Live Poker – Sit and Go vs. Big Tournament

A live casino offers numerous options for poker play. You can play poker in a cash game, either fixed limit, pot limit, or no limit. You can play Omaha, Stud and Texas Hold em. In most poker rooms, you can also now play poker tournaments. There are usually two types of tournaments to consider at a live casino, the single table sit and go or the larger field tournament.

Unlike online, a live single table sit and go is frequently a satellite, meaning you are paid with chips that can only be used to enter a larger poker tournament. However, nearly every casino allows you to sell these chips for cash to players wishing to enter larger tournaments, so if you wish, you are playing the equivalent of a cash sit and go. Also unlike online sit and gos, most live sit and gos are winner take all, meaning whoever comes in first is the only one who gets any money. However, players frequently choose to chop when there are two or three players left, according to the chip count, so again you can find yourself in a situation resembling an online sit and go where three players are paid.

If you do not relish the idea of sitting at a poker table and play poker for four, five, six hours or more, you may prefer the single table tournament. Single table tournaments usually take little more than an hour, if that, and if you are not the winner, it will end even sooner, allowing you to play another one or try something else. In addition, card rooms that run satellites often run them frequently during the day, which means you have a myriad of opportunities to play in one even if you do not arrive at an exact scheduled time.

On the other hand, large tournaments create a kind of excitement that single table tournaments do not. There are often enormous prize pools which you can have a shot at for a relatively small entry fee. You will get to play poker with a wide variety of players, and if you are lucky, build up a large stack of chips, at least at some point during the tournament. If you are playing a big buy in event, you may enjoy the added excitement of sitting at a table with a celebrity or poker professional.

There is no reason you cannot play poker in both single table sit and gos and bigger tournaments. In fact, if you win a satellite, you will be doing just that. You may find however, that in general you prefer the speed and size of a single table tournament, or the opportunities and excitement that the larger field brings. The choice is yours.