Recalculating The Average Stack

In a recent World Series of Poker* Circuit event that I played in, the nine-handed final table started with blinds of 10K - 20K, and there were roughly 3.5 million chips in play. Some quick division would tell you that the average stack was more than 350K, or about 18 big blinds. This simple calculation could lead you to some bad conclusions, however, because in fact most stacks were much shorter.

When the final table started, I had a chip stack of about 1.2 million or almost one-third of the chips in play. So the average among the rest of the table was a little over 250K or approximately 13 big blinds.

As the chip leader, I would have played aggressively if most of the stacks had 18 or 20 big blinds. Players with those sorts of stacks can afford to fold and wait for a decent spot, so I’d do well to raise frequently pre-flop while attempting to steal the blinds and antes. Against players who have 13 or fewer big binds, however, that strategy won’t work.

Players with short stacks need to gamble and, if they pick up any kind of decent hand, they’re going to shove all-in and hope to double up. Playing aggressively, I could find myself in some tough spots. For example, if I were to raise to 70K with some marginal stealing hand like A-T or K-J, and then a short stack came over the top for 210K, I’d be getting two-to-one on my money to make the call. It would be tough to fold and I could end up doubling up a short stack with a hand I didn’t love.

At this final table, where the average stack among the other eight players was so short, my best strategy was to play extremely tight. I decided to play only top-quality starting hands while I waited for the short stacks to gamble with one another. Eventually, the stacks would consolidate and we’d be left with five or six players who had decent stacks. At that point, I could get more aggressive and begin stealing from players who could afford to fold.

                                                      Posted by The General

         Building And Maintaining A BankRoll

For most players, the lure of playing in high-stakes ring games or tournaments is a sirens’ song that’s hard to resist. While there’s no doubt that these games can provide huge rewards, the sad truth is that many beginners often leap into the deep end before they look, destroying their self-confidence and leaving their bankrolls scattered on the shore.

My advice to these players is simple; stay in the shallows until you and your bankroll are ready to venture into deeper waters.

Team Full Tilt’s Chris Ferguson recently completed an amazing exercise where he created a bankroll from nothing by playing a combination of tournaments and ring games. His tip on his progress provides some solid fundamentals on how to create and grow a bankroll, and I wouldn’t want to presume that my advice is any better than his. Instead, consider this another point of view drawn from my personal experience and observations.

I started playing professional poker in January 2006 and though I had seen some success at local ring games, I didn’t have a huge bankroll behind me. Looking at the poker landscape, I believed the fastest way to remedy the situation would be to enter – and hopefully – cash in good-sized tournament. For me, that meant entering the WPT Reno event in March 2006.

I bought into the tournament for $5,000 – a significant expenditure – and promptly played my way to second in chips at the end of Day 1. When I busted out of the tournament on Day 2 without making the money, I was pretty devastated. While the outcome of that event wasn’t what I wanted, it taught me a valuable lesson about playing at limits I couldn’t afford and putting too much of my bankroll into play in a single event.

By taking my shot in such a large buy-in event, I put a huge dent in my bankroll that took months of hard work to repair. When I finally tried my hand at another large tournament, I hedged the potential damage to my bankroll by playing for my seat at the WPT World Championship in a satellite tournament.

Because I didn’t have as much of my bankroll invested in my tournament entry, I played the event without fear that I would be crippled again if I failed to cash. As it turned out, I took 15th place and walked away from the table with a sizable cushion for my future poker sessions. Limiting my downside by satelliting into the event let me concentrate on the poker and play a more solid and confident game than I could have if I had bought into the event directly.

While satellites are one of the most common and popular ways to secure your entry into a big buy-in event, they aren’t the only option. For players who don’t want to take their chances in satellites, securing backing from a friend, family member or even another player can be a viable way to play in bigger events than they can afford on their own. Before you go down this path, however, be sure to consider all aspects of the deal being offered and determine how much of your potential winning you’re willing to give away.

No matter what path you choose, I fully recommend that you never commit more than 10% of your bankroll to an individual event or ring game. To be truly safe, I’d follow Chris’ advice and limit your investment to between 2% and 5%. Remember, the more of your bankroll you risk at any one time, the bigger the blow you can take if you catch a run of bad cards or bad beats.

Remember, building up a bankroll represents more than just the funds you have at your disposal. It’s a constant reminder of the hours of work it took to build and, as such, it’s something that deserves protection. Treat your bankroll properly and it will pay you back many times over.

                                                          Posted by The General

                            Bubble Play in Tournaments

I had just bubbled in the $2,000 Seven-Card Stud Tournament at the World Series of Poker*. I had a drawing hand and I ended up losing all my chips, which was a big mistake. I was embarrassed. I was talking to my Dad – Full Tilt Poker pro, Keith Sexton – and I said, “I can’t believe how unlucky I got.” He disagreed, and said my play was just incredibly stupid in regard to money and chip management, based on where I stood in the tournament. He was right.

People say, “You’re not playing to get into the money – you’re playing to win,” but when you make the money, you go from zero dollars to double your buy-in. The biggest jump in money outside of making it to the final table is getting into the money. I didn’t really understand that. Winning the hand that I busted on wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things.

The next tournament I played was the $1,500 Mixed Limit/No-Limit event. I got so low on chips I had to decide whether to take a chance, with slim odds of winning the tournament, or just try to hang on and make it past the bubble and then call it a day. By staying patient and paying close attention to the field, I managed to cash before I busted.

There are a number of things you need to be aware of in these situations, including the status of everybody else around you. Knowing how many chips you have in relation to the field is crucial in terms of helping you decide at what point you have to make the painful decision that you’re just going to have to fold hands to get into the money. You’re basically sacrificing your tournament, the chance to get to the final table, and your chance to win. But sometimes you have to do it.

You need to know where other players are in the tournament, especially the smaller stacks and what their situation is. How many stacks are below you? Where are they in relation to the blinds? I had a real low stack, three off the money in the mixed event, but I knew there were a couple of short stacks that were going to be forced into the blinds before I was. One player was at a shorter table than I was and another was under-the-gun while I was on the button, so I knew that I could be patient because they were going to have to play a hand before I was. That’s really important because, if you’re sitting there and you know you’re next with a hand like Ace-10, you’re going to have to throw your chips in. But if you have Ace-10 and another guy is going to have to make a decision whether to go all-in or not before you, then you can lay it down. Other players’ situations have a huge bearing on what hands you’re going to play.

Short-stacked on the bubble, I’m folding everything, including big pairs. Looking around the room, I knew that one player was going to be all-in in the blinds and that I had four hands before the blinds were going hit me. I had almost nothing in front of me – maybe 1,300 chips - and the average chip stack was around 33,000. Still, I would have folded pocket Kings on that hand because what’s the difference? Even if I triple up, I’m still all–in when the blinds reach me. All I’m doing is risking my money there. That pot is insignificant. I’d rather take my chances and hope that the other player who has to go all-in gets knocked out before me.

It’s sickening to bubble out in a tournament. People talk about it all the time. You go over it with friends. You figure out what you did wrong and if you make an improvement from the last time, that’s great. The cost of my lesson was my $2,000 buy-in in the Stud event. You can make the same mistake at a final table where it costs you hundreds of thousands of dollars, so I got off pretty cheaply. You never want to be forced to fold into the money, or a bigger pay day, but sometimes it’s just smart poker.

                                                        Posted by The general

Types of Poker Players

Most poker players fall into one of four categories, and once you’re experienced enough, you’ll be able to place your opponents into particular groups very quickly. This is a detailed definition of the different types of poker players you’ll find. As you play poker online you should try to pick up as much information about a player to accurately place them into a category.

But remember the boundaries of the different types of poker players are not clearly defined and the best pokers players can change their style of play very quickly to mislead the rest of the table.

Types of Poker Players :

A Fish: The weakest Texas Hold’em player there is. Also the most prevalent, fishes have poor hand selections and will call just about anything (also known as calling stations). This person has very little skill or discipline,investing into too many hands, hoping for a lucky break. Chips are earned mainly from these playes. However, fish players enjoy the bluffing element of poker, so don’t be surprised if a fish tries to make a move with nothing or slow-playing by checking the best hand.

Basically, a fish is just a bad player. You can’t bluff a bad player. When a fish has some kind of hand and is still in the pot, it’s obvious he’s got something. Play straight forward - no tricks or fancy plays against these players.

Weak-Tight: These players understand the fundamentals of winning at poker and have better hand selectionk but with one exception - they’re afraid. They are quite passive and wil often check or call rather than bet or raise. They fear losing a pot with an average hand and get bullied around with raises. This player may seem easy to bully around, but are capable of trapping you later on.

It’s better to lead with a bet if you’re acting before the weak-tight opponent rather than check. When you bet into a wak-tight player, their common reaction would be just calling or folding. If they fold, great, if they call they’re probably holding a decent hand, but are afraid to bet or raise at the pot because they’re skeptical they might lose the pot. So making a strong play at the Turn would scare them away.

Maniac: Also known as a loose aggressive Hold’em player, these players play as many hands as fishes but are inclined to raise and re-raise. It’s quite difficult to tell if they are bluffing or not. They are known to bully players by re-raising them off guard or having a decent hand will scare them away. Play tight against these opponents and trap these players to knock them out.

Play strong hands against these opponents (AK, AQ, KK, etc) or play a hand if you can see the flop for cheap, and if you hit a good hand on the flop, lead off with a bet. The maniac may try to play back and raise, but if you have a considerable hand, then don’t be shy to re-raise to make them second think their move.

The Rock: Super tight Hold’em player who plays premium hands. They play so few hands, that when they do limp in or call a bet, you’ll know exactly what they have (AA, AJ, KK, etc). Also known as the predictable player. So when a rock raises or calls your bet, you should have alarms flashing in your head that you up against a premium hand.

It’s best to stay out of the way when these players raise pre-flop. But knowing these players only hold big hands pre-flop, flops with no aces or face cards can be most profitable for you, knowing you rock opponent didn’t hit, unless they hold high pockets. Try to bet a substantial amount ot take the pot down.

Strong-Aggressive: These Hold’em players are at the top of the pyramid: Strategic and tactically sound players with the ability to adapt and change gears in every game. They have control over the tables and are much more eager to bet at the pot rather then call. They change pace at anytime, making them very unpredictable and feared by their opponents.

Posted By The General

Playing a Short Stack in Multi-table Tournaments

The key to succeeding in tournament play is being able to handle the ups and downs, because it’s not always going to go perfectly. Your chip stack is not always going to shoot upwards, which means you’ll often need to make good decisions when you don’t have a lot of chips.

Many players get frustrated when they have a short stack. They look down and see Ace-rag, King-Queen, King-Jack or some similar hand and they just focus on their own cards instead of seeing the whole picture. That kind of short-sightedness can quickly make a short stack even smaller and put the player on the rail.

Successfully playing a short stack takes a lot of determination. I believe it’s like a mental war when you have the short stack because it isn’t fun when you look around and everyone has all those chips. They’re getting to play fun hands like 9-10 suited and Jack-10 suited and you don’t have enough chips to play those hands, so you’re just sitting there watching while everyone else is playing poker.

I was playing in a $1,500 No-Limit tournament at the World Series of Poker* when I raised under the gun with pocket Kings. It was Day Two of the tournament and it was the first hand I’d played after about 90 minutes of folding. Another player went all-in behind me and it was one of those situations where she didn’t take her time to properly evaluate what had transpired so far. After not playing a single hand, I had raised with 40% of my stack in the earliest pre-flop position, which usually signals a monster. She pushed anyway with KJ and I think if she’d taken her time, she might have made a different decision.

You need to have patience when you’re short stacked. You can’t let poor results from previous hands affect you. Instead, I think it’s really good to tighten up after losing a pot so that you can regroup. To recover from being short stacked, you really have to take your time and evaluate every situation. Who cares if you’re taking longer than anyone else at the table?

Before the words “all-in” escape your mouth, take a couple of deep breaths, take 20 seconds and take a look at where the raise is coming from, how much it is for, and how much the person has behind. So many times I see people coming over the top of other players and not realizing their opponent is already committed and that their chips are going in the pot. Before you push all of your chips into the middle on a call with a short stack, look at the person you’re playing, re-evaluate your hand, the raise, and what position it’s coming from at the table. You have to remember that as long as you have chips you have a chance to climb from the bottom of the ladder to the chip lead.

That brings up another key point: I don’t care what anyone else has in the tournament because when I start worrying about how many chips other people have, I’m not focused on the task at hand, which is increasing my chip stack. Short stacked or not, I own my chips until I push them into the middle; it’s up to my best judgment to determine the best time to commit them to a pot.

Being on the short stack demands that you make the right decision every time you play a pot because making the wrong one will bust you. Don’t be in such a hurry to shove those chips in. Find the right spot. Don’t get frustrated by a string of poor starting hands. At some point, you might have to take a gamble and push if you can open the pot, but until that time, you control your own destiny. Effectively reading the table and the situation before you act will help you survive and, quite possibly, even win.

Posted By The General

Understanding Implied Odds

Most players know what pot odds and implied pot odds (aka implied odds) are, and how to calculate them. Just about every poker book or website has a section on the topic. Still, I often see people making mistakes in calculating implied odds - especially when playing online. Too often, implied odds are invoked as a reason for a play when “wishful thinking” would be the more accurate description of the situation.

A perfect example came up in a recent tournament on Full Tilt Poker. The table was short-handed and playing rather loose pre-flop, but tight after the flop. The blinds were getting high, and a hand developed where we got to see a showdown between a loose player who I’ll call “Loosey” and a player I’ll call “Impy.”

Impy had no pair and only an inside straight draw on the flop, yet he called a pot-sized bet from Loosey. Impy hit his straight on the turn, but was only able to extract a small amount from his opponent and ended up checking down the river. Impy’s fuzzy logic on the flop was that, although he was behind, if he hit his hand he’d get paid off at greater odds than it required to chase his four-outer. As we saw in the hand, he got part of what he wanted (the straight), but failed to extract enough from his opponent to make his call on the flop reasonable. Furthermore, Loosey was short-stacked, had top-pair with a weak kicker, and was unlikely to have paid off much more than he did.

So, what can Impy do to improve his game? Here are some guidelines for using implied odds to greater advantage:

Only Play Against Big Stacks

When two players are contesting a pot, their maximum implied odds are exactly the same: the size of the shorter stack. If you and your opponent both have large stacks relative to the blinds and antes, your implied odds are much better than if one of you is sitting on a smaller stack, simply because there are more chips that can be committed to the pot during the hand. Players who are short-stacked tend to play tighter and are less likely to try to pick off a possible bluff because they don’t have any extra chips to spare, unlike a tall stack.

Don’t Play Short-Handed

The more opponents there are at your table, the greater the likelihood that one or more of them will pick up a good hand, be in on the flop, and ultimately pay you off when you hit your draw. In short-handed or heads-up situations, you have to get very lucky: first you have to hit your hand, then you have to hope your opponent has a good enough hand to pay you off. My advice is, unless you have a really good read on your opponents in the hand, don’t even consider implied odds unless you are at a full 9- or 10-handed table.

Play Against Tight-Aggressive Players

Implied odds are greatest against tight-aggressive players. Why? Because these are the players who are likely to have strong hands after the flop, and are likely to commit a lot of chips to defend their good hands. Tight-aggressive players are also going to be involved in smaller pots on the flop, and will check-raise more often than loose players when out of position. This gives you free-card opportunities, which improve your implied odds. Psychologically, once involved in a hand, tight players may have a harder time letting go after the flop than loose players who are always in action. Over time, those loose players are going to have a harder time finding a reason to play with you after the flop.

The key to playing against tight-aggressive players after the flop is to keep the pot as small as possible until you hit your draw. If they put a lot of pressure on you, you’re better off folding your draw and waiting for a better situation. Not every hand can be played profitably after the flop.

Incorporate Bluffs and Semi-Bluffs

If you are drawing on the flop, you should be betting and raising instead of passively checking and calling to hit your hand. This gives you two ways to win by:

Forcing your opponents to fold, or
Hitting your draw
This is called a semi-bluff. The only time you should play passively is if you think a free card will help your situation more than getting your opponent to fold.

Another thing to remember is that you are definitely going to miss your draws more often than not. In these cases, you should sometimes be bluffing, but the question is, how much and how frequently?

Let’s say the pot has $100 in it and you have $100 left, and you are deciding whether to bluff on the river. You’re giving your opponent 2-1 odds to call you, which is exactly how often you should bluff in that situation (two times for every one that you don’t).

How do you choose the right balance between keeping the pot small after the flop and playing aggressively as I am advocating here? That’s the art, and it requires lots of practice and a good read on your opponents. You may want to pick up Sklansky’s Theory of Poker to learn more about optimal bluffing frequency and semi-bluffs. By employing these techniques correctly, you can vastly increase your implied odds and positive expectation.

Posted By The General

Playing Heads Up

Heads-up play is one of the most important aspects of poker, and many players could benefit from strengthening this part of their game.

Position is crucial in heads-up play. So is aggression and reading your opponent. In fact, playing aggressively in position can often be the deciding factor in whether or not you win the pot. You can have a much worse hand, but if you trust your reads, you can often take the pot with the right board.

Playing Position

I don’t recommend playing that many raised pots out of position - in other words, don’t call a lot of raises from the big blind. Hands like two face cards, A-8 and up, and pairs are worth re-raising with. Hands like 8-7 suited are fairly worthless because suited connectors like these can be easily dominated by larger hands and lose a lot of their value heads up.

In general, I’m looking for big cards like K-10. Even though these cards are easily dominated in ring games, they play much stronger heads up. If I hit a big pair with cards like these I can feel comfortable going with it, which is something that’s hard to do with middle cards like 6-5.

I’m usually going to do one of two things in the big blind when I’m heads up; fold or re-raise. My standard re-raise is between three and four times my opponent’s bet, and by pumping up the pot pre-flop, I’m making it difficult for my opponent to call me with marginal hands. If he does call, I can always make a post-flop continuation bet or lay down my hand if I’ve missed and my opponent leads out at the pot.

The only time I call out of position is when my opponent plays back at me by moving in a lot. My decision here comes back to paying attention to my opponent’s tendencies and going with my reads.

Reading is Fundamental

Reading your opponent becomes even more important in heads-up play. Because your opponent is likely to raise with a much larger range of hands heads up, making reads is much more difficult. Learning to gauge your opponent’s hand requires paying close attention to their patterns. Do they always raise the button? How often do they call your button raises? Do they ever re-raise from the big blind? Asking questions like these helps to narrow down their possibilities.

You have to trust your reads enough to act on them. If you sense strength, are you willing to lay down the second-best hand? If you sense weakness, will you apply the pressure it takes to win the pot?

In my experience in both ring games and heads up, many players try to accumulate chips too quickly. If you just sit back and wait for your opponents to make mistakes, you’ll end up with all of the chips in the end. For instance, you should avoid making pot-sized bets when smaller bets will usually accomplish the same goals with less risk. Sometimes half-pot bets are even too high and betting the minimum is enough to gather the information you need about your opponent’s hand.

This becomes especially true when your opponent becomes short-stacked. In these cases, I will usually limp on the button once they are around the 10 big blind range. If I do raise, I must have a hand I’m willing to go with because my opponent’s only options are folding or pushing. Some people think it’s weak to limp on the button, but I don’t want to keep folding semi-decent hands in this situation. By limping when my opponent is short, they have to decide if they want to gamble with a high-risk/low-reward all-in move to win one of my blinds.

In heads-up tournaments you want to play in position, trust your reads, and play small pots to build a lead. Once you have a 3-1 lead, then you’re looking for hands to gamble with against your opponent’s short stack.

I’ve had a lot of success using these principles in heads-up play; they were instrumental in helping me win the 2007 National Heads-Up Championship. Put these ideas into practice and you may find the extra edge you need the next time you’re playing heads up.

Posted By The General

When To Continuation Bet

When you raise pre-flop in a game of No-Limit Hold ‘em and are called, you’re faced with a decision when the flop hits the board. Should you put out a continuation bet on the flop or should you check and let the turn come off for free? Of course, there are a variety of factors that will effect any decision in a hand of poker, but if I was the one who raised pre-flop, I’ll put out a continuation bet on the flop a large proportion of the time.

I can afford to put out a lot of continuation bets, whether I hit or not, because my post-flop bets are usually pretty small - about half the size of the pot. Pre-flop, I normally raise to three times the big blind, then on the flop, I’ll put out a bet of the same amount. When I bet these relatively small sums, I don’t put a whole lot at risk. If I get check-raised on a flop that I missed, I can fold without having lost a whole lot of chips. Most of the time, however, my opponents will have missed the flop, so my small bet will win me the pot right there.

While I prefer to put out continuation bets on most flops, there are some situations where checking is the right play. For example, say I raised with K-T and was called by the big blind. The flop of A-J-2 gives me a gutshot straight draw. I know my opponent in the hand likes to check-raise on top pair. When he checks to me on the flop, I’m happy to check behind and have the free draw to the nuts. If my opponent hit something like two-pair, I could double up if the Queen comes on the turn.

I also like to check the flop in hands where I’m either very far ahead or very behind. Say I raise pre-flop in late position with pocket Kings. The flop comes A-J-3. Here, my pair of Kings is either very far ahead (if he missed completely or has something like pocket 5s) or is very far behind (if he hit an Ace). In a spot like this, I don’t want to get check-raised and I don’t want to just give up, so I’ll often check the flop and then call a bet on the turn. I can then try to get a read on my opponent if he bets the river. The worst thing I can do in this sort of situation is to put out a big bet on the flop and then call an all-in check-raise.

As with every aspect of poker, it’s vital that your continuation bets don’t become predictable. If you check every time you miss and bet every time you make top pair or better, then you’re opponents will know exactly how to play against you. They’ll be able to bet any pair with total confidence. So occasionally, you’ll want to check when you hit top pair on the flop. Your hand will be disguised and you’ll stand to win a big pot if you hit trips on the turn. Showing that you can sometimes check a good hand will keep your opponents off balance.

It’s a good idea to put out frequent continuation bets, but also be sure to look for spots where a check may be to your advantage. If you’ve got a draw or hold a hand that will be difficult to play for a raise, a flop check may be your best play. Also be sure to mix up your play - being unpredictable is vital to playing winning poker

Posted by The General

Playing Small and Medium Pocket Pairs

Ring Game Play

In ring games, I like to build a really small pot when I have these hands in early and middle position. Sometimes I’ll make a min raise; other times I’ll just limp in. I want to keep the pot small when I have a small or medium pair because I lay them down if I’m faced with a large re-raise.

If I min-raise or limp in and an opponent makes a small raise, I can call, but if I open with a big raise and my opponent comes over the top, I’m not usually getting the right odds to call. By keeping the pot small, I have a better chance of seeing a flop and I may pull other players into the hand. Then if I do flop a set, someone’s going to pay me off. To me, the biggest moneymakers in No-Limit ring games are small sets, like 2s and 3s, because they’re so disguised.

A lot of players get overly aggressive with the middle pairs: 8s, 9s, and 10s. They raise before the flop with them, but if the blinds fold, they’re only going to win a small pot. I’d much rather try to win a big pot by flopping a set. If the flop comes J-8-2 and I have pocket 8s while my opponent has a hand like K-J, I’m going to win a big pot a lot of the time.

If I’m in late position and have a small or medium pair, I’ll raise in hope of taking the blinds if nobody else has entered the pot. If one of the blinds calls, I’ll try to win the pot with a bet on the flop, but if both blinds call my raise, I’ll be more cautious. Against multiple opponents I’m trying to flop a set. If I don’t and there are several overcards on the board, I’ll check if it gets checked to me and I’ll probably fold if one of my opponents bets. If I’m in late position and someone in early position raises pre-flop, I’ll generally just call and hope to flop a set.

Tournament Play

In tournaments you have to treat small and medium pairs much differently that you do in ring games. You have to play them more conservatively because you can’t usually rebuy. In fact, I will often fold 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s under the gun in tournaments. In ring games, I always play these hands because of my implied odds. Even if I lose 15 of these hands in a row, I can always rebuy. In a tournament, if I lose five times in a row, it’s going to really hurt my stack.

How I play small pairs in tournaments often depends on the size of my chip stack. If I have a big stack and get dealt a pair of 3s or 4s, I might raise, hoping to win the blinds and antes. However, if I’m on a short stack and in late position, I might just move all-in.

In tournaments I try to stay away from middle pairs because they can cause big problems and tough decisions. Let’s say I call a pre-flop raise with pocket 9s and the flop comes 10-4-2. In a ring game, I would check and call or possibly check-raise trying to find out if my 9s were good. In a tournament, however, that’s scarier because you really have to be careful about the amount of chips you use to get this information.

My decision is easy when there’s an Ace or King on the flop, but when the flop is 10-4-2 and I’ve got pocket 9s, it becomes very difficult. You can’t fold every time, but you don’t want to get too crazy in these situations either. Middle pairs are so difficult to play that I notice that I often find my best tournament results come when I simply stay away from them.

The beauty of small and medium pairs is that they very rarely get you into trouble. However, when they do, it really hurts. When the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at this year’s World Series of Poker* got down to the last three tables, I opted to defend my blind with pocket 3s. The flop came J-8-3. My opponent and I got all our money into the pot, but as it turned out, he had pocket 8s. When you do flop set over set and you have the bottom end of it, you really get punished. But when that’s not the case - and it usually isn’t - you’re going to be in great shape.

Posted by The General

The Sit N Go (SNG) is online poker’s great gift to the aspiring tournament player. Prior to the SNG, final table experience was hard to come by. You could enter a dozen multi-table tournaments and never find yourself at a final table. Or you could make one or two, only to get knocked out in 8th or 9th place. Adapting to an ever-diminishing number of players at a single table is a crucial skill in tournament poker, and it’s a hard experience to find offline without investing a lot of time and money. Online, this experience is a mouse-click away. The SNG’s advantages are many. For starters, it’s low-cost, or even free. It’s also fun, and convenient: You don’t need to schedule it — a SNG starts every time the table fills up — and it’s usually over in less than an hour. It is the flight simulator of Final Table play, and mastering it should be considered mandatory homework for the serious student.

Now that you know why you should play, let’s look at how:

The most obvious difference between a SNG and a multi-table tournament is that when someone goes broke in a SNG, there isn’t someone waiting to fill their spot. Multi-table play consists mostly of full-table, ring game poker. But as players get eliminated from a SNG, the table gets shorter- and shorter-handed. This reduction in players basically serves to artificially raise the antes. For instance, say you are playing five-handed and the blinds are 100-200: You are paying 300 in blinds for every five hands, or 60 per hand. As soon as someone gets knocked out, you’re four-handed. Now you’re paying 75 per hand — a 25% increase — despite the fact that the blinds have remained the same. Accordingly, you’re forced to gamble more, or risk getting blinded out.

Since the size of the blinds relative to your stack size should always play a major role in you hand selection, I recommend starting out with pretty conservative starting hand requirements. This serves two functions: First, the blinds dictate that you play fairly tight early; the blinds are small and you are nine-handed, so they don’t come around as often. Second, this helps you establish a tight image, which you hope will pay off later when the blinds are high and you might really need a timely ante steal.

But there is another not-so-obvious reason to play tighter earlier and looser later: The payout structure rewards tight play. Most SNG’s pay 50% to first, 30% to second, and 20% to third. This payout structure dictates that you play for third. Why? Looking at the payout structure another way might help. Basically, the payout means that 60% gets awarded once you are down to three players, 20% gets awarded when you get down to two players, and the final 20% gets awarded to the winner. If you can just get to third, you get at least one-third of 60% of the prize pool, or 20%. You’ve locked up a profit, and you have a chance to win up to 30% more. It’s only now that you’re in the top three that your strategy should take an abrupt turn. Now it pays to gamble for the win. Let’s look at the numbers again: 60% of the prize pool is off the table, and moving up one spot is worth only another 10%. But move up just one more spot and it’s worth a whopping 30% extra — that’s three times more for first than it is for second. And with the blinds going up, gambling for the win is even more clearly the correct play.

I see many players employ a nearly opposite strategy. They figure they have nothing to lose, so they go for the quick double-up early. They take chances too soon when, in their view, there’s “nothing on the line”. Then, once they’re in the money, they tighten up, thinking about that extra payout for moving up a spot. If you start to rethink your SNG approach and adopt a “slow early, fast late” strategy, you will see an almost immediate improvement in your results.

Posted by TDD