My One Week Hiatus

Just wanna let everybody know that I have 3 midterms, an assignment, and a big book review due this week for school. It's gonna be a pretty tough week so I won't likely be able to get Part 2 of Online Poker Tells posted and 'Hand of the Day' will have to wait as well. Check back next week or sometime and hopefully I'll be back on track and keep everyone updated.

kyle

Online Poker Tells

It's pretty hard to be able to pick up a tell playing online poker in comparison to playing live. Shaky hands, heavy breathing and pitch changes in someone's voice are things that you can't pick up while playing on the virtual felt. However, there are a few online tells that can help you determine the strength of an opponent's hand.

1. Insta-checking. When a player insta checks he's telling you that he didn't even think about betting at the pot. This is a good opportunity to fire a probe bet of about 1/2 the pot to try and scoop it up.

2. Insta-calling preflop. Normally an indicator of a medium strength drawing hand like 10 9s or a rag ace. If you come into a pot when someone insta calls, beware of potential flushes and straights. Lots of elephants and weaker opponents will make these kinds of plays.

3. Insta calling a bet on the flop. Quite often a tell that your opponent has a draw. If an action card hits the turn that completes a straight or a flush, be wary.

Part 2 of Online Poker Tells soon to follow......

cheers guys,

kyle

Types of Players at Low Limits

So because you're visiting this blog it's pretty likely that you know the basics of sit n' go poker tournaments. I just want to say a few things about the types of players you'll play against at the low-medium stakes, and some obvious online poker tells that can help you make a good read on your opponent.

In smaller buy-in sng's ($1-$5) there are plenty of elephants and monkeys (reread the post on player profiling about Hellmuth's Creature Guide). There is definitely going to be a lot of limping, particularly with weak-medium strength hands. I always say that a poker player should play the opposite of how the rest of the table is playing, so if you're table is limping a lot, tighten up a bit and let go of those medium strength hands. Hands like 57s in MP, and A2o on the button with a couple limpers should be tossed into the muck. Protect your chips in these situations, your PFR should be really close or equal to your VPIP.

The opposite goes for tight tables. If players are playing tight and not defending their blinds, this is a great time to loosen up your play and try to steal some blinds and take advantage your opponents. This is especially important when the blinds start getting high and your getting down to the money. A few key blind steals late can mean the difference between coming in first and busting in fifth.

For the sng's at $10 and $20 there will be a few less elephants/monkeys and likely a lion or two. It's pretty easy to spot these players if you have Hold Em Manager or Poker Tracker 3. Their VPIP will between 15 and 20, and their PFR between 12 and 17. If you don't have HEM or PT3 just look for the player at the table who comes raising into every pot and doesn't have much variance in stack size from his original stack.

Hope this gives you a little bit of an idea about what kinds of players you can expect to encounter and how to play against them.

cheers boys,

kyle

Hand of the Day Feb. 25/10

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 5.5 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t1210)

BB (t3140)

UTG (t1330)

MP1 (t3010)

MP2 (t2890)

Hero's M: 17.40


Preflop: Hero is CO with 10, 10

UTG bets t150, 2 folds

Total pot: t125

Your Play?

Hand of the Day Feb. 24/10

UTG+1 (t880)
MP1 (t3340)

MP2 (t1595)

CO (t1530)

Button (t1465)

Hero (SB) (t1190)

BB (t1355)

UTG (t2145)

Hero's M: 9.92

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, 10

UTG calls t80, 4 folds, Button calls t80, Hero calls t40, BB checks

Flop: (t320) 9, 4, 8 (4 players)

Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets t160, 1 fold



Your Play?

Getting Flushed Out Again

So I just finished a set of 4 sng's. Placed 3rd in one and didn't cash in the others. I'm pretty disappointed with it. Donkeys kept chasing and hit a flush on me to knock me out of 2 sng's. Got knocked out of another AK>AQ, I bet I don't have to tell you there was a queen on the flop. I think I played ok just didn't catch the cards. Maybe next time :)

kyle

Tuesday Night Sit n Go Update

So I played 3 sng's earlier today and I played really good. Placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd which is pretty solid in my opinion. I'm gonna look through the hand histories and post one or two key hands I had that helped me make it into the money (it's gonna take awhile to search for them though). I also played a second set of 3 sng's later this night. Placed 1st, 3rd and 6th. Damn donkey 4bet all in preflop with a10 suited and I was getting prepared to double up with my pocket tens until he hit runner runner flush. No surprise from Full Tilt there. Also, I was playing against this player who had a VP$IP of 80!!!! I couldn't even believe it, but what was worse is that the four hands I played against him I had top pair on the flop and he hit runner runner. FOUR TIMES IN A ROW. Of course he busted me, but I guess I was lucky just to make it into third....

ps bankroll is looking a lot better after losing half of it playing rush :)

kyle

My All In Occurrences

Just letting you know that I posted my All In Occurrences at the top of the sidebar. In case anyone thinks FTP is rigged for all ins you should take a look at this. I can somewhat concur with these statements. I encourage you to also keep track of your all ins as a tool to help you better your game. I'll update it regularly... ps disregard the PokerStars section, it was just a 3 day test where I ran pretty bad

kyle

Funniest YouTube Video

I was cruisin around YouTube last night and saw this apparent "strategy" video by suncruzrob. Basically he just shoves every hand and calls people a donkey when the call his 9th all-in in a row with big slick and pocket sevens. By the way, he says that he's been on a bit of a "bad run," losing only 45 straight sng's. This is priceless.....

check the video out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rnwVFn2Zl4&feature=related
he's also got a few more

Get Your Rake Back!

Poker sites take so much rake from us that it's imperative you get some of it back. Many sites offer between 25%-40% rakeback so it's a no-brainer to apply at one of these sites and get a little bit more return on your investment. There are plenty of rake back sites out there, I personally use http://www.rakeback.com/. Also, if you do decide to sign up for rakeback.com's rakeback program, put in my ID: shoutoutloud37 under the friend referral to let them know that I sent you.....

Cheers guys,

Kyle

Player Profiling

So one of the most important and satisfying aspects of online poker is that you can save notes, and often 'color',  for certain players. One of the tools I use to profile players is Phil Hellmuth's Creature Guide (pictured below). As you can see it gives a color and animal to associate a player based on their playing tendencies. Full Tilt Poker, the site I use most often, is probably the best for using this feature. Poker Stars is ok but it doesn't allow you to assign a color to each player. I will go over this more in depth in the official Sit and Go Expert program, but for now you should get used to keeping track of each player's type...

First Post

Hey Guys,

This is the first post for Sit and Go Expert. This blog will be specifically centered around sit and go tournaments, with some book reviews and hand analysis as well. Me and Z are currently working on a training program that will hopefully take your game to the next level and make you a winning player. We will examine all different types of sit and goes; 6 handed, 9 handed, turbo, super turbo, heads up, double or nothing, and shootouts. Hopefully our program will be available for purchase within the next year, so in the meantime you can just join the RSS feed or visit the blog and see what two winning players can teach you.....