Human beings are creatures of habit, and we have evolved to look for habits in other people as well as patterns in our environment and day-to-day lives. Because of this simple fact, we naturally look for patterns and repeating themes in poker. Unfortunately for the aspiring poker player, some of these themes are really tough to nail down because of their elusive nature. Since No-Limit Hold’em is the most played variation of poker these days, we will be examining some hard-to-fine thematic mistakes using plays from this particular poker variation. In this hand, we will be looking at how easy it can be to over-play a decent hand.

Our first hand takes place at a full table with stacks of about 100 big blinds. It folds to a loose player in middle position who calls the big blind. A rather tight, straight-forward player raises to a total of three times the big blind in the cutoff seat. On the button, we look down at the Ace of diamonds and the Queen of hearts and decide to just call the raise. After our call, both the small blind and the big blind decide to call, as does the original limper.

The flop comes the Ten of diamonds, the King of clubs, and the Jack of diamonds, giving us the nut straight (the best possible straight on the board). The pot is 15 big blinds. The small blind checks, the big blind bets 11 big blinds, and everyone folds to us. We put in a nice-sized raise to 30 big blinds, and the small blind folds. To our surprise, the big blind raises all-in for the rest of his stack, and we make the call. The big blind turns of the Queen of diamonds and the Eight of diamonds. When the money goes in on the flop, we will win about 59% of the time and tie about 11% of the time, giving us a huge advantage with a total of about 64% equity in the pot.

So let’s think about what happened here and how the big blind got himself in such a bad spot. Preflop, we just called a raise with Ace-Queen offsuit instead of reraising, which could have made it difficult for our opponent to think that we had such a strong hand. Note that we would also have likely reraised with hands like King-King, Jack-Jack, and maybe even Ten-Ten. So again, it’s very difficult for the big blind to think that we could possibly have better than two pair. Note also that here we use two pair as the benchmark since Queen-Eight of diamonds is a virtual coinflip against Jack-Ten on this flop with just 51% equity in the pot.

It is better to avoid Preflops as they are more of a hindrance and concentrate more on the king and queen, where jack is more of a hanger-on to both of them. Pkv games follow a strategic method so that players are kept engaged right upto the finish.

Whenever we put in the raise on the flop, the big blind should have stopped to think about what sorts of hands we could have. If he had done this, he would have seen that a call on the flop was clearly better since the only hands we will stack off with on this flop are way ahead of him. The lack of this type of re-evaluation of our opponents’ possible holdings is a very popular error these days with hundreds of thousands of people playing No-Limit Hold’em. By examining your own play and the play of your opponents, you can learn to better fool other players and disguise your holdings.

This is a sit and go strategy for no limit Texas hold em poker. There are typically three stages during a sit and go tournament.

Early Stage –

This is during the beginning of the game. In a single table sit and go tournament you will normally have 9 players maximum on a table. It would be considered early play until there are 5 players remaining.

Middle Stage –

This is often refereed to the bubble. The bubble is when there are only a few players left to get out until you make it in the money.

Late Stage –

By now you have made it in the money and your main goal is getting first place. If you are a fan of pkv games online, you may already have an experience already in playing sit and go tournament poker. 

During early stage of a sit and go tournament, I will play really tight. The advantage to this is that others image of you will be that you play extremely tight. We are going to use this to an advantage. First of all I wouldn’t play much of anything besides these 10 starting hands.

1. Ace, Ace
2. King, King
3. Queen, Queen
4. Ace, Queen
5. Jack, Jack
6. Ten, Ten
7. Nine, Nine
8. King, Queen
9. Queen, Jack
10. Eight, Eight

The way you should play these hands before the flop would be to raise. With the top two starting hands I would most likely go all in. In the early stages there seem to be a fair amount of wild players and this is where sometimes you will catch them. It can be boring, but remember you’re saving your money for the cards that will give you a better advantage.

Now you are in the Middle Stage. This is where a lot of new players start to tighten up and you want to do the exact opposite. The blinds are now worth stealing and will actually give you substantial profit. If you’re the dealer, and only the small and big blind is involved in the hand, go ahead and raise it two or three times the big blind. This steal will win you many blinds. I would also advise doing the exact same raise with any of those top 10 starting hands. I would also now start playing with Ace X suited. Meaning any hand with a ace and any other card as long as they are suited. The purpose of playing this hand is to get a flush. If on the flop you only hit one of the suited cards, I would fold to any bet. Using this strategy will help you build up your stack while others will be slowly diminishing.

Now that you are in the money you are going for the gold. People seem to drop like flies once you hit this stage. The blinds are so high during this stage, it forces people to go all in with almost any hand. In this stage it helps to have a decent chip lead. This is where you can continue to steal peoples stacks if they are really short stacked. If you have a decent hand force them all in. If you are short stacked in this stage, I would go all in with any one of those top ten hands discussed earlier.

Using this guide you should now have a grasp on sit n go tournaments. There is enough knowledge here to get you to the bubble every time. Play smart and you too can make money playing poker.

Recently I had decided to pick up a copy of Daniel Negreanu’s book Power Hold ‘Em Strategy, by Cardoza Publishing. Like many, my favorite form of poker is No Limit Hold ‘Em, particularly tournament play. I have played the game multiple times on PokerQQ and enjoyed the gameplay quite a lot. Negreanu is, without argument, one of the elite players in the poker world, as well as one of the most recognizable. His tournament winnings exceed over $9 million, so whatever Daniel has to offer about optimal strategy has to be worthy of consideration. The book itself has a variety of professional players that contribute chapters, with Daniel himself penning the final one: Small Ball. The line on the back cover describes the book as a “serious course for beating Hold ‘Em”. The first part of this review focuses on the initial chapter, written by Evelyn Ng, titled “Big Bet No Limit Hold ‘Em”.

First off, I have to say right off the bat that I liked this chapter a lot. It is definitely geared towards the complete beginner, but covers a fair amount of strategic ground that is easy to learn and apply. Many other beginner books offer a recommended set of starting hands with general betting guidelines, and this book is no different in that regard. The advice for sizing up your bet and playing specific hands on the flop and beyond is very clear and straightforward. The style of play is really quite tight/aggressive, which is in contrast with how Negreanu typically plays. Although it isn’t an optimal style of poker play (which Evelyn Ng herself quickly points out), it can be a devastating one if the cards connect in your favor. Sharper players will often have the chops to make the necessary plays to outmaneuver a total beginner using this strategy, but the benefit of a big bet style is that it can always potentially deliver a knock out blow to an opponent for all his chips. Strategies against limpers, using a short stack, and shorthanded play are all offered here.

There are a few downsides to Ng’s chapter, though. I personally found some of the middle position hands to be somewhat loose, and wouldn’t be comfortable opening the pot with hands like small pocket pairs and low suited paint cards without a good reason to do so, like a steal or targeting a weak player. If you are a player who favors a very tight pre-flop strategy, it might take some getting used to playing marginal hands such as these. Another drawback was the complete absence of any strategy for head’s up play. Although there was reference in the introduction that head’s up strategy would be covered elsewhere in the book, I think a total novice could still use a few guidelines to help them be competitive. Lots of players online play in single table tournaments, so getting down to head’s up play will be quite common for the average player. Playing too tight during head’s up is a recipe for failure. There also were some minor inconsistencies with the starting requirements. For example, Ng writes that if one or two limpers before you enter the pot, you make a larger raise of 7x the big blind, yet the diagram accompanying it gives a different recommendation. A sensible reader will no doubt be able to pick that up, but it still makes me wonder whether that was Ng’s oversight, Negreanu’s, or Cardoza Publishing. Those little errors are supposed to be weeded out before going to print.

Regardless of the drawbacks, this introductory chapter is a good one for new players. It could very quickly get someone playing at a competitive level, and get them thinking about their poker game correctly. Too many newbies and low stakes players are weak because their play is impulsive, loose, and poorly thought out. This chapter will help players avoid those mistakes. The drawback to this system, though, is that players commit too many chips up front and might get trapped by more savvy players who understand how to counter this strategy. For a beginning system, though, it’s a great start that can be built upon.