the most money you will lose can be a comfort to some player and can leave them uninhibited, whilst the constant worry of a run of bad beats in a cash game can make some players (usually beginners) play with fear. There are also forms of Sit N Go’s called “turbos” or sometimes just known as “fast”. These are games where the poker player has less decision time and the blinds go up quicker. These can be a thrill if you are short of time, but they can see a lot of loose, aggressive play and as a consequence can sometimes be the equivalent of a crap shoot. There are definite strategies specific to Sit N Go tournaments that are in vast contrast to cash games for instance, and we will cover those in the Sit N Go strategy section.