Sit-and-gos have become a major part of the poker landscape. You’ll find them at every online or bricksand- mortar poker room. In which case, it’s quite incredible how little many players know about how to play around the all-important money spots. So read on and equip yourself with the know-how to make the bubble pay every time.

Sit-and-gos are an ideal starting point for beginners. They give a taste of all aspects of poker from deep-stack ring play during the first couple of levels to short-handed and heads-up play in the later stages. They can offer an excellent return on investment as there tends to be plenty of chancers trying their luck, and reduced variance as your chances of cashing are fairly good: in a typical nine- or 10-seat online game first place gets 50 percent of the prize pool, while second and third places get 30 percent and 20 percent respectively.

But as you can see from these payouts, the potential gains and losses at certain points are drastically warped, even compared to conventional multi-table tournaments.