Assuming you’re not one of the idiots who tries to double up at the beginning of every sit and go with Q-10, you probably find yourself in the middle stages of SNG’s quite often. The middle stage of a sit and go is where two or three people have been eliminated, and the blinds are starting to become a factor for some players as well.
This means that you’ll have to use a little bit different strategy when approaching the middle part of a SNG. The first thing you should do is stop limping into pots with marginal hands because the risk is too great at this point in the tournament. If you’re an average stack (20-25BB), you don’t have a whole lot of chips to give away by trying to limp in from middle position with 5-6 unsuited. When you decide to play a hand, raise or don’t enter the pot at all.
Another thing to keep in mind in the middle stages of a SNG is that you can open up your play more from middle and late position. In most cases, the maniac players will be gone by this point so you don’t have to worry about bad players pushing all-in with just about any pair of cards.
One more important point about playing the middle part of a sit and go is that you really need to take advantage of the time when you’re in late position. Now this doesn’t give you the green light to make a pot-sized raise with Q-2, but you can try to steal blinds and small pots with lower connectors like 8-9. The key is not wasting opportunities when you have late position on your side.
