I wanted to start my game specific tips on how to win at hold'em with some sit-n-go strategies. Sit-n-go tournaments have quickly become the most popular form of online hold'em. As far as tournaments go, they can also be the most profitable. True, you can enter a large standard tournament and win a large amount of money, but how often? Even in the WSOP, for a pro to win two tournaments in a season is a big deal. The best pros will maybe win one bracelet and cash a few tournaments and that's about it. With online sit-n-goes, your odds of winning go way up, therefor so does your profits (if you are good). Sit-n-goes are also a very important part of winning at hold'em, because they give you an opportunity to practice your “final table” strategies. Most sit-n-goes have from 1 to 5 tables (although there are bigger ones out there), so you will see the final table often. Great practice!
Let's start off with the stages and how should should change up your play according to the stage of the tournament you are in. When deciding which hands to play before the flop, you can be anywhere from super tight to super loose or anywhere in between. Super tight means that you are not willing to play any hand except premium hands (AA, KK, QQ, AK, and maybe AQ). Super loose means that you are willing to see a flop with any 2 cards (sometimes even calling raises with hands with little to no post flop potential). When you have decided whether or not you want to play your hand, the way that you play you hand will determine if you are playing aggressive, weak, or somewhere in between. A weak player will limp in pre-flop, check/call or check/fold the flop if they don't hit. An aggressive player is the guy you see that is always betting, raising, and re-raising. He is the one who is always putting pressure on his opponents. There are times in hold'em to be super tight and times to be really loose. Most of the time, you will be playing somewhere in between. No matter where you are on the tight-loose scale, you need to always play aggressive! YOU need to be that player that is always putting the pressure on your opponents – forcing them to make the tough decisions. There are times to play a little weaker (like if you are trapping another player when you are holding a monster), but in Texas hold'em the poker gods reward aggression.
Whether you decide to play tight or loose is going to depend on several factors:
Position:
The later your position, the more hands you can feel good about playing. The earlier your position, the less likely you should be to play any but the most premium of hands. See my previous post on poker position for more information on position
Tournament stage:
As a rule with sit-n-goes, you should play very tight in the very beginning of the tournament and open up your starting hand selection later on. In the beginning of a sit-n-go (especially the low buy in ones), a lot of people are playing a lot of garbage hands very aggressively – looking to get a big stack early. Usually it is best to stay away from them this early, unless you have a monster. If you do wake up with a monster early on, you can usually play weak and let them bet into you for most (or all) of their chips. As the tournament gets towards the later stages, the blinds will be much higher in relationship to the stack sizes. This is where many people tighten up their play. This is EXACTLY where you should open yours up.
Stack size:
In hold'em, especially in sit-n-goes, stack size is king. If you have a huge stack in relation to the other players at the table, you pretty much have a license to bully. You will get played back at from time to time, but you can always sit out a few hands and wait for a good set of hole cards, hope to get played back at and win the hand at show down. Win a couple of hands at show down and you get your license to bully renewed. If you are shot stacked (10 big blinds or less), you don't have many options. You are pretty much just looking for spots to get all of your chips in the middle in the hope of taking the pot down pre-flop or doubling up.
Table image:
In the lower buying sit-n-goes, most of your opponents will not be thinking beyond the cards in their hands. They are not paying attention to your table image. As more and more people are getting better and better at online Texas hold'em, you will run into more and more opponents that are paying attention. Regardless of whether you think your opponents are paying attention to your table image or not, you should be paying attention to yours and theirs. If you see that the player to your right is often raising your big blind and you think he is raising with any two cards, you can feel okay about re-raising him with your pkt 8s or suited KQ. On the other hand, if you are the one constantly raising the blind of the player 2 positions to the left of you and he raises, you need to, at some point realize that he has you pegged as raising with any 2 cards and adjust accordingly. Basically, you need to adjust your play to compensate for the patterns that you find in the play of your opponents as well as to keep your opponents from using your table image against you.
To sum it up – if you want to win at hold'em sit-n-goes, you need to vary your hand selection from tight to loose, depending upon your position, the tournament stage, your chip stack, the chip stacks of those around you, your table image and the image of your opponents. Whether you are playing tight or loose you will ALWAYS be aggressive. I will go more into detail of how to vary your play according to the conditions I mentioned in the next few articles. Stay tune for more on How to Win at Hold'em!
Let's start off with the stages and how should should change up your play according to the stage of the tournament you are in. When deciding which hands to play before the flop, you can be anywhere from super tight to super loose or anywhere in between. Super tight means that you are not willing to play any hand except premium hands (AA, KK, QQ, AK, and maybe AQ). Super loose means that you are willing to see a flop with any 2 cards (sometimes even calling raises with hands with little to no post flop potential). When you have decided whether or not you want to play your hand, the way that you play you hand will determine if you are playing aggressive, weak, or somewhere in between. A weak player will limp in pre-flop, check/call or check/fold the flop if they don't hit. An aggressive player is the guy you see that is always betting, raising, and re-raising. He is the one who is always putting pressure on his opponents. There are times in hold'em to be super tight and times to be really loose. Most of the time, you will be playing somewhere in between. No matter where you are on the tight-loose scale, you need to always play aggressive! YOU need to be that player that is always putting the pressure on your opponents – forcing them to make the tough decisions. There are times to play a little weaker (like if you are trapping another player when you are holding a monster), but in Texas hold'em the poker gods reward aggression.
Whether you decide to play tight or loose is going to depend on several factors:
Position:
The later your position, the more hands you can feel good about playing. The earlier your position, the less likely you should be to play any but the most premium of hands. See my previous post on poker position for more information on position
Tournament stage:
As a rule with sit-n-goes, you should play very tight in the very beginning of the tournament and open up your starting hand selection later on. In the beginning of a sit-n-go (especially the low buy in ones), a lot of people are playing a lot of garbage hands very aggressively – looking to get a big stack early. Usually it is best to stay away from them this early, unless you have a monster. If you do wake up with a monster early on, you can usually play weak and let them bet into you for most (or all) of their chips. As the tournament gets towards the later stages, the blinds will be much higher in relationship to the stack sizes. This is where many people tighten up their play. This is EXACTLY where you should open yours up.
Stack size:
In hold'em, especially in sit-n-goes, stack size is king. If you have a huge stack in relation to the other players at the table, you pretty much have a license to bully. You will get played back at from time to time, but you can always sit out a few hands and wait for a good set of hole cards, hope to get played back at and win the hand at show down. Win a couple of hands at show down and you get your license to bully renewed. If you are shot stacked (10 big blinds or less), you don't have many options. You are pretty much just looking for spots to get all of your chips in the middle in the hope of taking the pot down pre-flop or doubling up.
Table image:
In the lower buying sit-n-goes, most of your opponents will not be thinking beyond the cards in their hands. They are not paying attention to your table image. As more and more people are getting better and better at online Texas hold'em, you will run into more and more opponents that are paying attention. Regardless of whether you think your opponents are paying attention to your table image or not, you should be paying attention to yours and theirs. If you see that the player to your right is often raising your big blind and you think he is raising with any two cards, you can feel okay about re-raising him with your pkt 8s or suited KQ. On the other hand, if you are the one constantly raising the blind of the player 2 positions to the left of you and he raises, you need to, at some point realize that he has you pegged as raising with any 2 cards and adjust accordingly. Basically, you need to adjust your play to compensate for the patterns that you find in the play of your opponents as well as to keep your opponents from using your table image against you.
To sum it up – if you want to win at hold'em sit-n-goes, you need to vary your hand selection from tight to loose, depending upon your position, the tournament stage, your chip stack, the chip stacks of those around you, your table image and the image of your opponents. Whether you are playing tight or loose you will ALWAYS be aggressive. I will go more into detail of how to vary your play according to the conditions I mentioned in the next few articles. Stay tune for more on How to Win at Hold'em!
