Let’s say that you are in a SNG game where you bought in for ten dollar. First place is $45. Second place is $27. And third place is $18. (To learn more about sit and go strategy, check out this article on poker hand odds.)
Now imagine that you are fortunate enough to be one of the last 4 players remaining. Not only that, you have the second biggest chip stake at 2,000 chips. The chip leader has 7,000 chips. And the other two players have 10 chips each.
You are in the big blind for 100 and the chip leader is in the small blind for 50.
The other two player folds and the chip leader goes all in on you.
As he shove his chips in the middle, the chip leader flips over his cards by accident and you can see that he only has a seven deuce offsuit.
You on the other hand is dealt Ace King suited. The odds say that you will win against his hand roughly 70 percent of the time. If you wanted to win this tournament, then this is a great opportunity.
Would this be a good call?
This is where it gets weird. If you’re goal is to win the sit and go then you should definitely call. However, even though calling would allow you to win the sit & go tournament most often, it will actually cause you to lose A LOT of money.
The most profitable play, by far, is to fold.
Here’s the logic behind this.
Since the other 2 players are so short stacked, you are pretty much guaranteed to finish second and win the $27.
This means that folding will actually earn you an immediate $27 profit.
On the other hand, by calling the chip leader’s all in you are risking your entire tournament life. You risk losing that $27 that is yours and the benefit that you’ll get if you happen to win the hand is very little.
There are actually math calculations that I can do that will definitely show that calling will cause you to lose money in the long run.
If you desire to investigate more about poker, visit my website, http://www.blueprintpoker.com/, for more information on online poker odds.
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