A few years ago I played single table Sit and go poker tournaments for several months quite seriously. In fact at one stage I considered playing them for a living. Back then it was possible to do very well playing a good solid strategy of tight to start and then loosening up as the blinds increased. With single table tournaments the key decisions often come down to if you should fold or shove or call a shove in the later stages.

But playing tightly to start is still a fundamental key way of playing whenever your opponents are not playing optimally. In low-stakes single table tournaments then your opponents will be playing badly or at least they will be playing badly in enough quantity. It is only when you reach the higher limits that you then need a good knowledge of ICM.

The primary reason behind why playing tightly during the early levels is productive is to do with how novice players perform in these events. The average single table tournament player basically does two distinct things in these events. Firstly they play too loose during the early stages and lose valuable chips that could be put to very good use in all-in situations.

Playing too loose during the early stages may amass a big stack but it also more than likely will lead to a significant reduction in your stack which in turn will lead to having to make committal decisions too early. There was once a situation where I came in the money in a single table tournament and all I had done up to that point had been to fold my hands.

I have also heard of other players as well who have done exactly the same thing. It is a rarity to get into the money simply by folding but it is possible. This in my mind highlights the power of this strategy but the second process that novice players undertake to do in low-stakes single table tournaments is to tighten up when they near the pay-off seats.

It is as if they are thinking that they don’t want to be penalised at this stage by getting knocked out and are hoping that someone else gets knocked out if they fold. You also see this tendency in large MTT’s as well where players all over the tournament arena are trying to fold their way to the bubble.

This is a stage where good tournament players go to town and they do the exact opposite of what the rest of the field are doing. Instead of folding and trying to last until the money, they attack mercilessly and attack even more than they did before. They purposefully set out to try and exploit fear and the desire to cash. These are traits that are inherent in all novice and even intermediate poker players not just in single table tournaments but MTT’s as well. So look to do the opposite when you near the money and you will be ahead of the curve by some way.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson at www.bwin.com