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Which
Site has the Best Sit-N-Go for You?
by Texter
Which
site has the best Sit-N-Go (SNG) for your style
of play? On the surface all the sites look the
same and therefore should play the same, right?
Not even close. Each site has a distinct personality
and it's not that easy to find the one that will
maximize your profit.
For those that don't know, a Sit-N-Go is a tournament
that begins once the pre-set number of players
have registered, the most popular style is the
single-table, but more and more multi-table SNGs
are popping up. Due to their popularity, this
article focuses on the single-table version.
Like
most of you, I have numerous accounts set up at
all the major poker sites and play at the one
where I'm trying to grind out a bonus. Unfortunately,
Sit-N-Gos or One-Table tourneys either don't qualify
for earning a bonus or they barely count at all.
Due to them not counting toward bonuses, I really
wasn't tied to any site for Sit-N-Gos; therefore,
I decided to play a few $5 (SNGs) at each major
site and see what the differences were and which
site favored my relatively tight style. I chose
$5 as the limit for two reasons:
1.
They seem to be the most popular.
2. I'm very cheap.
All the sites had similar payout schedules 50%
for 1st, 30% for 2nd, and 20% for third. I decided
to also test how long it took an empty SNG to
fill up at each site, which is important if you
only get an hour for lunch.
My first stop was Ultimatebet.com, this is one
of the premier sites on the net and I really like
their software, there are no needless frills and
the deal comes out very quickly. Here is a summary
of my tourneys there.
Buyin $5+$0.50 = not bad vig/rake (10%)
# of Players: 10
Payout: $25/$15/$10
Rounds: 10 Minutes
Starting Chips: $1,500
Starting Blinds: $10/$20T (Big Blind 1.33% of
starting stack)
Fill up Time: 2 minutes
Overall the play at Ultimatebet was some of the
tightest I saw with very little limping pre-flop.
The tournaments on average lasted 9 rounds and
took a relatively long 1 hour 25 minutes (110
hands). The blind structure went up pretty slowly
as well:
Level/Blinds:
1 - 10/20
2 - 15/30
3 - 20/40
4 - 30/60
5 - 50/100
6 - 75/150
7 - 100/200
8 - 150/300
9 - 200/400 |
Rating:
Overall Ultimatebet's Sit-N-Gos favor the
tight player. Especially in the later rounds
after a few players have been eliminated.
The 10 minute round is favorable over other
sites that have 10 hand rounds. With less
players at the table 10 hands can go pretty
quickly. However, since the site was pretty
"rockish" it's easier to steal blinds
than some looser sites.
(out of 5) |
My second stop was
PartyPoker.com, this is the largest site on
the net and I like the fact that you can get any
game very quickly. The software is good and the
deal comes out fast; however, their rake is higher
than other sites and the games fill up so fast
you sometimes get squeezed out. Here is a summary
of my tourneys there.
Buyin $5+$1.00 = high vig/rake (20%)
# of Players: 10
Payout: $25/$15/$10
Rounds: 10 Hands
Starting Chips: $800
Starting Blinds: $10/$15T (Big Blind 1.88% of
starting stack)
Fill up Time: 10 seconds (fastest of the bunch)
Overall the play at Party was pretty loose, there
were at least 5 limpers in each hand and several
very aggressive players (there were already 3
players gone by level 3 most of the time). The
tournaments on average lasted 9 rounds and took
a quick 54 minutes (83 hands). The blind structure
went up pretty slowly at first but picked up speed
as people got eliminated:
Level/Blinds:
1 - 10/15
2 - 15/30
3 - 25/50
4 - 50/100
5 - 75/150
6 - 100/200
7 - 150/300
8 - 200/400
9 - 250/500 |
Rating:
Overall
PartyPoker's Sit-N-Gos favor a more aggressive style. Due
to the 10 hand rounds, even the rockiest player
in the world will have to loosen up at around
the 4th level. If you can't adjust your game
as the tourney goes into the later levels,
this site isn't for you. It's pretty tough
to steal blinds until the maniacs have gone
bust. The 20% rake on the tourney's it also
too high for me when other sites are much
less expensive. = *** |
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This is one of the oldest poker sites, and it shows,
was next. This site must have one of the slowest
deals on the internet. Due to my very short attention
span caused by years and years of watching bad
TV, I can't play on this site because the time
each hand takes drives me crazy.
Buyin $5+$1.00 = high vig/rake (20%)
# of Players: 10
Payout: $25/$15/$10
Rounds: 10 Hands
Starting Chips: $1000
Starting Blinds: $5/$10T (Big Blind 1.00% of starting
stack)
Fill up Time: 3 minutes
Overall the play at Paradise was very tight, it
took forever to play out each hand and several
rounds to eliminate the 3rd person. The tournaments
on average lasted only 9 rounds and took a long
1 hour and 20 minutes (81 hands), but it seemed
much longer. The blind structure was very slow
at first but picked up at level 4:
Level/Blinds:
1 - 5/10
2 - 10/20
3 - 15/30
4 - 30/60
5 - 50/100
6 - 100/200
7 - 150/300
8 - 250/500
9 - 500/1000
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Rating:
Paradise Poker's tourneys favor tight player who
has the attention span of a PBS viewer. The
10 hand rounds favor looser play but the slowly
rising blinds early end up favoring the rockiest
of rocks who can wait out the action junkies.
Also, the rake/vig is much too high.
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Absolute Poker was next. For some reason, I do really well at
this site but cannot stand playing their Sit-N-Gos.
The site is too busy looking, the sound effects
are annoying, and the players take forever to
make decisions (this may be a function of the
software or the players are possibly dumber than
the average site). Also, they don't have $5 SNGs
just $6, so they are busting my paltry budget
for this story.
Buyin $6+$1.00 = high vig/rake (16.7%)
# of Players: 10
Payout: $27/$16.20/$10.80
Rounds: 10 Minutes
Starting Chips: $1500
Starting Blinds: $10/$15T (Big Blind 1.00% of
starting stack)
Fill up Time: 6 minutes (slow as molasses)
Overall the play at Absolute was very loose, even
looser than Party if you can believe it. One tourney,
we lost 3 players in the first round. The tournaments
on average lasted only 6 rounds and took a very
fast 40 minutes (56 hands). The blind structure
was pretty typical but they don't have a $75/$150
or $150/$300 level which speeds things along:
Level/Blinds:
1 - 10/15
2 - 15/25
3 - 25/50
4 - 50/100
5 - 100/200
6 - 200/400
|
Rating:
Overall
Absolute Poker's tourneys favor a double up quick
or lose style. The blinds start out slowly
but by the time round 4 is over, you better
have some ammunition to fight with or you're
screwed. When level 6 rolls around there are
only 34 big bets on the table. The 10 minute
rounds favor the tight style but the aggressive
blinds will force you to loosen up. My biggest
pet peeve with the site is the slow deal and
slow players, they both drive me nuts.
|
PokerStars is known as being the site with the
best tournaments on the net. PokerStars has the
innovative time bank, which is a set amount of
extra time stored for each player to use if needed
to make tough decisions. This is a nice feature
but seems to be used a little too much by some
players and it slows down the tourneys.
Buyin $5+$0.50 = low vig/rake (10%)
# of Players: 9
Payout: $22.50/$13.50/$9
Rounds: 10 Minutes
Starting Chips: $1500
Starting Blinds: $10/$20T (Big Blind 1.33% of
starting stack)
Fill up Time: 3 minutes
Overall the play at PokerStars was a blend of
tight and loose players, due to the time bank
each hand took longer than I would have liked.
However, it only took until an average of round
2 to lose 3 players. The tournaments on average
lasted only 6 rounds and took a quick 55 minutes
(74 hands). The blind structure was typical:
Level/Blinds:
1 - 10/20
2 - 15/30
3 - 25/50
4 - 50/100
5 - 75/150
6 - 100/200
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Rating:
PokerStars seems to favor the adaptable player
since the tourneys were neither overly tight
or overly loose. The players seem to have
all read Harrington on Hold'em and
play better than the other sites. The software
was good and the deal fast but the players
are tough, so only play there if you want
to become a better player. Then take what
you learned to another site.
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Bodog has some of the ugliest software in the business.
However, the deal comes out quickly which is nice.
Additionally, the players here appear to be the
worst of the bunch and must have migrated over
from Bodog's casino site.
Buyin $5+$0.50 = low vig/rake (10%)
# of Players: 9
Payout: $22.50/$13.50/$9.00
Rounds: 10 Hands
Starting Chips: $1000
Starting Blinds: $5/$10T (Big Blind 1.00% of starting
stack)
Fill up Time: 2 minutes
Overall the play at Bodog was loose aggressive
with several limpers before each flop and large
pre-flop raises. The tournaments on average lasted
9 rounds and took a longish 1 hour and 15 minutes
(86 hands). The blind structure was pretty slow
through the first 5 levels and then started to
speed up:
| Level/Blinds:
1 - 5/10
2 - 10/20
3 - 15/30
4 - 30/60
5 - 50/100
6 - 100/200
7 - 150/300
8 - 250/500
9 - 400/800 |
Rating:
Bodog's blind structure favors tight play. The loose
play of your opponents should allow a tight
aggressive player to double up before the
blinds start accelerating (due to the 10
hands per round). My biggest problem with
the site is the lousy graphics.
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Titan
Poker has great looking software and I like
some of the differences they've put in (for example
the players voice their intentions). The main
problem with the site is the lack of players since
the site is new and it can take awhile for a Sit-N-Go
to fill up. Also, the $5 SNGs have extra vig on
them since if you win 5 in a row you get a free
trip to Maui.
Buyin $5+$0.75 = medium vig/rake (15%)
# of Players: 10
Payout: $25/$15/$10
Rounds: 7 minutes (fast)
Starting Chips: $1000
Starting Blinds: $5/$10T (Big Blind 1.00% of starting
stack)
Fill up Time: 5 minutes (pretty slow)
Overall the play at Titan loose with several limpers
before each flop and large pre-flop raises. The
tournaments on average lasted 7 rounds and took
a short 45 minutes (50 hands). The blind structure
looks slow on the surface but due to the 7 minute
rounds and no $15/$30 or $150/$300 round, they
are pretty deceiving:
| Level/Blinds:
1 - 5/10
2 - 10/20
3 - 20/40
4 - 30/60
5 - 50/100
6 - 100/200
7 - 200/400
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Recommendation:
Titan Poker favors the loose aggressive player who is
not afraid to mix it up with less than premium
cards. I am not one of these people, so I
rarely play there. I do like the software
a lot, but the fast structure leads to an
allin fest much too quickly for my taste.
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Full Tilt has great looking software, if you enjoy
the cartoon network, and the deal is very quick.
You can also sometimes play with a "big name"
pro like Rafe Furst or Perry Friedman (just kidding,
they do have real big name pro's along with these
two Tiltboys). Why anyone wants to play with a
big name pro, I'll never know. I think I have
a better chance to cash against bunch of drunken
schlubs.
Buyin $5+$0.50 = low vig/rake (10%)
# of Players: 9
Payout: $22.50/$13.50/$9
Rounds: 6 minutes (the fastest)
Starting Chips: $1500
Starting Blinds: $15/$30T (Big Blind 2.00% of
starting stack - highest)
Fill up Time: 1 minute
Overall the play at Full Tilt is very solid. People
seem to play only good starting hands and it took
until level 7 to get rid of 3 players. The tournaments
on average lasted 12 rounds and took a longish
1 hour and 10 minutes (62 hands). The blind structure
seems fast due to the 6 minute rounds, but the
blinds for each round increase more slowly than
other sites:
| Level/Blinds:
1 - 15/30
2 - 20/40
3 - 25/50
4 - 30/60
5 - 40/80
6 - 50/100
7 - 60/120
8 - 80/160
9 - 100/200
10 - 120/240
11 - 150/300
12 - 200/400
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Recommendation:
Full Tilt is full of solid players who seem
to wait on good cards. The best strategy I've
found is to be very aggressive in late position
and steal the blinds as much as possible,
if called go ahead and make a continuation
bet on the flop to get the rock to fold. The
structure seems ideal for patient players
since the blind amounts go up very slowly,
but a creative aggressive player will be able
to rob them blind both before and after the
flop. |
Overall,
Ultimatebet.com takes first place in my ratings.
The software is clean, the deal is fast and there
is plenty of time to make some moves. However,
I rarely play there since the players are pretty
tough and it's hard to make good money.
Before I played at all the sites, most of my Sit-N-Gos
were played at Ultimatebet.com; however, for my
personal style, the easiest place to make money
during this test was Absolute, I know that sounds
counter to my description of the site (double
up fast due to aggressive players) but the players
are so aggressive it's easy for a tight player
to double up.
In my opinion if you're a tight player who likes
to wait until the blinds are big enough to steal,
stick with sites that play by the minute, this
allows you to be a little more patient as players
get eliminated. If you are an aggressive good
short-handed player you should stick with the
sites that play a set number of hands per blind
level. This will allow you to put pressure on
the tight players as the blinds rapidly move up.
Also, you should stick to the sites with the lowest
vig/rake, unless you don't like money.
Think
about your style and how it fits with the Sit-N-Go
structure at the site you like to play, otherwise
you're costing yourself money.
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