Recently I was talking to a friend about the double
or nothing game and we had a difference of opinion about how to make
money in it. For that matter we have a difference of opinion about how
to make money in sit and goes. However my opinion is the right one. We
have a difference in styles also. He likes to mix it up more and I like
to play in a tight aggressive manner with taking advantage of opportune
moments. Now if you ask him he is tight aggressive. However he doesn’t
make the same kind of money in sit and goes as he does in cash ring. If
you think you are tight aggressive and you don’t consistently bring home
the money in sit and goes read on.
So there are different levels of tight aggressiveness
if you have read The Psychology of Poker by Alan N. Schoonmaker you have
probably given yourself a number from 1-10 on how tight you are and 1-10 on
how aggressive you are. I am a firm believer that in sit and goes playing
in a consistent tight aggressive manner will win you the money over the long
haul which is what sit and goes and poker are all about.
How tight and how aggressive do you need to be? First
off you can win at poker with many different styles and many different
levels of tight aggressiveness. However that is poker and this is sit and
goes. To maintain the highest return on investment possible you need to do
four things:
1.
Be tighter than you opponents much tighter than most but not tighter
than everyone. I would measure this as between an 8 or 9 on tightness.
2.
You need to be aggressive but you also need to be able to lay a hand
down when you know you are beat and odds tell you to do it. You need to
know odds in order to do this.
3.
You have to take advantage of opportune moments. Against players
that only view you as tight you exploit the fact that they think you play
only the same way as they do because they see you turnover the same cards
that they, the super tight players. You push all-in in the blinds when you
consistently see a player limp in with weak cards.
4.
You need to balance a lot of things and this is what is tricky:
You need to balance chip counts in relation to the
blinds and total chips in play. You must think of where you are at in
relation to making the money. You need to balance chip counts in relation
to the blinds and how fast they are going up. Consider if fold equity
exists and against who. You need to think about how many risks you must
take in order to likely make the money. Making the money is crucial in sit
and goes. In sit and goes you should always play to make the money first
and then win. Granted the larger the size of the sit and go then less
importance is given to making the money and more is given to winning. You
will need to know who you can likely steal blinds from and who will likely
not fold to you and confront these different players in a manner that will
take advantage of their inadequacy at playing sit and goes. Blind play is
crucial as the blinds go up. You need to be able to manage when you must
double up based off of chip counts and money spots available.
With all this in mind when giving your self a number on
tightness and aggressiveness it really needs to be between 8-9 in tightness
and 6-8 in aggressiveness. The optimal number to be able to maximize your
ROI in sit and goes is 9-7. Manage all of these things well and your ROI
will go up. As soon as you lose any of this information your ROI will go
down. Consider this when deciding on how many tables to play and good luck.
