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.