Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Tournament

Poker Sit and Go Report: Playing Marginal Hands is Just like Scheduling a Reload
By Marty Smith 

Marginal hands in sit and go tournaments are quite simply the death of weak players. Before you begin to make the money in Sit and Go Tournaments, you need to know how to fold. Not being able to, is the single, biggest, critical mistake that MOST players make on a consistent basis. Yes, I wrote MOST players. In fact, their lack of discipline will often boost you to the money, but you need self control when it comes to tossing these hands yourself, as your opponents will go down one by one, playing the very hand that you correctly discarded.

The nature of Sit and Go Tournaments brings several key elements together that when understood and strategized, can easily build your poker bankroll by just playing these fascinating single table tournaments. These elements include an impatient player’s desire for action, an inexperienced player’s desire to limit his risk, and a semi-pro’s desire to make it to the money.

When you combine these factors with the potential of quickly multiplying your entry fee, predefined structure and playing time, and your superior knowledge of position and hand strength – you will consistently have the upper hand at every table you sit at. Read that again, please. Imagine that now – you can have an advantage at every sit and go tournament you participate. How can you pass this up?

To attain an acceptable win rate you need to start identifying hands that can get you into big trouble. By big trouble, I mean hands that can either win you a small pot, or lose you a big one. Need I remind you here, that if you lose a big pot in a fast tournament, your are offficially short stacked and hence, your options will be closing fast on you. It’s never inmpossible to come back from an early blow, but why put yourself in that predicatment? You don’t need to win the tournament in the first few hands, but you can sure lose it in the first few hands.

Here are a few of those hands I am referring to: A3s, KJos, Q9s, KQs, A9os, and QJs etc. Have you noticed a pattern here? They all look good right? However, they are not the best, and that is what can send you to the rail sooner than you like. It’s the delicate handling of greed and impatience that requires your inner strength to overcome and toss these cards more often than not. If you are an inexperienced player, you probably should never play these until you are in the money. Marginal hands lead to reload bonuses. Check out my free video series where these issues are dicussed and you can witness them in action, on real tables.

The midnight madness no-limit hold’em tournament at Full Tilt Poker is one of the most consistently high turn out tournaments in the online poker world. Every night, at twelve midnight eastern standard time, you can get in this tournament for only ten bucks plus the one buck administration fee (rake). But what’s so good about it? A few things make this tournament a profitable venture including the time of day, the buy in, and the attrition rate.

The time of day is significant here because the majority of would-be participants should really be in bed sleeping and getting proper rest for work the next day. However, it is also private poker time for a lot of those same players and staying up late is just a small cost for some enjoyment and privacy. On the other hand they may be heading into this tournament with the expectation of doubling up quickly or getting out and going to bed. If they do double up then they can bear down and play solid, and hopefully make the money or substantially more. – first place in this tournament is usually over $2,000US.

At ten plus one dollar entry fee, most players at Full Tilt can afford this tournament, even some of the poorest players ever to click the all in button. And they do show up in droves here, again partially because of the time and the low buy-in and potential a potential bankroll explosion for the average low limit player. Full Tilt also encourages some if the resident professionals to participate as well, like Michael Craig, Lee Watkinson, Lynette Chan and others. That actually sells the tournament better because all amateurs want to sit beside a pro at least once.

The best part of this tournament for those who think at least somewhat strategically is the outrageous attrition rate of the participants. The paid entrants deplete so fast that after the first hour, if you survive, you will be among the remaining third of the players eagerly waiting to divide up the dead money left by high risk – low blinds players. Several nights this week the tournament started with over 1,500 entrants and by the end of the first break was between 500 and 600.

With an attrition rate that quick, playing tight has more inherent value as a style of play and strategy because the eliminated players are simply building the prize pot for the remaining contenders. I mean that is how all poker tournaments work actually, but an expeditious exit rate certainly adds to your expected value in terms of deciding which tournament to play.

Well with so many ranked pros playing sit and go tournaments for a living now, turbos no less, there has been a movement to purely mathematical decision modules near the money and in the money. Colin Moshman brought a lot of this strategy to light in his sit and go strategy book released from two plus two last year. Even he though, pinpoints some drawbacks of using the independent chip model exclusively to make decisions. Those drawbacks may include your opponents skill and relative positions at the table in a given hand.

I think a lot of Colin Moshman’s success, and that of his readers, come from emanating his style during the high blind stages in sit and go tournaments. And yes there are equity decisions in this stage as well, but the pure aggression of it all, is what turns certain sit and go tournaments into relatively mathematical based games of chance. I mean, a lot of these guys just play turbo sit and go tournaments leading half the field orange and mzoned 20 minutes into the tournament. There just isn’t a lot of play there for bluffing or re-stealing when I bet at the flop is going to pot commit you anyhow.

There is simply more luck involved in turbo sit and go tournaments. So you can expect some high variance swings in your bankroll if you play these in the upper limits. Check some of these big-time players out on shark scope and you will see a drop of $100,000 to $200,000 is not unusual. Unless you can handle fluctuations as big as that, I would recommend you stick to sit and go tournaments under $100, and avoid turbos. This way your bankroll will build more consistently but also allow your opponents sufficient time to make those inevitable mistakes found in the lower levels.

There is caution to be taken at the bankroll building stage that may actually preclude you from playing this style of poker, and that would be the correct math for you. Not everything can be boiled down to simple math when your bankroll is considered too.

Yes, it’s good to know the numbers, it’s even better with a firm grasp of sit and go ICM. But you still have to take care of your bankroll while building that upward graph, not only an ROI percentage, but your education as well.

Some of the biggest challenges facing sit and go players while bankroll building and getting to learn the game has nothing to do about the game at all. It has everything to do with controlling your emotions at the table and not letting them inject into your decision-making. You know no limit hold them is one of the easiest games to learn, but as you have no doubt discovered it is one of the most difficult to make a profit long term.

I say that with a bit of apprehension because really with a bit of training and a lot of emotional control it’s actually easy to make consistent profit playing sit and go tournaments online. The truth of the matter is though, that the large majority of online players lose money in sit and go tournaments. If you don’t believe me, the next table you sit at queue up all of your opponents on sharks scope and see the red ink for yourself.

So if winning sit and go poker tournaments is so easy to learn, then the problem in losing money must inherently be derived from lack of emotional control.

This is truly one of the key facets to poker psychology that comes into play because it’s one of the first tests you are going to be facing while playing online day after day. It essentially requires you to continually ask yourself – “Can I compete and learn in this game while controlling my emotions?” That answer lies in your poker account. Is your cash going up or down? Are you reloading or are you using other players money? Are you making the right decisions at game critical intersects?

Lack of emotional control leads to poor decision making and invariably, costly mistakes. It doesn’t matter if you get lucky. It doesn’t matter if you suck out. It doesn’t matter if somehow you still make the money. If you press that all in button for any reason other than tactical strategy, your mistakes will become more and more glaring and more and more expensive.

Emotional control can be learned with experience, attentiveness, reflection, and a burning desire to improve. I mean have you ever seen Gus Hansen lose it at a table? Like him, and most other professional players, you must first recognize how emotions are a part of your game, and then learn to use them to your advantage.

You may know from my previous articles that I am not a proponent of bluffing in online poker games, especially in the lower limits. However, I have never stated that bluffing is wrong, only that it requires a high level of skill, timing, and exceptional opponent profiling.

There is a vast difference in the styles of games played from limit to hi limit to turbo sit and go styles, that should make you think twice about bluffing because if done with out due thought process you are likely to get caught and as we all know one single pot can make a huge difference in the outcome of the whole tournament.

There are many players simply immune to bluffing, and will call you even if it doesn’t make sense to you that they called. For instance you may be moving up the level to say like 10,20 even $50 sit and go tournaments and find that players at that level called just as much as they do at the one and two dollars sit and go tournaments. While a lot of that has to do with the math of the game. You have to remember that a lot of those $50 sit and go players are multi-tabling, and have no time whatsoever for your bluffing plays. They will simply look at the situation as a mathematical equation to determine if you have it or not – at least on a long term basis. That’s how they make their money.

To that end I would completely avoid blatant bluffing in turbos, with hole cards that give you no chance to win if you do get called. You at least have to limit yourself to semi-bluffing when your opponents are skilled math players. You will know if they are if they are multi-tabling while playing at your table as well.

In saying that I do find the best opportunities for bluffing are against tag players in the low to middle levels of sit and go tables, such as the $5, $10, and $20 tournaments. If you aren’t using a poker calculator to determine if they are attacked player then I recommend you use a service like sharkscope to help you to that end. The tags usually have a steady uphill graph of consistent, decent profits. Tags will also try and take betting away from you, and the best way to get beyond that and don’t play them is to put them to a decision for their whole tournament in particular when they have a lot to lose and they haven’t yet reached the money.

Another time there is a good opportunity for sit and go bluffing is when you have a monster stack and the tournament is one off the money with four or three players left depending on the size of your table. If you get a player raising in to you and are holding cards with potential like suited connectors, paint cards, Ax of Kx suited, that could also be a great opportunity to win a sizable pot and get a cautious player to fold the better hand.

Be a Sit and Go Mutual Fund Manager
By Marty Smith 

Successful online single players realize that one of the biggest hurdles to their success was to learn how to properly manage their bankroll, while at the same time building their skills. It’s an often hard lesson to learn and for most of us tested our resolve time and time again, until really understanding and role management sunk in deeply enough to have an impact on our game.

But managing a bankroll doesn’t necessarily come naturally when it comes to online poker. The fun and excitement of it all tends to get minds a wondering, and hopes a leaping, even for the most conservative of characters. Maybe though, we should think of ourselves as more conservative characters, like the blue suits who manage money every day as a way of life. Can we not take some lessons from market players who manage millions of dollars?

Think of yourself as an investment banker or mutual fund manager. Those professionals will only use a small portion of the money they manage and put it into higher risk opportunities. That doesn’t mean high risk opportunities, it means managing investments properly with an inherent amount of risk and reward scenarios thoroughly analyzed.

They manage for long-term, annual returns. If you take this further and think about it, if you’ve ever seen a wildly high return percentage advertised for a mutual fund like 33% or something like that, then you pretty much know it was a fluke and that there is likely no way that fund is going to repeat that percentage the following year. You don’t trust it. The same should be said for a poker player who makes it big early on in his online endeavours. You can’t trust him to repeat it – because you know it is a fluke. He is a fish, burning to give it back.

There are bankroll management programs available online some of them free that can help you to this end. Using one of them can make your thinking process much more professional in terms of how you handle your online poker accounts. How often do you think a mutual fund manager says things like, let’s let the whole thing right on this one stock I got a good feeling. I’m feeling really lucky about this stock, let’s go for it. Let’s just try and double up or get the heck out of its business. Let’s move up because what we’re doing so far isn’t working.

If the sound familiar you might not need a new poker book as much as you need an investment manual.

If you are like me, then you play a lot of a multi-table sit and go tournaments online. They are really great in terms of keeping your time spent in tournaments confined to segments, that don’t intrude on as much of your time as the open multi-table tournaments. There have been many times when I wanted to play a tournament by only had maybe three hours maximum. In that sense, I look to the 90 seat or 180 seat sit and go tournaments that you can find at poker stars and full tilt poker.

It’s in these tournaments that I’ve also noticed something else about the final table. That is of course when make the final table. The thing is I in the habit of profiling my opponents all the way through every tournament I play, so when I do make the final table. I know what kind of players I come up against. Oddly though, once you do get to the final table, you may find like I do, is that the majority of your opponents put on their best TAG suit and step up to the game.

I even find this when leading up to the final table, a good number of your opponents actually had different profiles ranging from gambler, to elephant, to eagle. So why all of a sudden, when the final table convenes do players change their colors? Is it mostly because the tag players are the ones who have survived throughout the tournament or do players get serious enough about the game that they actually changed their profiles to adapt to game conditions?

I think it’s a combination of both really. Last final table I was at there was one rock and eight TAG players. Even though was only a four dollar hundred and 80 players sit and go tournament, by the time I got to the final table, my opponents were playing like professionals. Virtually all the pots were heads up, there was pre-flop raising. There was post-flop aggression, and there were sensible critical game plays that led to four living or re-raising with very few hands going to the river.

I liken this to what Dan Harrington refers to in his no limit hold them series, in that a player must change his style of play. Based on the conditions of the tournament, no matter what his natural or comfortable playing zone really is. It’s the same way in the sit and go tournaments, you generally have to become tight aggressive when the blinds become so astronomical that there’s just no more room to play around, like you might’ve been leading up to the final table.

And don’t forget even though these are low buy-in tournaments, a lot of the players at final tables at these levels never been to a final table before, and although the winnings modest, they could be rather significant to your opponents bankroll. So be surprised. Next time you get to the final table that most of your opponents are strong TAG players, and they seem to know exactly what they’re doing.

Getting eliminated in a poker tournament is NEVER a good feeling, and the underlying idea is certainly to make it as deep as you can in every tournament you enter, but is that all there is to it? Of course you understand by now that poker is anything but a simple game, and tournament strategy requires even more layered thinking for long term success and profitability.

One of the most important factors when strategizing in poker tournaments is making the money. For some players, this isn’t actually that important as their bankroll is at a level of comfort having 50, 100 and even 200 buy-ins or more, waiting in their account for the next tournament. A lot of rounders and pros will play more aggressively in this situation because they want to make the money with a healthy stack.

For most online players though, this simply isn’t the case and making the money should be of paramount importance. The reason for this is because when you are actually building a bankroll, the best money to play with is that of your opponents, not your own. I call this OPM, or Other Players’ Money, and if you are just starting out in online poker, then OPM is your only way to long term success, save for extraordinary luck.

The only way to start using OPM is to do your utmost to make the money in every tournament you play. It may not be optimum play for a large payout, but in the low limits it does work for several reasons. Firstly, there are enough donkey playing fools in online poker that will essentially put you in the money by virtue of their impatient, ill advised aggression.

Secondly, the attrition rate in low limit tournaments is quick sometimes, that you can count on your actually entry fee to be worth at least double what you paid.

Lastly, you can count on making the money about 15 to 20 percent of the time, and no matter how you play, the math is on your side that you will make the final table often enough to earn those higher payouts, no matter how tight you play.

Now adopting this philosophy normally requires tight-aggressive Harrington style play, but it’s not so easy to stick to that style while witnessing the foolish players around you and their lucky, but growing stacks. Getting caught up in that though, means you are playing on your lack of emotional control, and not using a solid winning strategy.

It all comes down to numbers and probabilities. If you play tight aggressive, you will make the money often enough to build your OPM bankroll, and then play risk free forever more. Now, what do you really think is more profitable?