In part two of this series we discussed mid-blind play and breaking out of our standard TAG mold into a more loose and aggressive style.

Now it's time to shatter that mold and get hyper-aggressive. This is where it gets fun. By now (assuming you've survived this far thanks to reading up on strategy on PL.com) the game will be short-handed, with four or five players left.

Everyone at the table will probably be short-stacked in the classic sense of the word. The average stack will only be around 12 BBs. This is approaching push-or-fold time for everybody!

Here's where you'll make your profit. Your average sit-and-go player plays this late stage so badly, it's laughable. If you play this stage better than they do you will show a long-term positive expectation!

At this stage of the game, post-flop play is out the window - flops are rarely seen. You have two options: push or fold. And by god, should you be pushing.

Your goal is to win sit-and-gos. You don't want to "limp" into the money. When you just try and limp into the money you are throwing +EV away. You have to have the killer instinct to attack and destroy players who are happy just limping into the money or moving up the pay scale.

Everyone at the table will probably be short-stacked, in the classic sense of the word.

In poker, if a player is playing scared, they're exploitable. Everyone wants to finish in the money; nobody is playing to get eliminated. You're no different.

But your goal is to win. Therefore, you have to look at the long term and put the short term out of your mind. Concentrate on making good plays at the correct time and forget about the results.

If you make the correct plays, success will eventually follow.

Deploy the Pushbot

As you know, the top three players in a sit-and-go get paid. So when you get down to four- and five-handed play, you've reached the bubble. There will almost certainly be some short stacks thinking if they play ultra-tight they may sneak into the money.

They're wrong. You want to get more aggressive, not less. When play is short-handed the blinds will already be very high. Your average stack will be just 12 BBs, meaning you'll be lose 10% of your stack to the blinds every rotation.

When the game is short-handed, those rotations come fast and furious, decimating your stack. You're better off pushing all-in without looking at your cards than letting yourself get blinded out. Do not let yourself get blinded out!

The action is frenetic now; you should be trying to steal as often as you can get away with it. If you get a feel players are hoping to limp into the money, punish their blinds - they won't defend them. If you notice someone is calling pushes liberally, then ease up your aggression against that player.

I won't discuss in detail the hands you should be willing to push with. I will, however, discuss the situations you should look for to get your hands all-in.

My advice would be this: Never call off your stack hoping for a coin flip. If you think you're flipping, you're better off folding and pushing the next hand blind.

If you think you're flipping, you're better off folding and pushing the next hand blind.

Rely on fold equity to supplement your stack; your hand value is just something you can fall back on in case you are called! I'll say it again: fold equity is more important than hand value!

Here are a couple of examples:

The game is four-handed and blinds are $150/$300. You have a stack of $2,900. The UTG player shoves all-in for $3,200. The button folds. You hold 6-6 in the SB.

You? Fold. You're hoping for a flip, best-case scenario. Worst-case scenario, you're crushed. There's no need to call off your chips hoping for a flip. If you just wait and shove a hand of your own accord, you'll be better off.

Now let's look at another example:

The game is four-handed and blinds are $150/$300. You have a stack of $2,900. You're UTG and shove A-8. The button calls and the blinds fold. The Button shows 5-5.

OK. You got yourself in a flip. You must have screwed up. Right?

Wrong. In this situation we shoved a good ace with less than 10 BBs. Obviously we were hoping for a fold. However, the button decided to race with us. This result is fine.

The small blind and the big blind folded, adding $450 in overlay to the pot. That means the pot is laying us better than the 1-1 odds we're getting on our hand.

But wouldn't that then make the pocket fives call correct too? Yes, in a way it does, but that's looking at this hand in a vacuum and not seeing the big picture. You're not always going to show up with A-7 here. A lot of the time you'll have a pocket pair that crushes your opponent.

Most importantly, he has no fold equity. He can only win the hand one way: having the best hand hold up. When we shove the A-7, we can win the pot by having everyone fold or we can win at showdown!

OK; one last example.

The game is four-handed. The blinds are $150/$300. You have a stack of $1,800 and everyone has you covered. You shove 8-9 UTG. The button snap-calls with A-K. The blinds fold.

You got yourself in a flip so you must have screwed up, right? Wrong.

Oh noez - you got called by a monster. This is terrible, right?

Wrong. You're only approximately a 40-60 underdog versus A-K. And guess what? That difference in expected value is made up by the blind overlay.

So in reality you're not in bad shape at all. No two unpaired cards are that much of a favorite against two other non-paired hands. So don't fret if you get in "bad" - you'll know you made the right play based on your fold equity in the hand!

This is the key to late-stage sit-and-go play. Be the aggressor. The aggressor has two ways to win, while the caller only has one. Never allow yourself to get blinded out. Being blinded out means you gave up on your sit-and-go.

Stop trying to limp your way to the small money and start shoving your way to that first prize.

Alright, Sometimes You Have to Call

While being the aggressor is the key to a quality end game, you can't just fold everything if you aren't the initial raiser. Sometimes you're going to have to make calls. There are a few things to take into account before you decide to get all passive and just call.

Obviously if you have a monster, no debate: just get your chips in the middle and hope for the best. The times I'm talking about are those marginal, borderline situations.

You have to look at your stack. If you're the chip leader with 20+ BBs, obviously you're going to have a lot more freedom than the guy who has seven BBs. If you have no money invested in the pot, then you should be less likely to want to call off your chips.

In fact you should never cold-call your chips off unless you think you are a favorite and are getting odds on your money.

Again we have an example:

The game is three-handed. The blinds are $200/$400. You're in the big blind with $6,500 (after posting your blind). The button folds and the small blind shoves for $1,200 total. You have 8-9.

You? Call. You have $400 invested already. He shoves for $1,200 total. This means $1,600 in the pot and you only have to call $800 more. You're getting 2-1 on your call.

Make 60-40 bets all day getting 2-1 and you'll end up rich. Or at least with a hat that looks like money.

The player in the small blind should be shoving almost any two cards here. Your hand stacks up very well against his range and you're getting 2-1 on your money. You're only worse than 2-1 against pocket pairs bigger than both your cards, which is highly unlikely.

Chances are you'll get your money in in a 60-40 situation. With no danger of getting knocked out, if you make 60-40 bets all day getting 2-1 you'll end up rich.

Another example:

The game is three-handed. The blinds are $200/$400. You're in the big blind and have $2,400. The button folds and the small blind shoves for $3,000. You have A-T.

You? Call. This one you have to call off your chips. Your hand absolutely crushes the small blind's range. Even tight players are going to be shoving most aces in this spot and your hand is far better than average.

I would recommend you fold a smaller ace in this spot but with a big ace like A-T you have to make the call.

While I recommend against just calling in my strategy, I did have to put this in here. I'm amazed at the players I see folding hands with incredible odds. As a rule of thumb, if you're getting better than 2-1 you should have a pretty good reason for not calling.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of this series detailing heads-up play.

More strategy articles by Dan Skolovy:

• Sit-and-Go Essentials Part 4: Heads-Up
• Sit-and-Go Essentials Part 2: Mid-Blind Play
• Sit-and-Go Essentials Part 1: Low-Blind Play