Fold your way into the money

If you don't want to be one of the orange circles, fold, and fold often.

I like to fold. There, I said it.

Early in a sit-n-go, I enjoy folding nearly every hand and sitting back and watching the ensuing carnage as players limp with virtually anything, and usually end up paying the price by either being slowly whittled into nothingness, or catching semi-lucky and being beaten by someone who probably had more right to be in the pot in the first place.

I like to think very tight play early on is an indication of my discipline. However, I bet it has more to do with the fact that I've seen countless bad players play too many hands early and nickle and dime themselves into panic mode - a path I know very well and am not anxious to travel again. Couple this limp-fest with the requisite maniacs, and you have a blueprint for the early stages of a sit-n-go: fold. Fold a lot.

This isn't to say that I won't get aggressive if I happen to catch a hand, but rather I prefer to avoid early major confrontations without the goods. An example would be raising with AK, betting the flop after you hit top pair top kicker, and being raised all in with flush and straight draws on the board. That's a very iffy call, though I'd probably classify it as an auto-fold. He may be bluffing, or he may have a worse kicker, but maybe not. Is it worth your entire tournament to find out? Bid adieu to those 150 chips you put into the pot and wait it out. Your time will come.

Even if your time doesn't come, there is a chance that you can make the money by checking your head and waiting out the maniacs and bad players. More than once I've virtually folded my way into the money, and while that makes for boring poker, I'll take boring over exciting if the result is a larger bankroll.

Folding with regularity also helps to minimize your difficult decisions. If you play tight early, the difficulty is diminished, since you're only playing premium hands, or garbage for free from the blinds, and can get away from these hands if someone gets a little too frisky. You have so little invested, in terms of money or ego, that tossing your hand into the muck isn't worth much more than a sigh and "whatever."

So that's the idea: fold, fold and fold again. Let the bad players and donks bad-play and donk themselves into oblivion, and then sneak yourself into the money when no one is looking. As such, here's a complete 9 player sit-n-go where I put my philosophy to the test.

You may have noticed that I raised pre flop a total of three times: with AA, KK, and QQ. In between those raises, a number of players donked themselves out while I simply stayed out of the way. You may have seen a few uber-conservative or downright iffy folds, but early in a sit-n-go the aggressive tenet "when in doubt, raise," becomes "when in doubt, get the hell out of way." And live another day... in the money.