Double or nothing

Available to suit any bankroll at any level with buy-ins ranging from as little as $1+$0.20 all the way up to the giddy high-rolling heights of $2000+$90, the humble Sit and Go (SNG) or Single Table Tournament (STT) is one of the most universally accepted forms of tournament poker. As beautiful in their simplicity as in their diversity, they come in a wide variety of formats and poker variants: 10-handed or six-max, regular blind structure or turbo, Pot Limit Omaha and Limit Omaha both hi and hi-lo, Limit Texas as well as everybody's favourite – No Limit Texas Hold 'Em.

The focus of this article however, is one of the most basic types of SNG: the 'Double or Nothing' or DoN. This format follows a simple premise – finish in the top half of the field (top five in 10-handed, top three in six-max) and get paid double your money. Sounds pretty easy to make money right? Well yes and no.

Even though it sounds easier to cash here you need to win more regularly than you would if you were just playing a standard SNG – although advertised as Double or Nothing you still have to beat the rake (usually between 8–10% depending on the site) to show a profit: Say you played 100 $10+1 DoN SNG's, that's an outlay of $1,100. Just to break even you have to cash 55% of the time, to show a profit of $100 (around a 9% return on your investment or ROI) you have to cash 60% of the time – yet statistically you only have a 50/50 chance of making the money. However, do not despair – in poker, this is where the skill comes in…

The DoN's while fairly straightforward to play differ from their standard SNG brother in a few subtle ways, playing out more like a satellite where you are rewarded for finishing in the top 50% of the field. Unlike in your regular SNG you are not playing as aggressively – your goal is not to amass all of the chips in play, merely to amass enough chips to reach the payout structure. Get used to folding because you are going to be doing a lot of it.

These are probably one of the more formulaic variants of poker out there and are well suited to the tight ABC style of play – all your chips are valuable and become more so as the tournament progresses and their perceived worth rises alongside the escalating blinds and antes. During the early levels then, you should be playing the top ten starting hands (big pairs from Aces down to Nines and big Aces down to Ace Queen off-suit) and playing them hard and fast when you get them. That's not to say that smaller Pocket Pairs and suited connecters are unplayable; by all means if you can get in cheap and see a flop in late position during the early levels you can often hit a monster for that all important double-up – you just shouldn't be playing them out of position. An early double up will almost guarantee you a cash payout in a DoN, but you do not necessarily have to double up to win – often sitting tight and pulling a few well-timed blind steals during the later levels on the run up to the bubble will see you coast into the cash spots.

While the average winning stack size is normally around 3,000, the key to success is being aware of the other player's stack-sizes and position relative to the blinds; if someone has a stack of 8,000 for just over half the chips in play, the other four players only need a stack of 1,750 to make the money. The key to cashing here is in avoiding the marginal all-in confrontations during the early levels – unless you are short or are getting amazing pot odds you need to be a significant favourite to call all-in, especially as the bubble approaches. Allow me to illustrate:

You are first in chips with a stack of 4,500 with 6 players left, blinds are 100/200 and you are dealt Pocket Kings under-the-gun. There is another solid tight player with around 4,000 in chips in late position, everyone else has between 1,200 and 1,750 apart from one short-stack who is sitting in middle position with around 900 left. In order to induce the short-stack to re-raise all in (which he may well do with any two cards if it is limped or folded to him with his stack size in relation to the blinds) you have just limped with the intention of limp re-raising to isolate. Under-the-gun plus one min-raises to 400 leaving himself 1,100 behind, the short-stack shoves for 900 total and the solid tight player behind him re-shoves for 4,000 total. What do you do?

Even if this were a standard SNG you would hesitate in making the call here as one misstep could see your 4,300 remaining chips become just over one big blind. In a DoN then, this is an easy fold: Your Kings may well be in front of the short-stacks range here but under-the-gun plus one has to have some sort of hand and for the player in late position with no chips invested in the pot to re-raise all-in, he HAS to have a monster. You fold, under-the-gun plus one calls showing Ace King, the short-stack has Pocket Sixes, the big stack tables Pocket Aces and eliminates both players to burst the bubble leaving you in the money.

Learning to beat the DoN is fairly straightforward and also helps improve your tournament skills, especially in relation to bubble play; as you progress your positional awareness should improve as you need to be aware of the other players chip stack sizes, their position in relation to the blinds and their playing tendencies. Steal from the tight players, value bet the calling stations and learn when to shove and when to fold. While the SNG has a lot to recommend it to poker players of any level, the DoN's in particular are especially good at serving as an introduction to the intricate and intriguing world of poker for the novice player. You won't become a poker millionaire playing DoN SNG's but it's all about volume – the DoN offer you a small but fairly risk free margin to show a profit so all you need is time and lots of patience. Taking a straightforward ABC approach to them makes the DoN a great way to learn how to multi-table in a fairly risk free way. They also present a steady way to make extra money in rakeback or VIP loyalty perks (For example, they are one of the quickest way to hit SuperNova on Pokerstars) or clear a sign up bonus.

Conservative is the way to go here, especially in relation to your bankroll. If you are a wining player and want to be completely sure that you never have to reload, your bankroll should be around 100 buy-ins, so if you are playing $10+$1 your roll needs to be around $1000. The higher your win-rate, the lower bankroll you can get away with. After playing in around 2,000 or so tournaments you should have a fairly good idea of your win-rate and if you're cashing 55% to 60% of the time you should see your roll grow at a steady rate.

While it's possible to play with a smaller roll you should be aware that no matter how great a poker player you are, the occasional downswing is part and parcel of poker and some negative variance might just see you go broke.

The art of bluffing

One of the basic requirements to be an effective Poker player is having a keen sense of observation. One of the areas in learning poker is to effectively reading the body language of other players, along with their betting patterns, are just a couple of things needed to survive at the table. It is these basic skills that will allow you to take the first step towards becoming a strong Poker player.

One element of poker is deception. Bluffing is the most typical trick in texas holdem poker. Of course, the reasoning for a bluff is to trick the opponents into thinking you have a better hand when you actually do not. The value of the bluff increases under certain general circumstances that often have a lot to do with information you assume about the other players. This vagueness makes it difficult to give definitive reasons or places to bluff. Some less generalized times to bluff and some advice are given below. The bottom of the page gives some more ideas and perspectives on deception in poker.

Many beginners on poker love this idea of bluffing but often misuse it. Beginners, more frequently than not, produce a conscious exertion to play their cards instead their competition. In other words, novice players typically merely take bigger threats as shortly as they have a intense hand, rewarding fewer or no attention to what others are doing at the casino. This produces beginner players more predictable and emphasizes the lack to incur the art of bluffing. Bluffing is surely a very noteworthy and necessary skill needed to become a very effective Poker player.

Players, whoever are just beginning out, must first realize that it isn't necessary to have the best hand in command to win a pot. Learning how to efficiently trick your opponents into thinking you have a intense hand produces you fewer predictable and more dangerous. One of the majority frequent errors prepared via novice players, whoever are attempting to bluff, is not betting enough. For a bluff to work, you need the other players to think you actually have that better hand.

If you have a large amount of chips committed to the pot, making a minimal bet as a ploy to bluff isn't going to be believable to anyone. Keep in mind that you are trying to strongly convince other players at the table that you have the best hand. By not betting enough, it gives the perception that your hand probably isn't as strong as you are leading everyone to believe. In other words, if you are not 100-percent committed to your bluff, you probably shouldn't be playing in the hand.

Another thing that beginners should be care of when bluffing: Avoid bluffing against short-stack players. They tend to be quite a bit more desperate since they are on the verge of going out, so attempts to bluff them more than likely won't work. The best thing you can do when playing against short-stack players is to play them straight up in the hopes that you catch a stronger hand in order to knock them out.

Learning poker means you need to discover to read persons at the Poker table, as well as the art of bluffing, is an ability that evolves over time. For most, this means expending hours and hours playing many hands at the table in order that precious know-how can be gained.

 

Watch this great video to get a great lesson on bluffing!

 

I'm out

 

Styly

How to spot a good starting hand

Poker can be learned easily but can be very hard to master; it is a game that involves a lot of thinking and analysis. If you really want to win and be successful in playing poker especially in hold'em, then you need to consider some important strategy and secrets about how to win in Texas hold'em poker game.

 

Making the right decision in Texas hold'em and avoiding the common mistakes those other players make, such as, refraining from playing too many starting hands, by far the biggest mistake that novice and intermediate hold'em players make.

 

You should take into account that the more hands you’ll play will mean that you’ll be putting more money on the table. Keeping this fact in mind will make a great impact in maximizing your chances of winning in this most popular poker variation.

 

But that does not mean not playing good hands. It means that you must understand your hand before being ready to play. I love this YouTube video, I still regularly look at it just to make sure that I am playing the right starting hands. Enjoy!

 

 

I am out,

Styly

Bluffing gives you wings

Hey guys, Styly here again.

Just wanted to give you a little update on my progress. I have just got off a marathon 14 hour stint on www.Pokerstars.com and am up 4 figures. It was a good day, but it could all have gone horribly wrong at the start.

Why does winning on the bluff make you feel invincible? After winning $135 bluffing to my hearts content, why did I start thinking I had the measure of the table? This ended up costing $360 in 2 hands as I tried to repeat the feat.

Luckily, I remembered my training and discipline. With the help of a ground-breaking training program that is designed to maximize learning I became a better player. By taking poker training down to its simplest, most effective level, I was able to remember it when I needed it most! The training formula works because of the training technology called "Single-Focused Training" or SFT. The name says it all. "Single-Focused". That's where the secret is and the results are found.

You will learn one, very specific skill set, technique, strategy or success method at a time. You will not get overloaded with information that you can’t take action on. That’s the key. To be successful you must be able to take action on what you’ve learned. You CAN NOT take action on 95 things at once. You can only take action on a single-focused objective. Then you need to test it and tweak it to your unique playing style. By providing you with one specific strategy at a time you can follow it step-by-step and then take immediate action.

So if you want to learn this vital skill, I recommend this great training aid!

Wishing you good hunting, till next time,

Styly

Start Winning Big At Poker

Hey guys,

 

My name is Will and I have been playing Online poker for the last few years. I have enjoyed a good run of success and have payed my way through University as a result. I never had to get up to go to work my whole time there and had enough money to party hard.

 

I am starting this blog to share some of the knowledge I have accumulated over the years and also some of the great guides that I INVESTED in that have helped me!

 

And if you have been paying attention, you should already have picked up on my first tip. This is that I partied hard whilst at University. I did not spend every evening in front of my screen playing poker. I am the first to admit that I get tense and need to blow off steam after a hard nights poker. That’s why I always have had designated poker nights and designated fun nights. This means that you should too if you want to be successful.

 

Now if I am honest, I was terrible when I first started playing poker. I used to blame evryone but me. I had no clue what I was doing but I was convinced I did. I did not know when the odds were stacked in my favour or against me or even what a good starting hand was. But I was cocky and I believed in myself. All that combined left me fuming at the end of every session. How could I have lost? Where did it all go wrong? Lucky for me, I got a very good friend who took pity on me. He introduced me to poker training videos in which professional poker players explained their decision making in a play by play fashion.

 

This took my game to whole new levels and because I am a nice guy, I will share this with you. Can you believe this will be my second tip on this my first blog posting. If I keep on like this, I might start loosing my edge. But here you go anyway. Check this out to get access to some truly outstanding advice.

 

See you soon, and good hunting.

 

Big Styly