Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Tournament

April 30, 2009

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – 10 Common Opponent Errors To Start Exploiting Today!

Filed under: Mark R Holland — Tags: , , — MarksEzineArticles @ 11:11 am

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – 10 Common Opponent Errors To Start Exploiting Today!
By Mark R. Holland

Single table online poker tournaments, popularly known as ‘Sit N Go’ tournaments are an increasingly popular form of online poker. Usually lasting around 1 hour and playing 3 places these tournaments are available at buy-in levels ranging from just $1 up to $1000! This article focuses on the lower buy-in Sit N Go poker tournaments and examines common errors made by the players you will find there.

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – Opponent Error #1 – Playing Too Loose Early

Many opponents will play far to many hands at the start of a Sit N Go – when the blinds are low. The most common error is to play ‘easily dominated’ hands such as an Ace with a small kicker. Playing only the best starting hands early conserves chips for the more important later stages. If your opponents are playing too loose early make sure you raise strongly when dealt a premium hand – they will be a great source of chips.

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – Opponent Error #2 – Multi-Way Pots and Position

Many opponents will enter a multi-way pot by calling a raise pre-flop with a medium strength hand during the early blind levels. This is a dangerous play with a medium pair (for example), these players will have no idea where they stand after the flop and may be out of position relative to the original raiser. Playing for set-value for a small pre-flop investment is one thing – but calling raises in multi-way pots is usually asking to lose a lot of chips.

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – Opponent Error #3 – Adjusting to Increasing Blinds

As the blinds increase and the number of players go down then adjustments to your starting hands are required. In the middle stages of a Sit N Go Poker Tournament your raising requirements need to go down the hands with which you can call a raise need to tighten up considerably. A common error would be calling a raise with a small pair – when the blinds reach 10% of your stack implied odds for this play disappear!

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – Opponent Error #4 – Bad Play From The Blinds

If you never defend your big blind your will quickly become short stacked in Sit N Go Poker. Conversely always defending will lead to being ‘trapped’ for a large pot sooner or later. Watch for opponents making errors at the extremes and balance your own play from the blinds – you need to put enough doubt in opponents minds as to whether they can steal from you without going over the top.

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – Opponent Error #5 – Understanding the Bubble

Many opponents will not understand the dynamic of bubble play in Sit N Go poker strategy. Errors come in various forms and include not being aware of stack size adjustments and calling all-in bets without premium holdings. Most of the profit in Sit N Go tournaments comes from correct bubble strategy. Make sure you check out resources such as the comprehensive strategy articles at ‘Sit and Go Planet’ to get a profitable edge in this area.

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – Opponent Error #6 – Understanding Chip Equity Models

The Independent Chip Model (ICM) is a key component of good Sit N Go poker strategy. This converts your chip stack into a dollar ‘prize pool equity’ figure. This figure is then used to compare your risk against reward for all-in confrontations at the bubble. Understanding ICM and adjusting correctly will give you a huge advantage in Sit N Go poker tournaments.

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – Opponent Error #7 – Playing ‘In The Money’

Once the bubble is burst in a Sit N Go poker tournament your opponents raising and calling ranges will also change dramatically. This in turn will affect how many hands you raise yourself. Correctly understanding the ‘In the Money’ strategy change will allow you to exploit your opponents weaknesses and move up the payout ladder.

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – Opponent Error #8 – Heads Up Battles

Once the blinds are more than 10% of your stack it is possible to play in such a way as to become ‘mathematically unexploitable’. Of course it is still possible to adjust to your opponents play, but using ‘Nash Equilibrium’ models will ensure you can not lose more than your share over time. Readers interested in this can search for the freely available Sit N Go strategy eBook ‘A Comedy of Errors’.

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – Opponent Error #9 – Playing Trap Hands

There are many adjustments in Sit N Go poker strategy that do not seem obvious to inexperienced players. One such area is ‘trap hands’. As the blinds increase and the number of players shrinks some hands become more or less playable. Examples include AK, Suited Connectors and Small Pairs. Make sure you understand the correct strategy adjustments for various levels and see those results improve.

Sit N Go Poker Strategy – Opponent Error #1 – Never Stop Learning!

Many of your opponents will get into routine of playing Sit N Go poker using the same old ideas and strategies. The real winners in these games are people who take the time to study, find the weakest sites and opponents and look for their own ‘leaks’ in addition to those of opponents. Sit and Go Planet is regularly updated with strategy articles for everyone from beginners to advanced players. Make sure you do not get left behind!

GL at the Tables,
Mark

Mark R Holland is an online poker pro, blogger and writer for high-quality poker sites. For great poker strategy articles and tips covering SNGs, Poker Tournaments and Satellite Qualifiers visit Online Poker Tournament Strategy Tips today!

April 26, 2009

Poker Sit and Go Report – The First or Third Strategy

Filed under: Marty Smith — Tags: , — Marty @ 6:52 pm

Poker Sit and Go Report – The First or Third Strategy
By Marty Smith

If you place in the money (ITM) in sit and go tournaments it means that you have risen above the average and defeated six or seven other opponents to get to the final three. An above average performance means that you reach the money more than 30% of the time. This is a result of simple math. Ten players at a table, only three make the money. Therefore, if you can place more than 30% of the time, you are above average.

When you have made the money though, and three of you remain, you want to do your best to make first place because of the number realities of sit and go tournaments. In a typical 10 seated tournament 1st place takes 50% prize money while 2nd gets 30% and 3rd gets 20%. There are different strategies for 6 seated, multi-step, and entry chip satellite sit and go tourneys but our focus here is on the traditional 9 or 10 seated STT’s.

Let’s say your main sit and go circuit is the 20+2 10 seated tournaments. First takes down $100, while second wins $60 and third wins $40. The thing is, no matter what your stack is when the last three players remain at the table, your overall strategy should be aggressive. Depending on your stack size, and your opponents, you should also consider a hyper-aggressive strategy. You see it’s all in the math.

In third place you have turned an $18 profit. In second place add another $20 bucks to that because your profit is $38. But if you finish first, you have cleared $78 in profit, a full $40 more than second and $60 more than third place. If you consider that the difference between second and third is only $20 but between third and first is $60, then your overriding strategy is clearly aggressive as strategizing to finish second (playing tight) is simply not taking advantage of the dynamic math in sit and go tournaments.

This is even more critical when you are the short stack when three-way action begins. I would be looking to move in when I am first to act with any hand in groups 1 through 6. That would include connectors, two gap suited connectors, low pairs, Ax, Kxs, and any two face cards. If your stack is critically low, then I move with anything if I am first to act. Yes, I said anything.

Now the times that you bust out in third with a foolish looking hand should be countered against those select times you double up and go on to win the tourney. If you have already made the money you have simply made a profit. However, if you finish in first, your bankroll gets a solid boost. You only have to finish first once in 5 times when you are ITM for this strategy to pay off. And it will. I can tell you how many times I have doubled up to come back and win a tournament pushing with hands like 97s, 33, K5s and other funky looking hole cards. In short, forget about second place, and go for it!

Marty Smith has been a winning player online for more than 3 years now and has video reviews of all the online poker calculators so you can see them being used before you decide which one is right for you. He also has some free poker videos that cover tournament strategy – free just for signing up at MZoneReport.com

April 24, 2009

Tournament Poker Strategy – 5 Key No Limit Hold Em Strategy Tips for Online Tournament Poker Players

Filed under: General, Mark R Holland — Tags: , , — MarksEzineArticles @ 7:00 pm

Tournament Poker Strategy – 5 Key No Limit Hold Em Strategy Tips for Online Tournament Poker Players
By Mark R. Holland

Which ever buy-in levels and number of opponents you choose todays online poker tournaments are tough to win. This article looks at 5 tips taken from the world of no limit hold em cash games. Using the strategies outlined will help players to build a big stack early in online poker tournaments, giving an extra edge when it comes to making the paying positions.

No Limit Hold em Poker Tournament Strategy Tip #1 – Manipulating the Pot Size

When playing with a deep stack (50 to 100 big blinds) it can pay to plan ahead for the pot size that you want. This can be applied to building a big pot for your monster hands and also to keeping the pot small when you have a good but not great hand.

When you have a monster hand such as a set you should actively focus on your opponents stack and make a plan for getting as many chips as possible by the river. Split the chips into ‘chunks’ and bet them in such a way as to keep your opponent in the hand. Ideally your last bet should be less than the size of the current pot – offering your opponent attractive odds to call on the river.

No Limit Hold em Poker Tournament Strategy Tip #2 – Defending Your Button

As stacks become shallow tournament play involves defending your blinds – as well as stealing those of others. When the stacks are deep at the start of a tournament you should instead focus on defending your button. The button gives you the advantage of acting last after the flop. Seeing what your opponents do before you act is a huge advantage that will enable you to pick up many pots, Make sure you defend the right to act last from the button and the seats before it.

No Limit Hold em Poker Tournament Strategy Tip #3 – Bigger Implied Odds

Deep stacked tournament play means bigger implied odds – that is the reward for hitting a monster hand will be large in relation to the percentage of your stack risked to hit it. This means you can play many hands such as small pairs and suited connectors early, even for a raise. If you hit the flop hard there are 3 more betting rounds to build a big pot. If you miss completely then the damage to your stack is limited to the small percentage from the initial call.

No Limit Hold em Poker Tournament Strategy Tip #4 – Using the ‘Call Bluff’

Deep stacks allow you to make many more post-flop ‘moves’. A profitable scenario can often arise when there is a draw on the flop. If you completely miss the flop after calling a raise but the flop contains (for example) 2 hearts then it can be profitable to call a bet after the flop. Your intention is to see what your opponent does when the turn hits. In this example if a 3rd heart falls and your opponent checks to you it is likely that you can take the pot down with a bet. The great thing about the call bluff is that you are not committed to follow through. If an ace falls on the turn and your opponent bets it is easy to fold and move on to the next hand.

No Limit Hold em Poker Tournament Strategy Tip #5 – Second Level Thinking

Second level thinking is a key component of hand reading in poker. This involves looking ‘through your opponents eyes’ at your actions and deciding what he thinks that your hand is based on the betting. You can then analyze your opponents actions based on what he thinks you have. For example if you decide that your opponent puts you on a weak holding he is more likely to be bluffing when betting into you on the river. Conversely if you have indicated strength that same bet may be with a monster hand.

GL at the Tables, Mark

Mark R Holland is an online poker pro, blogger and writer for high-quality poker sites. For great poker strategy articles and tips covering SNGs, Poker Tournaments and Satellite Qualifiers visit Online Poker Tournament Strategy Tips today!

April 22, 2009

Hold ‘em Tournaments are about people before cards

Filed under: General, Psychology — Tags: , , , , — MikeTheMavrick @ 2:19 am

For the elite players, it doesn’t matter what cards they get very much.  It matters what cards their opponents get, and what they’re doing with them, and what they’re going to do with them.  Phil Helmuth can get away with folding so many hands that math would dictate he “should call”. He gets rid of several hands in situations where he doesn’t want to risk a lot of chips, simply because he knows he can do better. Daniel Negreanu and Doyle Brunson do as well, but not to this extreme. Phil Helmuth might even over do it at times. But it puts him in position to do well.

Being able to see the players not only has the advantage of being able to get rid of a big hand when you know your opponent is strong by looking at them, but also your ability to be able to play a much weaker hand aggressively because you know your opponent is weak.  This has the added benefit of being able to pick up chips much easier, which will allow you to really take control of the game and keep up with the blind structure without requiring an all in. Because of this, a rare player like Phil Helmuth will be able to fold anytime he’s not absolutely sure he is in complete control of the hand.

He will play very tight, and when he does play, he will keep his bet very small, and he will still be able to fold his big hands. Of course, he might just raise someone because he senses weakness when he has nothing at all as well.

You will not see a guy like Phil Helmuth or Mike Matusow who rely heavily on tells win any big online tournaments at nearly the same rate of success as they does live. In addition to not being able to look in the face of their opponent, being able to intimidate them is not easy either. Also, because this lack of ability to pick up these extra small pots due to tells, they may actually not quite take the risk they need to, even though in a live tournament their play of folding would have been correct.

Don’t get me wrong, these are world class players, and just because they can’t look you in the face, doesn’t mean they aren’t any good. In fact, they’re very good.

One of the players who is successful live who also is able to dominate at nearly the same level online at least in tournaments is Daniel Negreanu. It makes sense because much of his ability to read people according to him has more to do with what he calls “detective work” and what he says is a lot less about physical tells then people might think. Negreanu also is excellent at adapting and understanding the structure and how it should effect strategy.

Now in online tournaments you can get away with playing the player and giving up big hands to the degree that you can focus. So if you pay attention to how players play, you will be able to turn unprofitable preflop hands into profitable ones based on the player, and you will be able to fold profitable hands, knowing that you can win more by giving the edges up.  But live you get physical tells as well, so live you can have a wider range of play. It’s incorrect to only say “you can fold more because you will be able to find better opportunities, as it is also incorrect to say “you can play more hands because you can win a higher percentage of those hands with loser risk and get paid off more by knowing your opponent”.

It depends on the situation.

In one tournament, you might realize the field is soft and the blind structure is slow, but you don’t think you have good implied odds, and you think your opponents are fairly decent that are left to act. Here you want to play fewer tournaments.

In another, you might realize that people are giving their chips away after the flop, but you know that the blind structure will rise and the field will get tougher, so you need to take a hand that you wouldn’t normally play but because you know if you hit you can get it all, and if you miss, you can still get a good read and see some more cards that it’s worth it and is available as an option.

Most of the time, if not almost all you want to attack what you see as weakness.

But even with this being said, what types of things do you look for in a live tournament? what types of indications do you get to adapt your play.

It’s an easy cop out to just tell you “poker tournaments are about people” it’s another thing to actually go into in depth ways to spot both live and online tells, and what sort of things to look for.

So that’s what this section is about.

We covered “the full tilt player notes classification system” Part 1 and 2.  That describes a system for classifying people online.

I like it because live you have plenty of odd characters and looking at people makes it easy to associate if they play like you would judge them to or not, and then just look at them and make a judgement… It’s another thing to look at username pokermike217y9 and decide how he places and seperate him consciously from mikepoker12180r, and pokermat2117 especially with empty virtual chairs looking back at you. Instead you vizualize a shape and a color. If that’s not bizarre enough for you, go ahead and come up with animals. A blue elephent a green tiger, whatever system you use is fine.

What this system will get into is quick tips on poker tells as well.

Say a player licks his lips, wipes off his palms and freezes before it’s his turn to act… do you know what it means? Do you have a guess that’s better than 50% correct? What about the player who wraps his legs around the chair, leans forward and hugs himself after the flop.

You are going to learn some very cool tricks. If you don’t know about poker tells, and you’re playing live, you have no clue what you’re really missing.eye_1.jpg

April 17, 2009

21 Bankroll Management Tips- The Life or Death Decision of Your Potential Future Poker Career

Filed under: General, MTTs — MikeTheMavrick @ 4:45 pm

I want to do a section on bankroll, but it’s not ready yet. I have a lot to do, and I really want to have it all ready before I launch it. Anyways, it’s important enough that I need to provide at least one long post on bankroll… it’s probably the most under rated aspect of poker….

I will tell you in details about 2 friends of mine. One of them is in serious debt, the other is now very successful and hasn’t worked in the last 2 years because of his success.

Both started at the same ability, and in fact, The person who is in serious debt is probably the better player because he’s played at higher stakes, but he is in much worse shape financially. But the bottom line is, the successful friend did only one thing different. He managed his bankroll better in poker and in life. He was willing to delay gratification in order to provide stability, and he focused on the long term result, rather then making the quick buck.

I will get into more specifics later in the bankroll section, but for now just keep in mind that bankroll management is the most important decision you make every single time you decide to play.

95% of players go broke at some point. It’s no suprise that the top 10% of players have probably 80% of the money.

In learning lessons from my two friends, I look back at the route my friend took, and some people he knew who also took the same route and ended up successful.  These tips are not required, but if you want to have long term success, I think that this route is probably a VERY good one to follow.

1)Have a job until you can prove to yourself you can succeed. (better yet, consider building a busines on the side while you work)

2)Find freelance jobs (freelance sites like elance, and freelancer, getafreelancer, rentacoder, etc) that can eventually replace earned income of a job if you ever will need to come up with some cash. If you choose to build a business, this is a great “backup” in case your business does not earn enough on autopilot.

3)Save up 6 months of money in expenses

4)Play 1% bankroll risk per tournament until you can prove yourself some success… move up to 2% but you should generally not exceed that much unless you create other forms of income.

5) Leave yourself outs by having ways to cut back if you should need to. I’m not one for living frugally, but I am certainly one for giving yourself the option to cutback dramatically and do so if you need to.

6)Track results and tweak until you get the results you want.

7)Find out how often you have to play WITH your job… If you have 2 hours a day and you normally would spend 8 if you quit, you should make at a bear minimum on a bad month 1/4th of the cost of your expenses.

8)Determine based on your results over several months and thousands of hands if you can at least cover 1/4th of your expenses

9) If you complete 8, take a leave of absense without pay, try taking a part time job, see how you handle maybe 4 hours instead of 8. If that works out, quit your job and take a part time job

10)Simulate by paying for half your expenses now since you must make enough to pay at least half because you are playing 4 hours instead of 8 like you would if you quit your job…

11)Take a leave of absence from your part time job to make sure fatigue doesn’t prevent you from succeeding.

12)Continue to play, freelance if you need to to come up with bills, or until you’re making more per hour playing poker than you are freelancing, this will build your bankroll faster.

13) Show your tracked results and try getting backed to play in one big tournament per month, with the same percent bankroll mix. If you pay $10 per tournament, you might put up $10 and your backer might put up $90, and you might agree to take 15% of the winnings. This way you can leverage your results and increase your skills and experience against a tougher field.

14) Find someone with hundreds of tournaments of results and consider backing him to free yourself up some time. Start very small risking less than 1% until you know he will pay you, and he proves the results. If he wins/cashes 30% of the time, 3/10, make sure you don’t pay for more than maybe 20 tournaments. If someone is supposed to have cashed 6 times and they have not won once, that’s a little too unlikely to spend any more time.

15)Once you find someone that is successful and that does pay you and has proven himself, continue to back him, and increase backings up to 1%. Once you have several people thtat you trust, consider backing the best of them to 2%

16) consider other investments that pay to provide additional stability and free your time so you can do the things you want to in life

17) invest money in improving yourself

18)invest money in anything that may improve your results as a backer, or improve your results as a player (if you decide that you will keep playing)

19) Invest in paying off bad debt such as credit cards, mortgages, or investing in your own home and paying off the mortgage so you can elliminate the living expenses of rent/mortgage, aand more comfortably take on more risks.

20)If you have not done so already, try investing maybe 5% in a business of some sort. If you have all your expenses and then some coming in from business, you could even be a losing player and still survive. This will allow you to take on much larger bankroll risks and do the things you want such as play in the world series of poker (while wearing your business log on your had and shirt to advertise. If the business is really successful, you can increase the leverage on your money and actually go into debt provided you have a history of getting back a higher return then the interest you put into the business.

21) Live life to it’s fullest

21 things not to do include playing beyond your means, borrowing money on a credit card, taking on two jobs to pay for your mistakes, and many others that you obviously dont want to do. You might think “oh it’s only one game” but if you do it once, trust me, you won’t be able to be in control. You must make conscious rules and consistently stay by them. I hope to cover a lot more about all the bankroll building tips, bankroll management tips, and advice on creating what I call “bankroll outs” the things the can bail you out if you should mess up and your bankroll is gone.

I will let you know when the bankroll section is available, but for now, don’t expect another post on it until then.

April 16, 2009

On – Line Poker Tournament Strategy – 5 Ways to Move Beyond Playing Just Your Cards

Filed under: General, Mark R Holland — Tags: , , — MarksEzineArticles @ 7:01 pm

On – Line Poker Tournament Strategy – 5 Ways to Move Beyond Playing Just Your Cards
By Mark R. Holland

In order to win a multi-player on-line poker tournament you need both good cards and good fortune. However these two factors are rarely enough on their own. The very best tournament players take many situational factors into account – each of which can improve their chances of winning.

This article looks at 5 important factors other than the strength of your cards (or those of your opponents) and suggests how they can help you to win that on-line poker tournament.

On-line Poker Tournament Strategy Tip #1 – Stack Size Factors

Good on-line poker tournament players stay aware of their stack size and the stack sizes of all of their opponents. Players with large stacks are more likely to raise with weaker cards, while small stacks may be desperate and go all-in with any reasonable holdings.

A useful way of assessing how desperate small stacked players are feeling is to calculate how many more rounds of blinds and antes they can survive before busting out. Watch out for players with less than 3 rounds to go – they will be looking for an opportunity to gamble!

On-Line Poker Tournament Strategy Tip #2 – Your Table Image

Do the other players at the table consider you tight? Playing only string holdings or loose and wild? If you are lucky enough to be dealt several good hands in a short period of time then the other players impression of you might change. In this case raising with a medium strength hand may not be the optimal play as someone will be waiting to play back at you. Conversely if you have endured a run of bad cards you can use this to your advantage – a tight image could allow you to pick up a pot with a well timed bluff. Awareness of your own table image is an important aspect of on-line poker tournament strategy.

On-Line Poker Tournament Strategy Tip #3 – Passive and Aggressive Tables

The amount of risk that you are willing to take to accumulate a big chip stack in any on-line poker tournament can be influenced by the overall dynamic of the table. If most pots are raised and aggressively contested you might want to wait for a large edge (good cards) before you enter a pot. However some tables are far more passive, lots of small pots going to the first person to bet into them. If this is the case the number of small pots you can win mean that you do not have to take as many risks in bigger pots in order to accumulate chips. Decide where the chips will come from at each table and adapt your on-line poker tournament play accordingly.

On-Line Poker Tournament Strategy Tip #4 – Playing the Players

Watch the players at your table closely. Note those who are capable of folding after they have entered a pot and those who will always go to showdown. If possible make sure you know which players like to bluff and which ones like to slowplay big hands. Standard bet sizes for each player are an important element – especially when that player bets a different amount to normal. Try to work out what each bet size means and you will be playing the players and not the cards!

On-Line Poker Tournament Strategy Tip #5 – Proximity to the Bubble

The effect of being close to the paying places can be different for each player. Some people will become very tight and ensure that they make the money spots before playing any more big pots. Others will try to use their big stacks to ‘bully’ the other players and accumulate chips. Being aware these changes can help you pick up those important chips as the bubble approaches in your on-line poker tournament.

GL at those on-line poker tournament tables

Mark R Holland is an online poker pro, blogger and writer for high-quality poker sites. For great poker strategy articles and tips covering SNGs, Poker Tournaments and Satellite Qualifiers visit Online Poker Tournament Strategy Tips today!

The Ugly Truth of Sit and Go Poker Bankrolling

Filed under: Marty Smith — Tags: , — Marty @ 6:58 pm

The Ugly Truth of Sit and Go Poker Bankrolling
By Marty Smith

I played a full slate of sit and go games over the weekend at Full Tilt, Poker Stars, and Cake Poker. I am happy to report that I made upward trends in the bankroll at each website, but not without the usual frustrating bad beats and random coolers getting in the way on occasion.

The good thing about bad beats is that someone has made an error playing against you, so really, they are bound to give their winning back simply because of indisputable laws of poker math. Poor decisions will result, over time, in losing money. However, the poor decisions do not necessarily start at the table. As I found while playing this weekend, table buy-in and competition is your first big decision.

You can view the lobby of a sit and go tournament while it is filling up, so when I play the $20 and $30 buy-ins I sharkscope my opponents before I commit. There was one 9 seated $30 table that had 4 players patiently waiting for 5 more entries. I scoped each one of those players to find they were all sharks with rounder style graphs reaching for the sky – all four of them I am not kidding. Even when I play my best, these guys know how to adapt and exploit my weaknesses to the point it made no sense for me to join that table. In fact, I think at least two of them should have reconsidered playing that sit and go. I mean why seek out the toughest competition? So that was a good decision for me.

In joining other games that day at these levels however, the above example was actually rare. I researched every opponent I had that day and found that the majority of players were playing above their bankroll. How do I know this? Well sharkscope does offer information like ROI%, but it also shows total profit and from there it’s easily discernible that a player sitting down at a 30 buck sit and go table with a lifetime earnings negative $338 simply shouldn’t be there.

At $20 and $30 sit and go tournaments your bankroll should be at least $500, To me a $1,000 is probably more like it, especially if your skills aren’t up to par with a bankroll you may have padded with a “fortunate” win.

Here are some other observations of random players I saw at these tables:

Total profit of $112 over 2,354 games.

Total profit of (negative) -$3,225 over 1,821 games.

Total profit of (negative) -$1,003 over 231 games.

It went on and on. Is it any wonder then that the majority of players lose money playing online poker? You simply are not giving yourself a chance to win in the long run, by playing tables higher than your bankroll allows. Astoundingly, at least 4 of every 9 players at at each table I searched over the weekend were there above their bankroll and long term losers at sit and go tournaments.

Marty Smith has video reviews of all the online poker calculators and produces tournament strategy videos that are free just for signing up.

Sklansky’s Gap Concept, and is it Still Relevant

Filed under: Marty Smith — Tags: , , — Marty @ 6:55 pm

Sklansky’s Gap Concept, and is it Still Relevant
By Marty Smith

The Gap Concept is a widely understood principle amongst professional poker tournament players that figures this way, “you need a better hand to call a raise with than you would need to open the betting yourself”. For a simple example, if I am in middle position with AJs, and it has been folded to me, this is a good raising opportunity. However, holding the same hand on the button, facing a good sized raise from early position, this would generally be a fold, save for other conditions.

This well known concept was introduced, and extensively discussed in David Sklansky’s classic poker book, Tournament Poker for Advanced Players. Since that publication however, the poker tournament world has dramatically exploded. Huge prize tournaments are ruled now by players seemingly willing to risk their whole tournament on inferior hands, or courageous/foolish bluffs. If you play in any tournament online you will know that 90% of the players would play AJs, and play it hard in the above situation.

So can you be competitive in a contemporary tournament applying the Gap Concept? Well, yes, and no. In the early stages of a tournament where a three-times-the-blind raise still isn’t that significant to the stacks, quality starting hand raises are going to get called by many players. The pros often do this, as a way of actually seeking out contentious confrontations while relying on their post flop play to take you off an often better hand. In fact, they want you to be ahead pre-flop, knowing that the odds of you hitting the flop are far less, than them being able to outplay you. This gives further credence to the Dan Harrington style super-tight play early on, which gives you the advantage of having the best hand preflop and post flop, making decisions much easier for you in later rounds.

That situation however, requires you to play a long-ball style of game, being rather predictable. It’s not a poor, or even ineffective strategy by any means, but a sure pick-off for bluffs, and limiting small pots.

So when applying the David Sklansky’s Gap concept to your play, there are definitely other considerations to take into your counter-play adjustments. One of the major factors to is who you are actually playing against. What is the table collective on the tight/aggressive scale? What type of player are you up against? Is he maniac like, and how many times has he raised? Is it a standard late position steal?

The stage of the tournament also dictates strategy changes that rank of desperation. For example, against a short stack coming in with an all-in raise from late position, I would consider calling with many more hands than normal, even if I figure to be an underdog. I just want to avoid being dominated here, not at all the normal Gap Concept restrictions.

Another time I consider calling raises is when I am holding mid pairs and suited connectors when I am late in position, and the pot has terrific odds. When I say terrific odds, I mean a minimum six to one. That way, it will be a profitable play, for the early stages.

In short, consider applying the gap concept in the early stages of the tournament and against known professional poker tournament players. You don’t want to get caught in a post flop guessing game against them.

Marty Smith has been a winning player online for more than 3 years now and has video reviews of all the online poker calculators so you can see them being used before you decide which one is right for you. He also has a tournament strategy video series that is free just for signing up.

April 15, 2009

Texas Hold ‘em Poker Tournament quick tip: Be Flexible

Filed under: General — MikeTheMavrick @ 1:15 am

In a Texas Hold ‘em Poker Tournament, the most powerful person at a poker table, is the person who is the most flexible.

Not only does a person of great flexibility have the ability to choose between many more options and do so gracefully, and correctly, but this person also has the ability to come up with his own creative options.

A flexible player can not only use many more tools, forms of ammo, methods of attacks, but he also can invent his own way of attacking, and adapt to what doesn’t work.

Look at the great Texas hold em tournament poker players. There are players of many different styles that play differently in different games, but the great ones are flexible. The most flexible player that stands out in my mind is Phil Ivey. He will step into a table, size it up, and adapt. He may have a style that seems out of balance, and if you study enough hand histories, you think you can exploit him. But he only has tendencies because he does what works, if it stops working, he’ll adapt.

Mentally, they’re flexible too. Any great poker player, or great athlete, or great inventor, knows there are no real failures, there are only learning experiences and opportunities of gaining insight. Once you fail enough, you find out what doesn’t work. Poker is a little bit more random, but the flexibility to reframe a situation into a positive light is a trait of successful people.

Learn to be flexible, and you should find not only will your results in holdem poker tournaments improve, but your ability to improve and gain insight will increase at a faster rate.

April 9, 2009

Art Of The Resteal

Filed under: General, MTTs — Tags: , , , , , , — MikeTheMavrick @ 11:11 am

The Resteal is a great move if your steals aren’t working.  They work much better if your chip stack is such that either you’d be forced to call an all in with a reraise, or if your opponent rereraised your reraise, he would be committed to the hand, and forced to call a rerereraise all in.

When you have 10-22 big blinds, you want to consider looking for a spot to resteal, except your resteal is going to have to basically be all in.  The more chips you have, the better your hand range needs to be. You can move in most of your chips and leave some behind if you think it will make it look like you want action, or for psychological reasons, but it pretty much is all in or fold if you’re faced with a raise.

But also, when you have 55-150 big blinds you want to consider the resteal as well.  Your opponents may push over your reraise, but if they do, the push will be big enough that you can get them back later when the blinds are higher and you have a big enough hand to call an all in.  As you get above 80 big blinds, the resteal works but for different reasons. Now rather than your opponent being in a spot where if he reraises all in the bet is too big, but if he reraises small he’s committed to calling an all in… instead your opponents rereraise gives YOU the ability to move all in on the by putting in the last 4th all in bet, without your bet being too large. And now he’s forced to call or fold.  The difference is, your push isn’t going to be overly larger than his rereraise.

The way it works is generally when you have the amount of chips where a resteal makes sense, usually making a regular steal doesn’t, and vise versa. You still might make a steal knowing that you’re pot committed to calling an all in or knowing that your opponent can move in with a reasonable reraise all in.  But in this case, you will have a big hand a much higher percentage of the time. If you havd 15 big blinds, a standard 3 or 4 times the big blind raise is going to be too large because your opponent can move all in on you, and you will have to fold too many hands to be able to make up for what you lose by calling.

You have to always be thinking about how your opponents might counter you. You don’t want to give them the ability to move all in, unless their move in is too large to make sense. If they are likely to make a too large of an over raise anyways, you can reraise less often,and do so when you have more chips.  That’s not to say you won’t ever reraise when you have 35 big blinds, just that when you do, you almost always have a big hand that you can call an all in with. Sure some opponents might figure it out, but there’s ways to counter that.

Again you need to apply game theory.  So if you reraise and you are rerereraised, you ahve to be able to move all in 1/3 or 4 times so you can win everything back and then some.  

Ideally you don’t want to have to move all in on a resteal, so you want to resteal when you have 50-150 big blinds. If your opponent would steal to 3 big blinds, you would resteal attempt to maybe 9, and your opponent would reresteal to 27.  But if you have 50 big blind, his raise is actually risking significantly more, as if you had 50, you could push in, and he would HAVE to call you.  You are making him risk a lot more than 27, without realizing it.  But if he pushed in from 9 to 50 big blinds, the raise would be a larger raise. This is even more true if you both have 70 big blinds. You should generally play tighter when you will be in the position where you will either have to call an all in, or move all in when your opponent will have to call. You won’t have any fold equity if your opponent decides to play aggressively. But if you have 80 big blinds or so, you have some fold equity, and when you have a big hand, you can still get your opponent pot committed by making a small raise that he almost has to call, and after the flop he’ll have invested too many chips where he’ll be pot committed. The idea is the more that you can stand to win when faced with aggression, the more hands you can play profitably.  Note I say CAN not must.  This is true for raises as well. On the other hand, when you get more short stack you are more desperate to get chips, but you also have less ability to do so.

But it’s important you understand all of this and also you will want to vary the size of your reraises so you won’t get put in an akward position, you can actually reraise with 200 big blinds or more if you just make your reraises larger. you could simply reraise to 15 big blinds, and move in over a rereraise.

A lot of the concepts of reraising are still the same, you generally want to be able to get away with it without risking much, but when you do have a hand, you are able to get a lot more chips.

But you will need to not only vary the size of your raise, but also the strength of your hand that you reraise with.  For example…

With over 80 big blinds, you can reraise with more hands, because if you are rereraised, you can fold, and then just move in when you ahve a hand.  In addition if you are called, you have better implied odds.  The idea is you will be able to fold 3 times, rereraise on the 4th, and make up for everything you lost and then some. So you make it 9, they make it 27, and you fold 3 times, and then on the 4th, you move in and make 27 getting everything back, plus the blinds. When the move is all in, your opponents can’t call.

On the other hand, when you have 50 big blinds, if you raise, your opponent can reraise to 27, but your rereraise to 50 is going to force him to call with any two because of the pot odds.  So now you need to make sure that you have a stronger reraise hand range, because your only equity is in calling the all in, or moving all in and your opponent calling.  In other words, there’s no value in your opponnt folding after he puts in another raise over the top of your reraise.In addition, if he does move in, his all in is significantly more reasonable than the all in you’ll face if you both have over 80 big blinds.

In general, don’t put over 15% of your stack on the line without a big hand ever*.  We will talk about exceptions, but that’s a good rule of thumb, and usually you want to aim for maybe 7% of your stack as it will generally put you in the best situation.

Of course when you are reraising you need a much stronger hand than when you raise.  We will tak about this in the next post.

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