Online sit and gos or “SNGs” are some of the best, most popular poker tournaments at Ignition Poker. Unlike traditional tournaments where the game is scheduled to play at a particular date and time, sit and go tournaments for real money start whenever enough players have registered. This makes SNGs the on demand version of online poker tournaments that players around the world are ready to hop into at a moment’s notice. You don’t have to build your schedule around sit and go tournaments. Whenever you want an SNG online poker game, you get an online poker game.

How Sit and Go (SNG) Tournaments Work

If you want one full article on the basics of playing online sit and gos, click here. Otherwise, SNGs pretty simple to understand. The most common versions are played at a single table, which is how we can get these online poker tournaments together so fast. The smallest sit and go tournaments for real money are heads up between two players, winner take all. There’s also 6-handed and 9-handed SNG games that you can play. For the 6 player tournaments, the top two players win money. In the 9 player online poker tournaments, the top three usually win money.

We also have Jackpot SnG online poker tournaments which are designed to include 3 players. These games are setup to be played at a hyper turbo pace, which means that instead of ten minute levels for each increasing blind amount, Jackpot Sit and Gos only use five. The “jackpot” part is that a bonus cash prize is on the line, which pays you up to 1,000x your buy in if you play to a win!

Sit and Gos are pretty variable poker games to play. They come in a deep stack SNG version where you get more chips than normal, and also satellite versions where the prize you play for is entry into a bigger tournament. Some players have started from online sit and gos with a tiny buy in of a few dollars and eventually played their way into the best tournaments with guaranteed prize pools of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

It’s a longshot, but it’s a story for the ages at any poker site. People are still telling the tale of Chris Moneymaker, who bought one $86 ticket to an online poker tournament and wound up playing his way to a first-place win at the Main Event game of the World Series of Poker, with the best cash prize in history (at the time).

Where to Find Online Sit and Go Tournaments (SNGs)

You can find and play the best sit and go tournaments for real money through our poker client. Pick Texas Hold’em or Omaha, then select how many players you want in the game (we have online sit and gos with 2-45 players), and choose your desired buy-in. You’ll get a list of custom-tailored online sit and gos to play, and can register for your game. Soon after, the SNG action will be starting at our poker site. Buckle up!

Sit and Go Tournament Strategy

The best strategies for online sit and gos involve a few guidelines for each phase of the online poker tournament. If you’re heads up, this doesn’t really apply and you can open up your hand selection and aggressiveness quite a bit. Let’s say you’re playing with 45 people, though.

First, pots are small early in SNG games. Don’t get trapped trying to win a hand that people can participate in for a small percentage of their chips. On the other hand, trap people with surprise sets and nut draws when you can. If you decide to play a premium hand, though make people pay. 7x the big blind in early rounds at least is probably a good starting point for raises.

As the middle of the tournament comes along, play more aggressive with preflop raises and continuation bets after the flop if you’re in control of the table and hand. Look for consistent small steals and raises, but be ready for short stacks to play back. If you’re short, find your spots to go all in (this happens sometime around when you have 5 big blinds left). Throw your chips in preflop or don’t go in the hand at all.

Late in sit and go tournaments for real money, open up and continue aggression. Whittle opponents down to nothing, and try to go for the win and as much bonus cash as possible.

The best teacher is experience playing in real SNGs at our poker site, so let’s get to the tables! The next tourney is starting in moments here!