If you’re going to become successful in sit and go tournaments, you’ll need a strategy to become as solid as a rock when you play online. After all, it’s difficult to start racking up consistent winnings in sit and go tournaments if you’re always aimlessly wandering your way through these nine and ten person events. Even though tournaments range in buy-in from $1 to $100, your strategy shouldn’t differ, in my opinion. Just because the buy-ins are varied doesn’t mean that your competition is more skilled at the higher-stakes games. With that in mind, let’s take a look at one strategy you could try when you’re playing poker online.

When you first find your seat in a sit and go tournament, pay attention to the chat box. Who’s being particularly garrulous? Who is trash-talking? Who’s saying hi to their friends? In my experience, those who chat often tend to be either cocky players or complete newbies. You’ll be able to take advantage of the missteps from both groups. Spot who these players are, click on their names, and then make a note saying that they’re a Chatty Cathy.

Next, start off the tournament by playing tight. If you’re multi-tabling, you’re doing this anyway. If you’re not, play based on your cards in the early levels of a tournament. There will be plenty of time to open your game up later on. My rule of thumb is to play tight until there are six players remaining and then become more aggressive. What do I mean by “play tight?” If you look down and see a hand that’s A-J or better or pocket fives or better, play. Of course, this depends on your position and the hand as it’s developed, so choose your spots carefully. There’s no reason, unless you get really unlucky, that you should be the first, second, or third person busted in a standard sit and go tournament.

Once play gets down to six players left, feel free to open your game up. By now, you should have diagnosed who the aggressive players at your table are, who the extremely tight players are, and who really has no idea what’s going on. There’s a specific strategy for each type of player. For loose players, attack them when you have a hand. If you’ve flopped top set, attack. You could even check the action to them and let them think that they’re in control of the hand. For tight players, attack them when they’re in the blinds or if you sense any weakness. Ideally, tight players will be seated to the left of you and maniacs will be seated on your right.

In a standard nine- or ten-handed sit and go tournament, the money bubble pops when there are three players remaining. This means that, until play gets to this point, you can take advantage of those players who are in it just to cash. They could care less if they finish in third or first; they’re just looking to leave the table with more money than they started with. These players are very easy to spot; they’ll be the players who are folding no matter what, hanging on for dear life trying to finish in the money. By the same token, feel free to be assertive towards the shorter stacks who are trying to survive into the money. Raise them all in no matter what you have. Open the pot if you’re ahead of them. It’s all about finding advantageous spots to play when you’re on the money bubble in a single table sit and go tournament.

Once you’ve landed in the money, play out the tournament as if it’s a freeroll. After all, you have nothing to lose. You’ve already finished in the money and will be taking home at least twice the buy-in no matter what happens. The overall strategy I could suggest would be to play to win. In order to win, you have to end up with all of the chips at the end of the tournament, so be aggressive. If worse comes to worse, you’ve doubled your money.

There you have it. I’ve outlined one strategy for successful sit and go tournament play. There are a bevy of other strategies you could employ, so try several out and find one that you’re comfortable with.