Your play during the opening stages of a sit and go tournament is crucial to your success later in the tourney. For one, you want to avoid playing marginal hands early on because everyone else will be playing their marginal hands as well because the blinds are low here. You should only play either the very best hands or hands that stand to easily improve on the flop. Let’s look at these two scenarios separately.

Your monster hands are the ones that you should not be afraid to move all in pre-flop with. These include pocket aces, kings, and queens, as well as suited ace-king. These are premium hands that will win for you the majority of the time. You want to be the aggressor with these cards, though; you would much rather win the pot right away than have someone with a better hand gain control over you. If someone bets before you, consider folding queens and ace-king, but be prepared to play aces and kings strongly unless the board indicates that you are beaten.

Hands that stand a good chance of improving on the flop include medium pocket pairs as well as suited connectors like 7-8 or 9-10. These are hands that can either help you catch a flush or a straight if the board goes the way you want it to. For these hands you will want to be the aggressor yet again; if someone bets big before you though, these hands need to be folded as they will not win as often as the big hands will.

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