Super turbo sit and go’s gained popularity over the past couple of years at Full Tilt Poker and you can now find variations of the structure at other online poker rooms such as Doyles Room, Titan Poker and others. Super turbo sit and go’s are very different from regular sit and go tournaments because the starting stacks are usually very low and the blinds increase extremely fast. The Full Tilt Poker super turbo variation has starting stacks of 300 chips, 15/30 blinds to start and blind increases every three minutes! Needless to say you need to play quite a bit differently in super turbo sit and go tournaments.
Tip #1 – Do not think of super turbo’s as lotteries
Many players are guilty of considering super turbo tournaments completely luck based. This is absolutely not true and the players that think this are the ones that make the tournaments positive expected value for the strong super turbo players. If you implement a solid super turbo strategy you should be able to achieve around a 5% ROI in super turbo sit and go’s. This may not seem like a lot, but considering you can usually play several at a time and they only last for about 20 minutes, this 5% can turn into a fairly large hourly rate.
Tip #2 – Play tight early in the sit and go
In the Full Tilt super turbo’s you begin with ten times as many chips as the big blind. In a normal sit and go this would likely cause you to look for a spot to get all of your chips into the middle fairly quickly. However, in a normal sit and go, the number of players remaining would likely be getting lower and the blinds would be approaching more consistently. In super turbo SNG’s the table will be full at the start of the tournament, so you have time to wait for a premium hand if you want to push. Play tight and wait for a big hand in the first couple levels.
Tip #3 – Increase your range as players bust
As more players bust the blinds will be approaching more often and they will also be growing larger. It is now time to loosen up a bit and increase your pushing range. From good positions you should push with a very wide variety of hands because stealing blinds is a big part of super turbo success.
Tip #4 – Position is key
Continuing from the above tip, pre-flop position is very important in super turbo sit and go’s. Your range from first position will be drastically smaller than your range from the button. In fact, if your stack starts to dwindle it may be a good idea to start pushing from the button every time there are no callers in front of you. You will pick up a lot of blinds this way and if you do happen to get called, you should still have outs to catch some cards and double up.
Tip #5 – Get your chips in play late in the tournament
In super turbo sit and go’s you will have to win an all in or two to have a chance at cashing. You will not be able to sit back and hope everyone else busts before you. This is not a double or nothing tournament, it’s a super turbo sit and go. Once the table gets down to about three players the blinds will be very high so you should implement a hyper-aggressive style. Push in with any above average hand and challenge your opponents to call.
You will need some luck to win a super turbo sit and go, but if you play correct you will be a profitable player over the long run.
Five Super Turbo Sit and Go Tips was submitted by Niko a professional player hailing from Canada who also runs Super Turbo SNG.