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Making negilible amounts of money ;-)

AKQ

Entry posted by AKQ

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Well things have taken an interesting turn over the last few days. If you have read my first entry you will know about the whole $50 withdrawal/deposit farce, and you should also know about the $4 left over.

Now the good thing about the $4 is that I know I can't do anything about it, not until I either lose it in a tourney, or I win lots and get it up to the minimum withdrawal of $50.

So I have entered in the odd low-stakes SnG without any sort of pressure really. I wouldn't mind too much about a bad beat or finishing just outside the money, but things have been better than that.

The first few I entered, I broke even. I finished 5/9 in one, and 2/6 in the other. But a slight change in strategy put paid to the inconsistency.

You see on the play money tables with 7 players left lets say, you could get dealt a good hand like Ace-Queen on the button. So you gotta raise. Trouble is, lesser players on the play-money tables don't respect you or your potential hand, so they call, sometimes with absolute crap like 10,6 off suit. Then you're in big trouble if the flop comes 10,7,3 or biiiiiiig trouble if it's A,10,6.

I'm not saying it always does, bt generally when ou raise big with 5/6 other opponents, you still get 3/4 callers, and thats two many.

The reason why I like the lower-stakes real-money tables is that people respect eachother more. You can still get the fish who think 'sod it I'll go all in on my J,10. But usually, the table is nice and tight.

That enables me to get aggressive, and after winning lets say, one decent sized pot, you can survive to the top 3 with big raises with good hands and folding weaker ones. After that it's time to turn the aggression up a further notch!

You see when there are 9 players on a table and you have Queen-Jack, chances are someone, maybe two have better hands. But when only 3 players remain, including yourself, Queen-Jack might be the best hand, by a long way. It's therefore an excellent idea to raise. Then if everyone folds, you take down the blinds (which are quite sizeable at this stage), or someone calls (time to be wary of their hand now, so fold if you miss the flop completely), or they will re-raise you; in whcih case you must ask yourself if your hand is worth the amount of money you are about to commit. If not, then fold. It's always important to know when you are beaten.

I employed this strategy to my last 3 SnGs, two of them 9-seat, one 6-seat. My aggressive lay enabled me to do two things later in the SNG. Firstly, if I was behind, my frequent raises would often result on blind stealing, so I could eventually catch up to my opponent. Secondly if I was ahead, I could bully the smaller stacks into submission!

Part of this strategy I have learned from simple logic, but I must say that watching some other players on the high stakes SNGs (including a couple of Pro's Dipthrong and Spin31) has also improved my game hugely.

So (and I amazed myself with this) I won all three SnG's, and although the prize money is pretty low, it's still a profit. About $6 paid in, and $22 won, so not too shabby.

So that meaningless $4 in my account is currently on the rise, and is standing at $19.30c

On my next entry I will blabber on about heads-up play, which was the one part of my game I wanted to improve, and I still do!

Thanks for reading, and I hope it's not too waffly!

:nonono:

SnG stats:

Play Money last 5 results: 5th, 3rd, 4th, 2nd, 2nd

Real money last 5 results: 2nd, 6th, 1st, 1st, 1st

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AKQ
Can we have a blog entry to explain what sit and go is? I only play NLH so not sure on the rules and differences on s n'g. Ta.

What Are Sit and Go (SnG's) Tournaments?

(Please note: This article primarily concerns itself with No Limit Texas Holdem Sit and Go strategy and how to play. Some of the advice in this article is applicable to other sit-an-go's, but not necessarily all of it.)

A sit and go poker tournament is a mini-poker tournament with only one table, although some sites now offer multi-table sit and go's with 2 tables. (Party Poker offers this, I know, and some other sites might also, but I'm not sure which ones.) I like to play SnG's because they give me the opportunity to get a lot of poker action for a relatively small amount of money. Party Poker SnG's start at a $5 + $1 buy-in and go up from there. I recommend playing $10 + $1 buy-in sit and go's rather than the $5 + $1 buy-in's, because the rake is half as much and the competition at the $10 + $1 isn't really any more difficult to beat.

The buy in for a sit and go tournament makes up the prize structure. The first figure in the buy-in is the amount of money you're contributing to the prize pool, and the 2nd number, the number after the "+" sign, is the fee that the cardroom takes in lieu of a rake. Normally a one table sit and go pays out to the first three places, and the prize pool goes like this:

  • 1st place gets 50% of the prize pool
  • 2nd place gets 30% of the prize pool
  • 3rd place gets 20% of the prize pool

Buy-in's for the most common Texas holdem sit and go tournaments at Party Poker look like this:

  • $5 + $1
  • $10 + $1
  • $20 + $2
  • $30 + $3
  • $50 + $5
  • $100 + $9

The competition's skill level increases as you move up in limit, but the cutoff between the really soft games and the harder games is the cutoff between the $30 + $3 and the $50 + $5.

How a Sit and Go Poker Tournament Works

Each player receives a number of chips at the beginning of the sit and go. At the $30 + $3 levels and below at Party Poker, each player receives 800 chips. At $50 + $5 and above, the players each receive 1000 chips. At other sites, like Poker Stars and Ultimate Bet, players start with more chips (1500 is common) and the games play a little longer as a result, and proper strategy becomes a little less aggressive, since you can wait for better hands without worrying about the blinds eating up your entire stack.

The blinds at the Party Poker sit and go tournaments go up every 10 hands, although some other sites have a different structure where the blinds increase based on how much time has elapsed. But this affects your strategy in the following way: early in the sit and go tournament, it's smart to play tight, because the blinds are small, and you don't have a lot to gain from loosening up and getting aggressive. Later in the tournament, when the blinds are higher and your chip stack might be a little smaller, you might have to play a little more aggressively.

Sit and Go's at Party Poker generally have 10 players; most other online cardrooms have 9 players at a table.

Why Play SnG's?

A lot of people like SnG's because they have a distinct beginning, middle, and end. (I'm of that school of thought.) At Party Poker, the SnG's below the $50 + $5 buy-in are generally pretty soft games, and if you play appropriately, you can see a reasonable ROI, especially if you're able to multi-table and resist playing emotionally. In fact, I've won third place in many sit and go tournaments when I clicked on the "away" button and just folded my way into the money by default.

Another reason to like SnG's is because you can get at least an hour's worth of poker action while risking a very small amount of money, so it's a great way to practice. You also get experience playing at a full table, a short-handed table, and heads-up at a SnG. (Assuming you play well enough to make it that far.) Some people get burnt out on playing ring games all the time and play sit-an-go's as a change of pace.

And finally, a lot of sites have SnG's that are qualifiers for the bigger, multi-table tournaments with the big prize pools. If you can win a $10 + $1 SnG and get an entry into a $200 + $15 multi-table tournament, then you can get a chance to play with the "big boys" without having to risk an entire $215.

Please visit the 2nd part of this article, Texas holdem SnG strategy. I discuss bankroll requirements and playing strategies in that article.

This page is part of our series of articles about how to play poker. We're including, or have plans to include, articles on:

You might also be interested in our article about Texas holdem starting hands, even though that article is aimed more at ring play than sit and go tournaments

This was copied and pasted from www.unknownpoker.com

Hope that helps!

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AKQ
Interesting! Thanks! Is it NL? What is the main change in starting hands?

It is no-limit yes. Trying to describe what hands you should start with is difficult, and generally you should fold more during no-limit, otherwise you can get trapped for a lot of money. With limit-hold em, no-one raises you by ridiculous amounts, so you can play more 'hopeful' hands like Jack-10 (where you limp in for a small amount in the hope that you make a straight, or straight draw).

There is one hand that is always difficult to resist in hold em. They are suited connectors like 8-9 hearts for example. They have huge potential, as they can make a straight, straight flush or a flush, and these are extremely powerful hands. Unfortunately more often than not, someone will beat you with a pair, because the odds of making a pair are better than the odds of you hitting your straight or flush.

In NL, you should only play these hands if it is cheap to do so, if you are facing a raise, then fold.

In Limit, you should gamble more with these hands, because the betting never goes spiralling out of control, so even if you don't make the straight or flush, at least you didn't waste nearly all your chips!

So in summary, you should play more speculative hands in limit, such as suited connectors, and play tighter in NL, but make sure your aggressive when you do get a premium hand! Becuase you want only 1 or 2 to call you!

:D

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