How to Pick The Right Poker Tournament
March 27, 2009 | Comments Off
If you are looking to start playing in poker tournaments, you will be faced with a wide variety of games to choose from. To make sure you don’t end up wasting your time playing in tournaments that do not meet your needs, you should decide exactly what you are looking for up front. Once you know what kind of tournament you are looking for, it should be easy to find a perfect fit.
Buying In
In a poker tournament, each player pays the same amount of money to get a seat in the game (the buy-in) and then a fee will be charged by the poker room to play. A fair fee is generally 10% of the buy-in. Because every player drops the same amount of money to get in the game, everyone starts with the same sized bankroll. When selecting a tournament, the buy-in might be the most important aspect for you to check. Obviously you don’t want to play above your means, but at the same time, if it’s particularly cheap to play, some of the players might act too recklessly and make your playing experience erratic.
Re-Buys
Some tournaments allow ‘re-buys’. A re-buy allows players who have lost all, or some, of their chips to pay their way back in to the game. The amount of chips you get with each re-buy, the total number of times each player can re-buy, and how far into the game you are allowed to re-buy are all factors that vary from game to game. If a tournament does not allow re-buys, it is called a ‘freeze out’ because once you lose your chips you are out of the game permanently.
A re-buy game is crazy compared to a freeze out game. As long as players know they can re-buy, they will play very aggressively and go all-in without hesitation. To compete against these players, you need to fight fire with fire. If you can’t stomach this outrageous playing style, you might mistakenly abandon your stronger hands faced with huge pots when you were actually against weaker, but more aggressive opponents.
Table Size
Most tournaments will start with nine or ten players at each table. As players get knocked out, the remaining players will be shuffled around to keep all of the tables as full as possible. More often now than in the past, we are seeing tournaments with tables that seat only six players (short-handed tournaments). Short-handed tournaments allow you to play some of the weaker hands because the particularly strong hands will appear less often for you and your opponents.
Blinds
The size of the small/big blinds will start relatively low compared to the size of your chip stack. For a standard game where each player begins with 1,500 chips, blinds usually start at 10/20 (small/big). As the game goes on, the blinds will increase on a regular basis, and the rate at which the blinds increase will determine the pace of the tournament. In an online game, the blinds typically increase every 10-15 minutes, while 20-30 minutes would be more appropriate for live poker tournaments. By the end of the game, the big blind should be about the same size as a single player’s starting chip stack. Generally, large blinds that increase often allow for faster play. If you are not aggressive enough to keep up with the ever-increasing blinds you may bleed too many chips to remain competitive.
Once you have learned about the different types of poker tournaments, you will be able to go through a whole list of different games and pick out the best ones for you. Carefully selecting your poker tournaments is important for every player, but if you are new to the game it can make the difference between winning big and going bust.
Stealing The Blinds
March 27, 2009 | Comments Off
How do you steal the blinds?
In any of the poker games that utilize ‘blinds’ or ‘antes’ such as Texas hold ‘em, many players consider ‘stealing the blinds’ a standard move. The basic idea is to make a strong raise pre-flop while holding poor-medium strength. For a steal to work, every other player at the table must fold. If this happens you win (steal) the posted blinds. Stealing the blinds may or may not be considered bluffing, depending on the strength of the cards you are holding. This might sound pretty risky, after all you could be raising with a 7 8 suited to the small blind who is holding a pair of Aces. While there is no sure fire way to steal the blinds, there are some conditions that put the odds in your favor.
Wait Until The Timing Is Right is Key
Although you can steal blinds in a cash game, you really are better off using this strategy in tournaments or sit and go games. In these games the blinds get progressively bigger, which makes stealing the blinds more profitable. If that alone is not enough reason to save your steals until later in the game, remember that you need to deceive the other players to make the steal work. Don’t get a reputation as a loose player by getting called out on bluffs too early in the game.
Even though you are waiting until the later stages of the game to start stealing blinds, it is never too early to start learning about the other players at the table. When you finally decide it is time to make a move, you should know whether or not the remaining players to your left are loose enough to play weak hands (thus defeating your steal). Also some players will call any bet, especially after posting the big blind, just to see the flop. If you are unsure, you should take a look at their chip stacks. A player with a decent hand and a short stack is likely to go all-in because he’s playing with his back to the wall, and knows he needs to make a move or risk bleeding all of his chips. On the other hand, a player with a huge stack (in a no-limit game) might be willing to call your bet if he is suspicious of you.
The ‘bubble’ is the point in a poker tournament where the next player out is the last player to walk away without any of the winnings. For instance, if a tournament pays the top three players, the bubble occurs when only four players remain. As you approach this bubble, you will notice the other players at the table will begin to play more conservatively to avoid being the unlucky next player out. If you are ever going to steal the blinds, this might be the easiest time to do so because most players will shy away from any perceived risks at this point.
Position Is Everything
You should not even think about stealing the pot if any players have already called or raised the big blind. To steal the blinds you need to get everyone to fold, which is unlikely if you already know someone has put money down to see the flop. Ideally you will have seen lots of players fold before it is your turn, which takes us to our next point…
Every player who folds, calls, or raises before your turn gives you valuable information. Theoretically, the best position from which to steal the blinds is right before the small blind, in the dealer position. This used to be the case but now more players have learned about this stealing technique. If you are consistently raising pre-flop only when you are in the dealer position, the smarter players will have no problem seeing through your ruse and calling your bluff. Stealing while sitting one seat to the right of the dealer position could help keep your opponents off your trail, without exposing yourself to too much more risk.
Don’t Steal With Strong Cards
The beauty of stealing the blinds is that it does not matter what cards you were dealt. None of the other players can see anything other than the cards they are holding. If you do not think your cards are stronger than the rest of the cards at the table you should either fold or go for the steal/bluff (based on whether the other players have called or folded). If, however, you believe you have a strong enough hand to beat your opponents’, then you should not bet aggressively enough to scare away players who are playing the pre-flop timidly (as you would in order to steal the blinds). These players can contribute to the pot, and give you a bigger win. Stealing the blinds is not always your best option; in fact the situation rarely calls for it.
Sit And Go Basics
March 27, 2009 | 1 Comment
‘Sit and go’ (SNG) is a specific type of poker game. SNG poker games are special because they don’t have any scheduled starting times, nor do they require pre-registration. These games have a set number of seats and begin as soon as all of the seats are full. SNG games/tournaments have become quite popular and are available online all of the time at various poker sites but, if you keep your eyes open, they can be found in some live casinos as well.
Overview of the Sit & Go Tournament
Sit and go poker tournaments are a great way to get experience with tournament-style poker play for a small buy-in. The typical buy-in for sit and go tournaments is usually pretty cheap (as low as a dollar) and then there is a fee, generally equal to 10% of the buy-in. Each player will start with the same number of chips and, unlike cash games, everyone plays until they are beaten. There is no walking away from a SNG table until you either have all of the chips, or none of them.
Typically, in a 9-10 player game, the top 3 players get paid out in the end. The first player usually gets 50% of the prize pool, second place gets 30%, and the remaining 20% goes to the third place player (although the percents can vary). Shorthanded sit and go games only start with 5-6 players and in turn, only the top two players win the prize pool.
Basic Sit and Go Strategy
SNG tournament strategies reflect general tournament play. The basic idea is to play tight early in the game to avoid getting knocked out while the pots are small. As the game progresses, and the blinds increase, you should get progressively more aggressive to make sure you can cash in on the richer pots. Playing tight early doesn’t mean you should sit every hand out though. In the early stages of the game you should play strong hands to win chips where you can, all the while making the impression of a conservative player. By playing smart to start, you can easily steal the big pots later in the game and ensure one of the top (paid) spots.
As sit and go games progress, not only will the blinds go up, but also seats will become empty one by one. This narrowing down process allows SNG poker games to offer great practice for the final table of a normal poker tournament, but for a much smaller price.
Typical Opponents
Most of the SNG players you will encounter are either recreational players, or low-level pro’s trying to put together a bankroll. If you find yourself in a cheap SNG game, most players will probably be very inexperienced. Compared to the other tournament structures, SNG is probably the least competitive. If you play well, you should be able to clear a high return on investment (ROI), and gain valuable experience that will carry over to some higher stakes tournaments.
Step Tournaments
A step tournament gives small-game SNG poker players a chance to aim for larger payouts. Each player starts off at ‘step 1’ in a SNG poker game with a small buy-in. The top two players from this game, will move on to a ‘step 2’ SNG game with other players who have moved on from step 1 games. The top players continue up the steps until the final game (4th or 5th step) where the winners receive cash prizes from the entire prize pool, which was created from all of the step 1 buy-ins.
Sit and go poker is one of the fasted growing segments of online poker, and is a great way to experience the excitement of a tournament’s final table. Whether you are new to the game, or trying to build a bankroll for professional play, you owe it to yourself to give sit and go poker a shot.
Million Dollar Hand Promo at PartyPoker.com
March 13, 2009 | Comments Off
From this moment until midnight on March 22, top poker site PartyPoker is giving their poker players a once in a lifetime chance to win up to $1,000,000 through their Million-Dollar Hand promotion.
How the Million Dollar Hand Promotion Works
Players at Partypoker will receive a random card for every 15 Party Points that they accumulate along with a prize for every five-card hand accumulated. If a player puts together a pair from these cards, they will receive a cash reward of $5 and 2 pairs will earn $10. There is no limit to the number of hands that can be hit and players will be able to continue to collect cards and play as long as they continue to collect Party Points.
Here’s the full break-down of possible hands and their values:
Pair – $5
Two Pair – $10
Trips – $25
Straight – $50
Flush – $100
Full House – $250
Four of a kind – $1,000
Straight Flush – $5,000
Royal Flush – $1,000,000
Party Poker has stated that they “have had to insure ourselves against the possibility of multiple royal flushes. All a player has to do is collect points and cards throughout the period.” There are many chances to win $1,000,000 and all the player has to do is stick around long enough to collect enough cards.
PokerStars Changes VIP Club
March 3, 2009 | Comments Off
PokerStars recently announced some changes to their VIP Club. While these changes are mostly minor, almost all of them affect the player in a positive manner, allow for easier progression through monthly VIP levels, increased prize pools, and potentially larger earnings.
PokerStars VIP Club Changes
Monthly VIP Levels
The first change PokerStars made to the VIP club is that they have lowered the VPP (VIP Player Points) monthly requirments to acheive Silver, Gold, and Platinum Star status. The changes are as follows:
- SilverStar – Lowered from 1,500 VPPs to 1,200 VPPs
- GoldStar – Lowered from 4,000 VPPs to 3,000 VPPs
- PlatinumStar – Lowered from 10,000 VPPs to 7,500 VPPs
Increased Prize Pools in VIP events
PokerStars has also increased the prize pools in their weekly VIP tournaments. A few examples:
- $50,000 weekly VIP Freeroll prize pool has increased to $75,000
- The 100 FPP buy-in, $20,000 weekly VIP event now has a prize pool of $30,000
By increasing the prize pools in these events, Pokerstars has now brought the total value of their VIP events to over $6.5 million a year. That’s not including special VIP events, either.
Supernova and Supernova Elite extended status period
Players who manage to acheive SuperNova and SuperNova Elite status will now be able to retain their VIP status in the following year until the end of September (provided that the current play requirements are met). This extension provides players an extra 3 months at the SuperNova Status levels.
Conceirge Service Status Changes
The only negative change to the VIP Club is for players making use of the concierge services, a player may now only use the concierge service once per month, with a maximum of three receipts. The total value of the receipts submitted must be for a minimum of $500.
Overall Impact
These Changes, while minor, show why PokerStars is a world class poker room. Always putting their players first, fine-tuning programs to suit the player’s needs, seperates PokerStars apart from the rest.