Comments: Common Beginner Pitfalls To Avoid

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i'd like to add that you should pay attention to how people are building up their stacks. are they picking up pot after pot? or did they call an all-in with a draw only to hit their hand? just because someone has a large chipstack doesn't necessarily mean that they are a good player.

time for Sherrif VQ ..... apologies ..... King Bitch Slappin' Master Pimp to stickify this methinks.

I'd like to add one very specific tip that is becoming more useful all the time. It is this: a guy limps from early position, you raise in late position, and he re-raises (possibly going all in). This is not a bluff. It's the pre-flop version of a check-raise, and there's at least one player in every SnG who likes to do this with pocket kings or pocket aces. Now you know what he has - act accordingly.

A couple of things:

1) Pay attentionto the other players. Sounds simple and straight forward, but you need to know who limps with low pp, who chases with a flush draw or str8 draw, how far they will chase, what preflop raise is standard (is it 2-3X the bb for a tight table, is it 4-6X for a loose table, who folds to which bet, etc). Also, you NEED to know who bluffs and/or will call down with TPLK or worse (this should be your ATM).

2) Play tight early (and if you play, you are looking to win a big pot/double up. Risking chips for a 60 chip pot doesnt accomplish anything. Wait for a big hand and play it HARD!).

3) Play aggressive late (steal blinds, pick on the mid stack if chip leader, standard aggressive bubble play, etc)

4) Think through every decision. Couldnt tell you how many times when I started out my brain screamed "Raise me, huh? Lets see you call this!" only to lose to a monster because I WAY overvalued my hand and rushed to bet. Think it through.

Thats it for now, just my 2 cents.

agreed dalecooper this happened to me a few times previously. A question I have is when is it a good time to make this play? limp a monster hand preflop hoping for a raise to which you can re-raise? whats the mimimum hand you would need to make this play? Or would you always raise preflop?

Don't waste chips. Every bet has a purpose, make sure you understand what that purpose is.

When you get a huge stack, don't immediatly start pushing the table around with JTo or Q9o. Take a few hands off, ops are much less likely to resteal if you take 5 hands off and pass on clear steal opportunities after getting that big stack.

When you're in the money, never settle. If its 5k, 4k and 1k stacks don't assume you need to gamble to get back in this. unless blinds are 250/500, you can try and find a spot where you're good to double through.

If you're on the bubble with a big stack and the second or third stack raise, push with any two. You'll feel like a rounder.

-'rilla

One other thing, with suited connectors: Watch yourself when you flop a flush when you are playing the low suited connectors and ocassionally you will flop two pair play these very fast and hard.

Also in late parts of a tourneys when you goto steal blinds REMEMBER THAT A 4x-5xBB WILL DO THE SAME THING AS AN ALL IN BET. To many begginers will go all in when it is not nessicerry and risk alot of there chips.

Also dont raise the blinds everytime on the button. In order to receive respect you must give respect... So if u want them to fold dont raise the blinds every single time!

stickified

anyone who posts something stupid will have to report to staresys dragon.

Yes agree i would also like to add

Hands like k/js a/10s etc i hardly play them early on or if theres raises oh i have pot odds with my pocket 4's cuz theres 4 people calling. Oh yeah ill call that one raise with the 7/8s cuz 3 other people are seeing the flop before u know it ur stack has been dwindled to nearly 1/2 of what it was. Limping with a/j calling raises cuz the pot is multi way. Pot odds are definately not worth it in SNGS.

Playing small pairs, suited connectors, k/js, a/10s a/js ill never raise with these hands early on even if tehrs a ton of limpers i may even fold but probably not a/js. I feel when u start playing tons of these "pot odd" medicore hands ur just burning chips i feel in SNGS u gotta play much tight early on sure maybe when its done to 5 maybe 6 and im on button or possible cutoff ill raise with the a/j but ill definately enver raise with k/10 k/j etc on the button i might just limp in. SNG's definately seem to be avoiding tough situations earlier on. Multi tables are completed different ur gonna have to build a stack because of the MTT..

Just my 2 cents (Don't burn up tons of chips because u had pot odds, avoid draws, play tight)

I switch it up with the jacks sometimes il raise with em early sometimes i wont. Probably 70ish 80ish percent of the time i will....

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One thing I would add, it is ok to limp with suited connectors or 10 10, JJ and try and hit your cards. If you don't or someone raises then it is easy to escape the hand early in the SnG. However, one thing I see people doing constantly is limping in or only raising 2xBB with big hands pre flop. If you are going to bet into a pot pre flop make sure you make the appropriate raise and make that your consistent bet ie 4xBB regardless of what you have. If your table image is tight and you are trying to steal the blinds mid to late SnG, there is no point in making a mini raise when you have previously been raising 4xBB with big cards that people have seen at the showdown. Tight passive players are the easiest to read because they are to damn scared to lose their chips so make stupid mini bet raises.

TLR,

Thanks for helping beginners out with this post. I added it to our html tournament strategy section on the http://www.flopturnriver.com/Sit-n-Go-Beginner-Pitfalls.html page.

Here's a couple of things I think begginers need to avoid.

1. Don't get married to top pair, and you should only be in the hand if you're confident in your kicker. I fold top pair middle kicker to any aggression on the flop early on.

2. Play tight early on, and tight for the most part. SNG's reward consistentcy, so just making second or third place is enough to be very profitable, although first place is always nice. I rarely get knocked out early because I'm barely involved. When the blinds get to the 25-50 level I start to loosen up and 50-100 is where I start stealing. I'm always looking for a spot to double up in the mid stages, but I want to be almost certain I'm a favorite or at worst a coinflip. If my hand holds up I have chips and raise at will from there on out.

3. Never give up. Early in my last SNG I kept betting and this guy called me down with AK and no pair, all the money was in on the turn and I had pocket jacks (overpair), he hit an ace on the river and I was knocked down to 150 chips. I ended up all in three way with ATs. I hit my straight on the turn and a flush on the river and tripled up. I kept chopping away and eventually took the chip lead. I finished second overall, but I never gave up and that was key.

4. Don't overvalue hands like QJ or KJ, or even KQ. These are trouble hands that are often dominated. If it's folded to me in LP or if we're shorthanded I'll raise, but other than that I tend to toss it away.

I never looked at this thread before. This is some great low SNG advice.

I can definitely vouch for losing a LOT of chips with KQ, QJ, KJ. The flop misses, I c-bet, someone calls me down with middle or top pair when I don't catch my hand and can't push him off his. Or if I try to push him off his, and he catches me.

This is a glaring leak in my SNG game (trying to push people off pots with marginal hands). What is a more telling sign that you are beat, a rereaise on the flop/turn, or a call? And if I get to the river and face a reraise, I seem to hate to lay the hand down for the fear of appearing weak and vulnerable to being pushed off my own hand. As a matter of fact, I folded to a reraise one time and told the guy nice bet, and he said, "it was easy...you had nothing". Which I did, but apparently I was too easy to read....I feel I play relatively well preflop, but postflop my play needs a lot of work. My best (and it seems only) move in these things is to rep an Ace and push people off hands.....

PS I play $5.50s at PokerRoom currently and do not have my own computer, so I can't download PokerTracker (which probably won't help me in an SNG anyway....).

Wow these are some great tips. A newbie like me will learn a lot...

Wow there is some great information here for those who are new as well as those of us that have been playing awhile (like 3 years now) and i got alot out of it and plan on reading the rest of the articles you guys put in here if I can learn to navigate around this site and find the other articles - I am a bit computer challenged I am afraid. But thanks for the words of wisdom and different ones giving their take on the sit n go strategies. Very Happy

lol~~~~~~~~~~~

Someone may have already touched on this, but I also wanted to mention that sizes your bets, particularily pre-flop, plays a key role in disguising your intentions in a sitngo. This becomes more important toward the end of the game when the good players are hanging on and you are starting to "track eachother's moves". When you raise pre-flop, you should raise the same percentage every time. This may mean you have to pre-flop raise 120 on AK and then do the same sometimes on a 3 8, but in the long run it pays off and you learn 2 important things about the table while doing it. 1 Who plays loose vs tight? 2. What relative hand strengths am I playing against this hand?

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Comments: Common Beginner Pitfalls To Avoid

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Comments: Common Beginner Pitfalls To Avoid