Where To Play Sit& Go Tournaments - Part 2 - The Novice View

Part 1 of our Sit&Go guide was Marc's expert view of where to play Sit&Go tournaments. Marc plays up to the $500 level, which is out of reach for most players.

Sit&Go tournaments are are my learning ground in the Online Poker Experiment. About 90% of all my online poker play is in these tournaments, and I am currently at Level 3, which means I am playing the $20 and $30 buy in levels. Over the last 4 months of the Experiment I have played a LOT of Sit 'n Goes. I have tried about 8 online poker rooms, and feel I am now qualified to give an assessment of where the best low buy in games are, and why.

My first Sit 'N Go Tournament was at Paradise Poker, in November 2005. I had little poker knowledge and scraped through in a couple of $5 games here and there. I liked the software from the start, and found that the waiting time at Paradise was very short most of the time.  As we progressed with my training, I started to win the $5 games regularly and found the move up to $10 level not to much of a jump in terms of competition.  I still play at Paradise regularly, about 40% of the time.

The good things about Paradise are the traffic, reliable software, and simplicity of the software. But here's the real scoop: there is very little difference between the $10 and $20 level in terms of competition. If you can beat the $10 games regularly at other poker rooms you are wasting your time - take twice the amount of money at Paradise in $20 games. I have now started playing $30 games there, and that seems like quite a jump in the skills levels you encounter. I have shown a nice profit here.

My next poker room was Pacific Poker and as far as I am concerned it's best forgotten. Look, there is a TON of action. If you want to make money at the $10/$20 level, head on over. I just think the software is shocking for a company the size of 888, but maybe it's personal taste. I found that the action is way too loose for what I am trying to achieve at the moment, but as I gain more experience I may head back there - I know I'll make some money there.

I started playing a bit at  Sun Poker early on and it's pretty good. I like the simplicity of the software, but it is about at the same level as Paradise Poker in terms of the level of player you will encounter. All in all this is a very solid place to play Sit&Go tournaments. Be aware that traffic picks up during European hours, but there's more than enough action during US peak hours.

I then started playing a few games at Bodog Poker and actually quite enjoyed it. Again, the emphasis is on simplicity. Bodog is very US-centric, so if you are not in the US, you will find things to be very quiet if you play in the evenings from Europe. Where Bodog went wrong for me was when they decided to upgrade their software. The new version was very unstable. I was playing a $20 and leading all the way when the software froze. It hacked me off when support told me that in their logs everything seemed fine. Look, Bodog is a serious operation, and I would still recommend them as the software has stabilized but its a matter of personal preference and Bodog Poker doesn't suit me right now.

I fiddled around at some other poker rooms and then decided to try PokerRoom.com. Well, I haven't looked back. In my opinion, Pokerroom.com has the best software by a country mile. I like the fact that the competition is a bit tougher than the other rooms mentioned. It suits my objectives better. Traffic is very good during US peak times so you'll get a game. I love the PokerRoom forums and community features. These guys do an awesome job. The $30 level is tough for me, make no mistake, but I plan to crack it soon ;-)

I have started playing a bit at Wild Jack Poker lately but I am not in a position to comment yet.

So that's my 2 cents. I rate Pokerroom.com and Paradise Poker way ahead of anything else.