May 13th, 2010 1:03 am
Sole table competitions or sit and go as they’re also known can earn some decent cash with no thought before play. I personally love playing the free online poker sites and also the low stake (up to ten dollars) sit and go websites. I have my methods on how I play these different games which I will share.
Solid and Tight early on.
By playing this way you must play a decent hand near the start of the tournament. Your place at the table is critical- Paris from twenty two through ninety nine, I call and then up to three times the big blind. A bigger raise and I fold them.
Big pairs such as 10/10, Jack/Jack, Queen/Queen, King/King & Ace/Ace I will always call for a raise on a short table.
Be prepared to call an all in with any of those. Hands like QJ, QK, KJ, and A 10 I play like small pairs and fold to raises larger than 3 times the Big Blind.
Now the hands that can get you into trouble.
I will explain to you in this next part some of the cards which may leave you in despair. Ace/Jack, Ace/Queen & Ace/King- you really have to understand when it’s best to fold these cards. Don’t get me wrong they’re brilliant cards when there’s just a hand full of opponents remaining, however during the opening they’re no good to any pair.
Learn to lay them down in the early part of a free poker tourney. One of the things I also do until the last 3 and in the money is show my winners. The table see’s Those KK and trip 7’s and so on. And I haven’t bluffed on a single hand…Yet. That comes when only 3 left. No more show and tell.
This sets up some great steals. All they have seen is winners from you…they have no reason to believe you don’t have them now.
By only playing premium hands in the early stages you allow the “Bingo” players to play themselves out. Chances are by playing Solid and Tight you will have the opportunity to take one or two out yourselves.
The bottom line is- you’re playing to win- and by winning you hope to make some money, and making money on the sit and go games takes a lot less effort. The majority of the time the top three will get some money and by coming third you normally break even. Therefore making the cash is crucial to doing well in sit and go poker games.
Another factor in play is a pet peeve of mine. I cannot count the times I have seen a table fold to a dead seat. There is nothing like seeing a deadhead getting free chips. The key factor here is PAY ATTENTION. You have to be in the game and not on vacation.
Add with this there are always the common sense fundamentals when playing for money. I’m one of the old school and being in my fifties I have seen the game evolve in many forms over many decades. To quote one of mu idols “No limit holdem can be taught in half an hour but can take over a lifetime to master”.
To this I’d add, when you start or if you’re already familiar with poker but struggling – go and practice on micro/low stakes or free online poker site tournaments. There are some great ones out there and you can play loads with little or nothing at risk and in doing so really build your confidence and skills before starting to risk it bigger.
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