Sit and Go Strategy Question

Sit and Go Strategy Question: Man I have been playing plenty of SNG's where I playing very very very tight. I have realized I am finishing close to the money, but not in the money enough. Also, if I do make the money by playing TAG, then its usually 3rd.

I am not sure how to incorporate some LAG in to my game and at what stage I should do it. Should I be stealing blinds more, or shoving it in from a good position?

Sit an Go Strategy Answer:There are many ways to look at it and just as many ways to address it. The common "mistake" I see amongst tight players is they have ONE GEAR and that is TIGHT!

You can sit and wait for cards AND you should play a solid tight game. But not so much to the exclusion of all other "gears" and poker plays. The "Tight" player almost always plays his cards and that is it. Some include a few positional plays.

Overall I believe tight to be a good BASE strategy and to add on to it so you can pull different weapons out of your arsenal during the war to win some battles you might have lost usually. In other words a well placed bet on the turn or firing a 3rd bullet might yield a pot you would have lost if you just checked. Raising from the SB with crap weak draw when it's folded to the button who limps in and you end up stealing the bb and the button raise. Calling a button raise with suited K or Q or better from the SB and then 3/4 pot betting the flop to take it via a stop and go play.

Watch for them in orange M and use a move to steal from opponents. At least the ones you have watched and know that THEY know how to fold.

Be willing to lose the game in 5th slot going all in to take a big pot trying to force a fold if you think you are ahead even if it's nothing but Ace high or 2nd pair. If you have been watching your opponent, you should know when they have or don't have a hand and if they do, what their range is based on how they are playing this one hand. If he calls and your read is right, he was on the draw and he don't MAKE the draw, you will double up, bust him out maybe and be on the bubble with a nice stack. THEN rock up but be ready to attack if you sense weakness.

Watch for the min raise from tight player. I keep seeing AA when they play me and they are hoping my aggression will pay them. Sometimes it does but for the most part, my aggression is selective and unless I have AQ+ I seldom get in there to a min raise against these players.

On the bubble you want to be VERY tight and fold things you usually play. As in with 5 players I may make an aggressive play with AJo, but will fold it to aggression on the bubble.

Once ITM, screw being tight if you are short, it's all in or fold. No sense in trying to be safe to "play for second". When you are the aggressor open your range, when calling, tighten the range, shove more as a reraise steal.

These are just a few ideas and it is geared for STT only and the BR builder. If you already have the BR and don't need to be "safe" some players begin the ITM style on the bubble and the bubble for 5 left and the 5 left strat for 6 players.

Develop gears and change up to play the player. Choose your hands for your position AND the player AND the situation in the game and make your move accordingly. For examply you should have a way you play AJo early, AJo late, (seats) AJo early in game, AJo prebbubble and AJo ITM. Be able to change what you do.

Hope this helps get the thought processes going on things you can try.

Disclaimer: None of these "moves" are to be used as an excuse to play bad. Be smart, be selective and choose the right spots and hands for the right players and situations.

ADD: There aren`t any hard and fast poker rules, but these are excellent strategy suggestions that can be implemented in your game with time and experience.

Sit and Go profiling: Fear the Duck?

A forum member disagress with some poker ebook content in regards to player profiling in tournament indicator.
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In the e-book he makes a passing comment that "No particular style of player is better than the other" and uses the win at showdown statistic to clarify. He needs to go into more detail, however, because it is quite clear that a player who never bets is at a severe and utter disadvantage. Same goes for a player who all-ins every flop. Nevertheless, both could have 100% win at showdown in 100 hands. Albeit an extreme example, but the point is an obvious one.

Now, he points out that pros like DN can play the gambler style to perfection, and whilst this is true, the same holds for the duck.

First, I'm not sure if Marty states anywhere in the e-book that we are solely discussing 9 seated sngs. Because if we're talking 6-handed, then it is an imperative to play at least 30% of the hands, which would be about average. In this case I guess you would change the parameters of the program and make perhaps >40% vpip loose instead of the default settings. Nevertheless, this was a key point missed, because ducks can dominate the short handed sngs imo.

And I don't mind to be a duck at a full table either (perhaps not quite >30 vpip, but high 20's) . I'd even go as far and say that they are the most dangerous and feared opponents at the table, mostly because of their unpredictability. The neutral AF is something we agree on, as you seem to be in love with Eagles. I agree, because you do not want to be someone who bets too much, and on the other side, of course, not enough.

Yet, who is more feared: a tight smart eagle mostly playing conspicuous hands, or a loose-ish highly unpredictable smart duck (granted both can be unpredictable)? Gamblers/maniacs may be more feared in the short term, but generally their over-betting might be their downfall or seen as a leak. And they tend to not call enough, so betting into them knowing they will mostly raise or fold can make it pretty easy to play a hand against them.

Marty goes on to say:

"The EAGLE and the DUCK are equally measured as neutral, however, the eagle knows why he is neutral and the duck really hasn't a clue and will probably end up as a calling station or a gambler soon enough."

I guess this is to be taken at face value because it's a general remark. But earlier he said that no style is better than the other and that just because a player is loose it does not mean they are bad. So this is an unfair and unfounded bash at my precious duck!! Razz

He said that it's hard to stay at neutral af, but this is actually simply incorrect due to simple mathematics. It is actually quite easy and I have stayed there many times end-to-end in very long tournaments.

Another general and useless comment was that the duck is unbluffable. I can see the general comment towards gamblers to be a valid one, but again, you said there can be smart gamblers...why not give the same courtesy to ducks?

In short: quit bashing daffy, he's the one taking your money without you having a CLUE what he has and what he's going to do.. if he's clever enough Very Happy

Otherwise, interesting read and well done.

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This may be the case but being a duck in low level poker surely means what Marty says 'they dont know'.

I suppose in higher level tournament a duck can be good too counter TAG players that maybe cant play wel post flop, just speculating

I have never seen a duck be good player in any SNG ive played

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It's fine to be general and deal with just low-limits, but he then goes on to discuss Daniel Negreanu like I said in the op.

I've seen quite a few very good ducks in mtts, possibly sngs iirc, and they scare the shite outta me.

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doubt you have seen "good ducks". You may have seen lucky ducks.

Lag opposed to Tag neither is "better" as far as being able to win. It is the skill of the individual player that will determine if they win or lose long term.

Now it may be a 'duck' is only a duck as there are not enough hands measured to get a true "read" on the player and his icon will go through changes over time.

The real difference is that TAG is easier to learn and play a good TAG game. While LAG requires more skill and a LOT more post flop skills especially.

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I'm talking about long-term ducks.

And ducks aren't lags, no where near as aggressive. I even said my vpip might not even be >30, so I will be neutral/neutral, but close enough to be a duck, so that would be my label.

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Loose Neutral I believe is the duck. I know Marty references both LAG/TAG and Loose/Tight when saying neither is better than the other.

What is your concept of long term?

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Exactly, Marty says that neither is necessarily better. So if loose isn't bad, and neutral AF is good (Marty loves Eagles) ... then ducks are potentially deadly.

Long term? Maybe 50+ consecutive hands as a duck.

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50 hands is just over 5 revolutions

i dont think that it is very accurate

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Ok interesting discussion here, and I maybe I could review that stuff myself, but I think the responses to the original post are rather accurate and in agreement that a Duck is not a profitable player, short or long term.

Further to that end, I don't think you are going to find many (ANY?) long term Ducks in poker. The premise for any particular game may back-up my claim that one style is no better than the other, if executed well, but most games will not allow you to play like a Duck and win consistently. That player's profile, for that game or series of games will surely shift to Gambler, Calling Station, possibly even Eagle.

A "good player" may have a Duck icon (temporarily) because of deploying a strategy against another, single opponent whereby it is profitable to do so.

If readers of this thread are not familiar with the Sit and Go Strategy ebook it can be downloaded for free at www.SitandGoCertified.com

Double or Nothing Sit and Go Tournaments at Poker Stars

I noticed a new format today that is essentially Double or Nothing Sit and Go Tournaments at Poker Stars. Meaning, of 10 players that sit at the table, 5 will double their buy-in, while the other 5 are eliminated. The tournament ends when the last 5 player are determined.

I tried and cashed in 2 bucker trying to figure the right strategy to employ and also what these could mean for bankroll building strategies. They surely lack the excitement of 1-2-3 payout structure, but does anyone see how these could be useful?

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I played these for a while at Pacific. For a good player at low stakes they are pretty easy. However once you get up to the $50 buy-in (even at Pacific) they are still pretty tough and I basically concluded that the ROI was not there as compared to other game types.

That said, I think they could be a great learning / experience gaining tool, provided appropriate adjustments are made.

A few things I have observed:

1. Rake nips at your heels in these. You need to be cashing about 60% of the time just to show slow BR growth.

2. They play exactly the same as muti-prize satellites (eg 1 in 4 seats wins etc). That means you absolutely must know or get (even if not fully understand why) that chip values are non-linear and your current stack is way more valuable to you than the chips you hope to win by a big all-in clash. All of that basically means play rock solid tight (and somewhat passive) poker where you are just completely averse to coin flip situations.

3. The ICM structure theoretically means you have to be very tight and risk averse (see above). But most players (even at $50 buy-in) don't make this adjustment and play them exactly like a regular SNG. That means they are playing way too loose, which conversely means you need to be playing EVEN tighter than the already tightened adjustment game.

4. You would think that with this kind of ICM extreme bubble play dynamics, most people would intuitively get the fact that they need a huge hand to call a shove if it means their life is on the line. That should mean that big stack bully power is more effective. However that has not been my experience and "tight is right" continues to be the most effective strategy even on the bubble.

5. For all of those reasons which demand ridiculously tight play, it is a structure which I find too difficult to have good enough patience for.

6. If someone was learning SnGs playing these, and then made the transition to regular structures later, I worry that they would basically have to start re-learning from scratch because the ICM and bubble play is almost the complete opposite. That said, you get to play alot of hands for cheap and maybe they are a good BRB format for the experience element.


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They are very similar to the 5400 FPP SNG qualifiers to the Sun Mil where 4 people qualify. I never failed to qualify with them and ALWAYS played very tight, watching the donks playing normal SNG strategy and wasting chips or busting out. I didn't care as my aim was to double up slowly to 3000 chips and only take an interest in the game when it was down to 6 players. By that stage I usually had between 1500 and 2500 and there were guys with big stacks and 2 very low stacks. Basic conflict avoidance. I then focused on helping to eliminate the remaining low stacks.

In the 5/10 SNG, the strategy is the same. Conflict avoidance until down to 7 and then keep the pressure on the weak 2. In reality you are only wanting double up at most and 5th is as valuable as 1st, so do not chase it. The chips will come to you. If you are fortunate to have premium cards and knock a guy out early on, coast to the finish line. Do not try and be 1st.

The aim is win 2 out of every 3 games as a minimum, but 3/4 or 4/5 is a more realistic target.

I agree with phaedrus, it is harder higher up because the guys at the higher levels know how to adjust - but if you are BR building it is a good way to learn patience and discipline as you build a roll.

What sit and go course?

A forum member gets an informed response from DaveDaDonk in the forum:

Well I went for Moronses' online poker school, which was a "special offer" of $47 and you get all his written material, and access to videos on his web site. ONe video doesn't work. The course material is ok I guess but I got a lot more from Moshmans book. I'm gonna get Marty's SNG 3 pak videos.

I would advise against Moronse's as I am disappointed with it. I've heard Rothmans book material is about the same but I was sorry I used my limited funds to get Moronse's material instead. I understand the best part of Rothmans stuff is all the videos you get were he explaines hand by hand his method. I don't know if its' worth 97 bucks though. Maybe, but it's all pretty much the same info. I think videos are great though, because just reading hand analysis and trying the moves on your own in a real game can at times be daunting, but seeing someone explain it in an actual game and seeing it work seemed to give me more confidence in my games.

It might be more economical just to get Moshmans book if you don't have it already, and Martys' free videos and his SNG 3 pak for 10.95 I'm not downing Rothman and I wish I had the cash to spend on his course just because all the videos. But for now I'll have to stick with what I have. But for $97, you could get Moshmans' book and Martys' sit and go strategy videos and still have $50 to deposit in a poker account and get some practical experience.

From my own experience, my game has greatly improved by watching Marty's videos and rereading and rereading and rereading again sections of Moshmans book daily.


DaveBaDonk

"Never let them see you coming"
Al Pacino - Devils Advocate

Does it all boil down to sit and go math now?

Well with so many ranked pros playing sit and go tournaments for a living now, turbos no less, there has been a movement to purely mathematical decision modules near the money and in the money. Colin Moshman brought a lot of this strategy to light in his sit and go strategy book released from two plus two last year. Even he though, pinpoints some drawbacks of using the independent chip model exclusively to make decisions. Those drawbacks may include your opponents skill and relative positions at the table in a given hand.

I think a lot of Colin Moshman's success, and that of his readers, come from emanating his style during the high blind stages in sit and go tournaments. And yes there are equity decisions in this stage as well, but the pure aggression of it all, is what turns certain sit and go tournaments into relatively mathematical based games of chance. I mean, a lot of these guys just play turbo sit and go tournaments leading half the field orange and mzoned 20 minutes into the tournament. There just isn't a lot of play there for bluffing or re-stealing when I bet at the flop is going to pot commit you anyhow.

There is simply more luck involved in turbo sit and go tournaments. So you can expect some high variance swings in your bankroll if you play these in the upper limits. Check some of these big-time players out on shark scope and you will see a drop of $100,000 to $200,000 is not unusual. Unless you can handle fluctuations as big as that, I would recommend you stick to sit and go tournaments under $100, and avoid turbos. This way your bankroll will build more consistently but also allow your opponents sufficient time to make those inevitable mistakes found in the lower levels.

There is caution to be taken at the bankroll building stage that may actually preclude you from playing this style of poker, and that would be the correct math for you. Not everything can be boiled down to simple math when your bankroll is considered too.

Yes, it's good to know the numbers, it's even better with a firm grasp of sit and go ICM. But you still have to take care of your bankroll while building that upward graph, not only an ROI percentage, but your education as well.

Is it possible to build a bankroll from nothing playing sit and go tournaments?

If it is and someone had done it, please tell me how?

I usually play (free games) at Full Tilt Poker, but would was wondering if anyone has used another site that makes it easier to start from nothing.

I myself have built a bankroll from playing freerolls before (on FTP actually). I won like $15 in a freeroll and played way outside my bankroll (not recommended). I played a few $5 SNG's and then moved up to $10 sit and go`s building my bankroll to like $250. Back then, I had no discipline and played the .5/1 NL games and donked it all away.

You could try building your bankroll this way, but it is near impossible to do on FTP. I think the lowest limit they have is like .10/.25 limit or something like that. This will be way outside your BR and you most likely will lose it all. Pokerstars is the best way to build a micro BR because they have .02/.04 limit and you only need about $12 to play these games. So if somehow you can win a freeroll on PSTARS great, but I think you would be better off depositing a small amount of money into PSTARS.

Shop around for freerolls. As an American, your choices are limited but you should be chasing freerolls across several sites. Just don't forget to sign up with an affiliate for rakeback.

I'm completely out of touch with the freeroll scene and it may take doing some of your own research as people often don't want to share juicy ones. Stars is terrible for freerolls unless you're a VIP. Usually you want smaller sites that are more aggressive in their marketing to n00bs.

Some affiliates used to offer small, no deposit bankrolls. However, I'm not sure if anyone is doing that anymore and the big downside is that you're usually giving up all future rakeback so you don't want to do that on a major site you're going to want to play a lot at later.

Keep in mind though that doing it this way is far from the most efficient. You can spend a lot of time just trying to get a viable bankroll together when you could just deposit $50 and start grinding $2NL right away.

I started on Stars with PPA freeroll, won a few bucks, then busted. Stars then threw $5 my way for never having made a deposit. Worked through $1.20 Sngs and 2,3,5 table SNGs. Switched to 2NL and worked up to 10NL looking to move up to 25NL in the next couple weeks.

Bodog runs a lot of free poker and unlike the stars freerolls they draw fewer people and have only one stage to cash. Look at the private freerolls on stars, many should be easy to qualify.

Mid and Low Pairs

Its a good point you bring up here.

With low to mid pairs, there true value in NL Tourney play is hitting the set. So what you want to do with these hands in early stages of STT's MTT's is to see the flop cheap, try and hit a set, and double up with what is usually a strong lead.

You will hit a set with 2 paired hole cards on the flop about 1 in 8 times.

Here is a general rule of thumb. Call up to 10% of your stack to try and spike a set. There are some rules that go along with this.
- You must make sure one of your opponent has a bigger or equal stack
- Take position into consideration, are u likely to get reraised?
- your mzone, is it better to reshove /fold?

the reason it is 10% of your stack is maths.
you are 7.5-1 to hit the set.
if you double up, you will have invested 10% to win "90%" or getting 9-1.

hope this helps, ask questions if you need

sit and go mzone strategy

One more tip I've picked up. Your best hands early on in a sit and go are the hidden gems. The suited connectors and small to medium PP's. There so much easier to lay down when your behind and when you hit you get paid off.

I hate large pocket pairs when the blinds are low. They rarely make you a lot of money and when you are beaten you find it almost impossible to fold them and lose big.

Raise big with big hands early in the game at least 5*BB Is my guide and a lot more if you have multiple limpers. Be prepared to lay them down to a bad flop and action. In the first 3 round i tend to call all low-medium pp and SC's up to 3-4 times BB raises. I work out the implied odds first. this includes how many other people are in the pot already and use TI to figure out if there will be any more callers. The more callers in the pot the better the odds. (but the more chance you'll get beaten obviously) As the game moves on the reverse becomes true. Large PP become better value and smaller ones and SC become worthless.

Finally when your M approaches 5 (close to red mzone)you should look to push all with your full range of hands.

The other thing you should do which a lot of tight player don't is call when your in the SB with ATC. The more limpers the better, but IMHO the odds state that calling is mandatory with a couple of limpers already in the pot.

With 2 limpers your getting 7 to 1 on you bet if you call. Your only a 5 to 1 dog against aces with ATC.

Hope this helps.
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Play well. If not play lucky.

Sit and go emotions

Some of the biggest challenges facing sit and go players while bankroll building and getting to learn the game has nothing to do about the game at all. It has everything to do with controlling your emotions at the table and not letting them inject into your decision-making. You know no limit hold them is one of the easiest games to learn, but as you have no doubt discovered it is one of the most difficult to make a profit long term.

I say that with a bit of apprehension because really with a bit of training and a lot of emotional control it's actually easy to make consistent profit playing sit and go tournaments online. The truth of the matter is though, that the large majority of online players lose money in sit and go tournaments. If you don't believe me, the next table you sit at queue up all of your opponents on sharks scope and see the red ink for yourself.

So if winning sit and go poker tournaments is so easy to learn, then the problem in losing money must inherently be derived from lack of emotional control.

This is truly one of the key facets to poker psychology that comes into play because it's one of the first tests you are going to be facing while playing poker online day after day. It essentially requires you to continually ask yourself - "Can I compete and learn in this game while controlling my emotions?" That answer lies in your poker account. Is your cash going up or down? Are you reloading or are you using other players money? Are you making the right decisions at game critical intersects?

Lack of emotional control leads to poor decision making and invariably, costly mistakes. It doesn't matter if you get lucky. It doesn't matter if you suck out. It doesn't matter if somehow you still make the money. If you press that all in button for any reason other than tactical strategy, your mistakes will become more and more glaring and more and more expensive.

Emotional control can be learned with experience, attentiveness, reflection, and a burning desire to improve. I mean have you ever seen Gus Hansen lose it at a table? Like him, and most other professional players, you must first recognize how emotions are a part of your game, and then learn to use them to your advantage.

Sample ICM Math Calculation

If you are really into ICM calculations for your sit and go skill set, then you should do what this forum member has done and try specific scenarios layed out in basic math. You can even post it in our poker forum for evaluation.

Situation: $5 SnG on the bubble, hero is facing all in push by button....Action goes: Cutoff ( Chip leader) folds, Button ( fourth in chips..aka villain) pushes, Small blind ( Second in chips ) folds, Big blind (aka..hero..third in chips) Fold or call push?

Hero dealt: [Ad 5h]
Blinds: 100-200
Payouts: 1st- $25 2nd-$15 3rd-$10

The stacks are:
Cutoff- 5937
Button- 2286
Small blind- 4475
Hero (Big blind)- 2302

Before the hand, here is how equity is split up:
Players Chips Equity
cutoff 5937 $19.79
button 2286 $7.62
Small blind 4475 $14.92
Hero ( Big Blind) 2302 $7.67

Call push and lose ( -$7.61)
Player Chips Equity
cutoff 5937 $19.79
button 4672 $15.57
small blind 4375 $14.58
hero( big blind) 16 $0.06

Call push and win (+$7.96)
Player Chips Equity
cutoff 5937 $19.79
button 0 $0.00
small blind 4375 $14.58
hero (big blind) 4688 $15.63

So we are risking $7.67 to potentially win $7.96 and using the ratio of ( risk/winnings)/( total equity/winnings) to get the percentage needed by a hand to win against a random hand to make this call +$ev

So ($7.67/$7.96)/ ($15.63/7.96)
So (.963)/ (1.963)= 49.1%

This means are hand needs to win at least 49.1% of the time to make this call +$ev...

Ad 5h against any random hand has 57.697% equity is this making it a clear call....

I would like to know how my math is in this ICM question. I hope this makes sense and i am starting to get the hang of ICM...

Just to throw in a wrench, villain is playing semi passive and has been playing tight over the last maybe 10-12 hands....does this mean that we ignore the ICM calculation and put villain on a better opening range or do we still abide by ICM and call?

And if we do ignore ICM then were also ignoring a +$ev situation (provided my math is correct) which means were making a mistake, but since were on the bubble does that mean its ok to ignore this +$ev situation? Hope this is making sense and somebody can check the math and then determine what we would do in these other situations..

Sit and go action planning.

The forum is discussing how to "plan" for profit with sit and go action in particular. I must admit I have never really had a plan in place either, but am open to the concept. I have always felt that moving up the bankroll, using my poker calculator, was a positive plan in itself.

I don't really make these sorts of plans.
I used to in the past but I don't feel like it gave anything. I would make these sorts of plans if I needed to regularly withdraw money or challenge myself, but if I just play and try to learn and make a profit I don't think I need that kind of thing.

I lately found a great spreadsheet for tracking all sorts of things, the best thing being that if I want to know something new I would just have to create a new function and I can change everything there. And now I also can track how much I have deposited and withdrawn from different sites and where my money is located. I used to use these online tracking sites but I still had to keep track of my withdrawals/deposits/bonuses and so on. Thanks to the spreadsheet I am very aware of what's going on with my roll and I feel that's all I need.

I try to play the most profitable poker games and only set a rule when I'm moving up/down. I never make these plans like how many weeks it would take me to play 500 S&G and what I should earn by playing them.

I just feel that setting some goals and then not reaching them would make me feel even more dissatisfied with my game and that's not what I want.

The only goal that I could think about atm is becoming profitable at the $10 lvl S&G at Full Tilt but have no idea how long it would take. :S I've only played 3 S&G's after resolving problems with my account at FT so far and they are on lower lvls.

sit and go profiling video

This is a clip of one of 4 videos included in the sit and go profiling report available anywhere on the main website. It is 21 pages and uniquely combines the icons in tournament indicator with the traditional TAG/LAG grid that Alan Schoonmaker first described in his book, The Psychology of Poker.

Sit and Go grinder has big decision.

One of our regular forum posters has become so proficient at sit and go poker strategy he is now getting offers for sponsorships and poker bankrolling. In that however has created further complications in making a decision:

From Raz in the fourm: I posted last week in my SNG grind thread about me not playing very much online due to exams. I also happened to be in the midst of a 62 buyin downswing (about 1.5k) which didn't exactly provide much motivation to play.

I've also been playing at the local casino a lot in the last 2 weeks. Basically working in the day and playing at night. It turns out that live games are ridiculously soft. In the 10 trips that I've made there, my original $360 is now $4k. 60% of the winnings from poker tournaments, the rest from cash games.

With live poker going so well and online going so badly I was seriously considering withdrawing my bankroll from full tilt and playing some bigger live games further afield, travelling with a friend (that will make an appearance later).

So this morning I check my emails and find an email from a company that sponsors poker players to play on a range of different poker sites, the main ones being iPoker skins and Mansion. I had heard of this company from some other people at the casino and they have offered me $200 a day sponsorship to play the $20 STTs on ipoker. Then once I make $500 total profit I move up to $500 a day playing the $50 games. I keep half of the profits. No rakeback deals until I'm up to $1,000 a day sponsorship.

When theres a 1.5k downswing going on, playing with other peoples money sounds like a very good idea.

Later that day I get an email from the friend that I mentioned earlier. He plays the highest level SNGs on poker stars and cake. He wants to stake me 100 buyins for the $55s on FT for 50% of the profit and 50% of the rakeback.

So really I have no idea what I want to do. Technically I could take both staking offers, but then I'd have pretty much no time to play live, which has been extremely profitable. Rakeback playing the 55s would be pretty substantial and playing higher would be nice (I know that the games are still soft at the 55s).

So yeah, just thought I'd throw that out there. If anyone has any opinions or any thoughts on this, please, go ahead

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If you are this good at the game, I really don't understand the benefit of playing fro someone else. Not to mention the added pressure of having to post results and play when you really don't want to play (or shouldn't be playing). This decision in Poker is an odd calculation of new variables you have not yet encountered. If you do go ahead with it, start very small and give yourself a test period of say 3 months or so where you can walk away if you have to.

Someone watching Turtleknife in a Sit and Go

A contributor From the forum questions one of my hands online he was watching: oniondan wrote:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2914758 That is the beat but after watching the videos saying you should keep it tight early on id like to know what you had when you put your entire stack in with this hand http://www.pokerhand.org/?2914761 did you think people would fold or did you have a monster and begged for a donkish call? thanks, dan

This is a multi-table sit and go tournament.

I have this tournament recorded, but I dont remember the second hand - however sure looks like a mid pair being protected here. I dont think its a mistake to protect your hand against loose players by shoving after the flop if I figure they might be waiting for an ace or king to fall. I am big odds favorite here and way ahead there with the best hand, and I want to make it very expensive for a wanker to want to look for his card.

The alternative in this spot is to value bet, and then see an ace on the turn or river.... I am usually screwed! It is all relative to my profiling of the players too in that I got TWO full tilt kids to fold there.... I was probably better off with that result.

Poker After Dark Sit and Go Table?

Poker After Dark tables are essentially sit and go tournaments. I saw annie duke recently donk of her stack to kristy Gazes when she still had a Yellow MZone stack. Her brother, Howard Lederer who was also at the table was looking on, none too impressed.

For those of you using a poker calculator playing tournaments, I just wanted to say that Tournament Indicator is the only one designed specifically for holdem tournaments and hence if that is your game, this is the tool you need to consider.

It also measures your mzone during STT and MTT play and that allows you to know how desperate your situation may be at any given time - no more guessing. In addition it has all the other popular indicators like VPIP, Aggression Factor, WSD%, and WSDW%. Something unique to tournament indicator also are the streak and balance indicators which are really handy in figuring the range of hands your opponents are playing.