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It’s so simple…
And so obvious…
Yet no one seems to get it!
What’s this easy-to-use secret for beating Sit and Go tournaments online?
The answer is this:
PATIENCE.
I know… I know… you were expecting something more, um… “secretive”.
But the truth is, winning at Sit and Go’s is pretty damn easy. I find them easier than “real” poker games, actually.
And that’s why every time I turn on the computer these days I feel like a kid in a candy store… ready to clean out the amateurs at the poker room of my choosing.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
What I want to discuss here is why PATIENCE is so critical for Sit and Go success.
First, let’s get back to some basics. There are four types of poker playing styles:
When playing post flop, generally, if you did not hit a great flop which is 71% of your entire hand, you do not want to call bets all the way down to the river. The first thing you must do after the flop is to think back to what your opponents did pre-flop and how they have played other hands pre and post flop. You must think before you act and know that most players will be holding high cards or drawing hands if they continue past the flop. You must use all the information you have taken in to put your opponent on his hand.
After you think you know what your opponent has, you must figure out the number of outs you have. You must then understand the probabilities of hitting one of your outs, that would give you the winning hand. You can simply do this by deciding which cards would make your hand a winner and counting how many can possibly be left in the deck. For example, if you have 1 king there are 3 more kings left. If you have 2 hearts and 2 hearts are on the board then there are 9 hears left in the deck. Once you figured out the number of out, multiply this number by 4. This number is a rough percentage of your chances of catching one of your outs on the turn and river combined. Please read hand odds for more details. You should also know your pot odds. This will let you know if it is right to call a certain size bet. Knowing your outs and the amount of money in the pot is needed for this.
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PokerLetter.org: Your Online Poker Strategy Guide
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In poker you are pretty much playing one way or the other at the table,
but you should be doing both, and at different times. Many pros have a
reputation for being a specific type of player, but actually they are
mixing up their play and making their opponent misread their image.
One of the most important elements of poker is position. You must make
decisions based on where you are seated and where the button is. If you
are seated right after the button, you are in early position. This is
where you are most likely throwing away most hands. You do not want to
get involved with a mediocre hand like A10 and then have someone raise
big after you where you can’t call.
If you are seated on the button, you can be mixing up your play more.
Feel free to limp in or raise aggressively with mediocre hands. I like
to raise on the button with Ax. Most people will fold, and if you get a
caller you can usually raise them out after the flop because they think
you are holding a big pair. Be careful not to do this too often because
the better players know that the button is a good place to try and
steal.
You, like many other people, are dreaming of becoming a poker pro poker player. This may because you are unhappy with your job or you just think your good enough to hand with the current pros. Then there is the layed back lifestyle of working when you want to and being your own boss. I am not here to burst your bubble, but you really want to think about this before jumping into it. But we are here to help you out if that is what you think is best for you.
First off, forget everything you see on TV with poker. TV is going to give you a false since of reality.
To be a poker pro you obviously need to be an excellent poker player. You also need to have a nice size bankroll to begin playing with, and skills to be able to manage that bankroll. You must also be able to handle the bad beats and swings of the games that you “Will” have.
Now this is considered to be one of the most important factors if you are only thinking of becoming a pro. You must completely love the game! Not just like it, you must love it with a passion. If you do not totally love the game you will become miserable with your new occupation. You should be exited to get to the tables every day.
If you are not in love with the game this much, find another career.
The best semi-bluff (or the one with the best chance of winning the pot) is the flush draw semi-bluff. You raise with Ah-Qh, and the flop comes 3d-5h-9h. With two overcards and a flush draw, you can assume you have 15 outs out of the 47 remaining cards, making you 60% to hit with two cards to come. The problem is, you don’t have a hand yet. But since you might have a hand by the end, and you might not need a hand to win the pot, you might as well bet anyway. That’s the idea behind a semi-bluff.
There are no real required conditions to semi-bluff. All you need is a draw and a betting arm, but it can be boiled down to a science. What follows is an in-depth look at how to bet your flush draw on the respective streets and when to lay off and take a free card. I’ll discuss two different types of flush draw, the two-down and three-down types. Finally, I’ll discuss the betting once you have hit your flush.
First of all, I would suggest that you almost always semi-bluff with a two-down flush draw (when you have two suited cards in your hand along with two matching suited cards on the board). It accomplishes two goals in approximately equal proportions: getting money into the pot for when you hit your draw, and taking down the pot when your opponents fold to your semi-bluff. It is not well-advised to semi-bluff into more than 3 players because your chances of getting raised and isolated are much more present. When you do semi-bluff, your bet should be about half the pot, a reasonable bet. Remember that semi-bluffing is a combination of bluffing and value betting.
Tournament poker is one of the most exciting ways to play one of the most popular card games around. Since Jamie Gold won 12 million dollars at the 2006 WSOP, there is more incentive than ever to get involved in poker tournament play. One of the interesting things about poker tournaments is it provides myriad opportunities for implementing poker strategy. One thing you will have to understand to play tournament poker effectively is how to handle play on the button.
The button represents the player who is last to act in a given round of play. Acting last in a poker tournament gives you a tremendous advantage, as you will have information about how all the players feel about their hands (or how they want you to think they feel) before you act. What you do with this information can make all the difference in how you fare in the tournament.
When you are on the button, you should be willing to play more hands. This is because you are unlikely to be raised pre-flop since there are only the blinds to act after you, so you will rarely be forced to commit too many chips with a marginal hand. Additionally, if you do flop a strong hand, you will be in the best position to extract chips from your opponents, which obviously is a good thing in a poker game.
Badugi? What’s Badugi? Maybe you’ve heard it referred to as Padooki? Maybe not. Before getting into the rules of this poker game, if you haven’t heard of it, no worries; the game lived in relative obscurity unless you frequented play on the Asian continent. Now it is becoming a more and more popular poker variation the world over to conveniently accompany the monster explosion that the game of poker is.
If you’re interested in trying your hand at every poker game available, you’ve come to the right place for the basics; no history lesson, no crack-pot poker strategy scheme – the basics.
Badugi begins in a similar fashion to all poker games in which the players are dealt cards. Before the deal, one player will receive the dealer button and will post the small blind, the player to their left will post the large blind. (If no blinds are used, the player to the left of the dealer will bring in the action.) The dealer will deal four cards to each player.
After each player has received their four cards, a round of betting takes place. All players must place a bet equivalent to the large blind to remain in the game, raise the bet or fold. After all bets are equal, the dealer will offer players the
opportunity to discard any amount of their four cards that they choose, and take an equal amount from the deck.
All traded cards are discarded from the deck.
Many No-Limit Texas Holdem poker tournament analysts have called the all-in bet
“The Great Equalizer”. Pro players hate going all-in before the flop because it prevents them
from using any of their poker skills. Even the rankest amateur can give a pro fits if they are
not afraid to move all-in before the flop.
This idea is what gave rise to the Sklansky All-In System. A casino owner who wanted to let his
daughter enjoy the excitement of the main event of the World Series of Poker approached noted
poker author and theorist David Sklansky with a proposition. Unfortunately, the casino owner’s
daughter had never played poker before, not a situation anyone wants to be in before entering
the biggest poker tournament in the world. The casino owner tasked Sklansky to find the solution.
Sklansky had realized the power of the all in as an equalizer for some time, so he developed a
Texas Hold em system where the player would move all-in or fold before the flop according to
pre-determined guidelines. What made this system so ideal was that the player did not even have
to know the rules of poker to implement the system, and would allow them to hold their own with
any pro, even if they knew what the player was doing.
To win at poker, you need to be able to read your opponents. If you want to be follow in Jamie Gold’s footsteps and win the WSOP (World Series of Poker) or win any poker tournament for that matter, it’s not enough to just bet your good hands and fold your weak ones. You’ve got to be able to understand when your hand may not be great, but it’s good enough. You have to have an idea of when your opponents are strong and when they may be bluffing. You also have to try to mislead your opponents as to what your bets mean. One way to do all this is through a thorough understanding of betting patterns.
Much discussion of poker is dedicated to the idea of tells. A tell is some sort of clue a player may give other players as to the strength of their hand. Players try to look at an opponent’s eyes, hands or mouth, or even pay careful attention to what they may be saying in hopes of getting an edge. There is one tell that is very difficult to disguise in a poker game, and that is the betting pattern.
All players must bet at some point to win a poker tournament, so if you can understand an opponent’s betting pattern,
you have an edge on them up until one of you gets knocked out. A betting pattern relates to the way a player handles a certain type of hand. Some players in Texas Hold em always bet draws “on the come” putting in chips with a flush or straight draw before finding out of they are going to make it. Others make the minimum raise before the flop with aces.
Still others may bet big to protect a smaller pair, but less to get action with bigger ones. If you can determine one of these patterns, you have crucial information. And in a poker tournament, information is key.
The latest poker phenomenon has strictly been No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em.
You put in an entry fee and you play to get to that glorious final table for big money.
This form of poker has only really existed since the first World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas, back in 1970.
The other form of poker (and much more popular overall) is Limit Hold ‘Em.
The betting rounds are structured so that you can not bet any random amount at any time. The most common versions of the game are $3-6 or $5-10 limit.
What this means is that before the flop, you can bet $3 ($3-6 example). After the flop, you still can only bet $3.
During these first two rounds, if you decide to raise after a bet, it also can only be $3.
Most casinos or card rooms allow for up to four raises per round. The fourth card, Fourth Street, allows a bet of $6.
The raise structure is the same, meaning that you can only raise $6 after a bet.
The River card, or Fifth Street, has the same rules as Fourth Street.
This type of poker allows you to not lose everything on a single hand.
However, be warned! There are different pitfalls to this type of game.
You will be very tempted to chase your hand to the bitter end. It may work out for you. The operative word is may.
