180 Man Tournament Strategy

Besides the normal large scale tournaments and cash tables, many sit-n-go’s give players the opportunity to cash in large prize pools in much less time than standard tournaments. 180 man tournaments can be very lucrative for players that enjoy tournament style poker at all different buy-ins. The buy-ins range from $4+.40 to $20+2 on sites such as Pokerstars, with standard and turbo blind rates. And by playing these sit-n-go’s with proper technique and strategy, cashing in the majority of your entries is very possible.

Early Stages

The beginning stage or through the first break should be played fairly tight for the most part. Because the blinds are so small and 1500 chips do not provide players with a major arsenal, a reasonable goal would be to double your stack before the first break. The most effective way to double your stack during this stage is through all-ins preflop.  Any large pocket pair, AK, or even AQ and AJ should be looked at as opportunities to double.

Other suited connectors and low pairs can be played as well.  These two types of hands can also bust major hands, but should only be played for a raise to steal the blinds, and for calling the blinds or small raise preflop. Through the first break stick to playing major pairs above 99, AK, AQ, then hands such as AJ, A10, small suited connectors, and small pocket pairs should be played much lighter.

Getting Aggressive

As the blinds accumulate after the first break, most players will gradually become tighter which is very advantageous. Especially in turbo 180 mans blinds and antes can build your stack when stolen once or even twice per round. In late position such as 8th or 9th, a raise of 3 times the big blind will normally force people to fold unless they’re holding a monster hand in the blinds. As the sit-n-go condenses to near two tables left players will tighten and blind stealing should be executed the most in the entire tournament. Entering the final table with a stack of 20,000 or over is sufficient.

Final Table Play

The final table of 180 mans shows a very steep increase from 9th place cash to 1st place, so a strong hour of solid, smart poker at the final table will award you.   Players will begin to open up at the final table which makes blind stealing slightly more difficult. Any hand that you decide to play should be one that you are ready to gamble a large percentage of your stack.

With a small stack you may have no choice but to push all-in quickly into the final table. If you are fortunate enough to enter the final table with a stack around 40,000, playing the same hands as the beginning stage guide above should work well. When short-handed play is in effect hands become exponentially more valuable, blinds stealing is possible once again, and more aggressive play is normally rewarded.

Playing 180 man sit-n-go’s and following these guidelines will give players the opportunity to cash in many of the tournaments that they enter.  Although it’s possible to get unlucky, playing smart through these sit-n-go’s will be beneficial in the long run.

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