I saw an interesting hand on a sit 'n go last night on Full Tilt Poker. It was the very first hand. The UTG limps and the UTG+1 puts in a pot sized raise. The player in the CO cold calls the raise with AQs. The blinds fold as does the UTG player.
The flop comes Q T rag, two hearts. The UTG checks, CO bets half the pot. UTG pushes all in and CO calls.
The result of the hand does not matter. I want to examine the CO's play.
I had already pulled the stats of the players at the table and could see that the UTG player was a winning player. Winning players usually only rasie from early position, early in a sit 'n go with a premium hand. So I would put this player on a big pair or maybe AK. It is unlikely the player has QQ because a Q came on the flop and CO holds one in his hand.
The bet on the flop by CO is OK, but I would have preferred a larger bet to price out draws. Regardless, he had top pair with the best kicker. However, once UTG pushed, CO should have suspected his top pair was no good. UTG would not have pushed with a pair smaller than QQ, nor would he have pushed with AK or a straight or flush draw, at least not typically. So that leaves him with AA or KK as possible holdings.
As a general rule, against a winning player, do not call off all your chips with top pair. I see so many people get knocked out of a tournament with top pair early in a sit 'n go. It is a totally different thing if you are late in the tournament with short stacks. Now you must gamble a little to stay alive. However, early in a sit 'n go, you have plenty of time to recover if you lay down your top pair in a situation like this.
The key to making the money in single table sit 'n go's is patience, patience, patience. Don't get your chips in early simply with a pair. If you experience resistance or a push from a winning opponent, it is better to lay down top pair and wait for a better opportunity to get your money in.
