Playing Short-Handed in Sit and Go’s
If you’re down to the short-handed portion (5 or less players) of a sit and go then you’ve done pretty well up to that point. After all, most sit and go’s involve 9 or 10 players so you have to play solid to avoid an early elimination. However, playing well early on isn’t going to make you any money since the top 3 cash so it’s very important to know how to handle the short-handed part. Here are a couple of suggestions for how you can outplay your competition, and make money in the early going.
Two Options: Push or Fold
If you make it to the short-handed part of a sit and go, you’re most likely sitting on a short-stack. Since this is the case, you’ll need to be pushing all of your chips in or folding; there’s little room for anything in between. If you try limping in and calling everything, you run the risk of eventually being blinded out which is way worse then busting out on one hand at this point. Plus, when you frequently go all-in, it helps you take advantage of the other short-stacked players. It will also help you steal small pots and blinds which is crucial at this point.
When to Call
While you’ll want to push or fold the majority of the time, sometimes it is useful to call. For instance, if you’re the biggest stack then there are a lot of times when you’ll want to call since it’s a bad idea to risk lots of chips at this point. Plus you have the advantage at this point as the bigger stack so you definitely want to avoid being to risky.