Understanding The Strategy Of Multi-Table Sit And Go Grinders

Understanding The Strategy Of Multi-Table Sit And Go Grinders

‘Grinding’ Sit And Go Tournaments refers to playing 100’s of games, often 8+ Sit And Go tables at a time with the goal of making a small profit from each Sit And Go – profit that can add up to a significant amount of money. If you enjoy Sit And Go then you have probably come across opponents playing many tables, sitting super-tight early on and then pushing all-in often late. While these players are often winners, they are also easy to profit from. This article gives you an insight into the strategy of Multi-Table Sit And Go grinders and shows you how to start profiting from these players today. A good rakeback deal adds to the profitability of this strategy.

We start with an overview of how these opponents make money by covering their basic strategy. Next we look at the early to mid stages of a typical Sit And Go tournament and show you how to profit from their game. Finally we look at the bubble play of Sit And Go grinders – showing you how to make the best adjustments against them.

Sit N Go Grinders play very few hands during the early and middle stages of the games. This allows them to play many poker tables simultaneously. While folding all but the best hands is rarely the optimal play, it allows the grinders to reach the bubble of many tournaments with enough chips to make opponents fold. The grinder will then use their superior understanding of push / fold strategy and poker ICM to profit from common bubble mistakes of their opponents.

While this strategy does not maximize the profit per game, the balance is that many more tables can be played. For example making $1 per game over 20 games per hour generates a better hourly rate than $2 per game but only 6 games per hour. This style is particularly well suited to Turbo Sit And Go. Add rakeback to the bottom line and these figures are better.

Exploiting these Sit And Go poker players for profit is actually very easy once you have identified them. During the early stages they are not looking for confrontations, and so stealing blinds from them is profitable. What is more they are making fast decisions, your history of raises will rarely be remembered, allowing you to raise again and again in the same situation to steal. If a Sit And Go grinder makes a re-raise you can safely fold, since they are highly unlikely to do this without a strong hand. The size of your bets and raises can be smaller against a Sit And Go grinder too – since they are playing ‘fit or fold’ poker after the flop a small bet is just as likely to induce a fold as a large one, so it can pay to save those chips those times you find out you are in fact behind.

Conversely, if a Sit And Go grinder raises – especially from early position – you can give them credit for a big hand. Here high implied-odds hands, especially small pairs, become playable for a call. Those times you hit a concealed set then you know your opponent is likely to have a strong enough hand to pay you off with a big pot.

At the bubble the Sit And Go grinder is likely to have a good idea of the math of push / fold poker, including ranges, stack-size dynamics and ICM. You can exploit the fact that they know ICM by pushing all-in more frequently on their blinds. This works because ICM experts will rarely call without a very strong hand, especially when they believe they have an edge against the field. If an opponent is calling only with the top 10% of hands it can be profitable to push with any 2 in many situations.

If a Sit And Go grinder shoves on your blind then you need to know whether it is profitable to call against a very loose range. Bear in mind that the fact that you beat their range of pushing hands is not a good reason to call alone. Poker Sit And Go Bubble strategy dictates that the chips you lose are worth more than the extra chips you might win, meaning you need a large edge against your opponents range as a buffer.

To summarize, While grinding Sit And Go is profitable, the players who do this actually leave significant holes in their game which are easy to exploit. Their tight play early means it is easy to steal blinds and small pots from them, and their ICM bubble play means they are highly unlikely to call all-ins. Poker rakeback will add to your sucess and you should never play without poker rakeback.