Early Stage:
Situation #1:You have pocket 8’s in middle position. Everyone folds to you. You have $8 on the button. If you squeeze, you can steal the blinds with 8’s. If you do not, you will probably get raised, either all-in or with a big raise, so it’s a good idea to wait for a more favorable situation. A squeeze is when you have a hand that, if it pairs, will give you a strong handiday. Typically you will want to try to squeeze in the blinds since the odds are in your favor.
If you make a c-bet with your big hand and miss the flop, you can usually get away with a small raise. Being that the blinds are usually low in a sit’n’go, you are hard pressed to make up some kind of hand if your big hand cannot get a push. In addition, having to tilt a bit before the flop lifestyles requires patience. If you make a habit of getting irate after bad beats, you will end up losing a lot of money.
If you squeeze and do not pair, you still have about a 30% chance to win the hand on the flop. If you pair the 8, you still have about a 65% chance to win. Since your hand cannot get worse than that, you can rentalsize quite a bit of your stack for a better hand against your opponents, especially if your opponents are starting to show fatigue. If the point in the tournament where you are starting to get concerned is about to end, you probably should end the tournament before you can beat your opponents in a heads up match.
Middle Stage:
This is about the time you need to think about making a move or getting out of the tournament. If you have a pocket pair, you should not sit back and give others the opportunity to take your lead. Instead, you want to be in control of the action and be a finicky tight player that will force her opponents into making tough lay downs. When you are in the blinds and feel like playing mediocre hands, you push all in with a wide range of hands.
Late Stage:
Your stack should be about 20 times the size of the average stack after the blinds. If you are in the middle stage, you might want to tighten up a bit, but do not get too tight. If you hit the top bubble, meaning the players are about five to low, they will not be chasing all outs with their trashy hands. They will be doing this because they want to make the money and own the tournament. If you are in the late stage, and you have a chip stack that is about 10 times the average stack sizes, you can begin to spread out your bets a bit and begin to take more chances. Not giving away unnecessary chips is the worst thing you can do in these situations.
Final Stage:
At the final stage, you want to be taking more chances in order to protect your chip stack. Play more raising hands and keep them away from the bubble. Play hands that win and don’t play unless they are monster hands. Know when to get out if it is a coin-flip, and always keep your head in the game. If you think you are beaten, fold and get a new stack. Play wisely and avoid the mistake of getting frustrated.