The Bake Poker

Playing the Middle Stages of a Sit-N-Go Poker Tournament

2006-09-13T13:00:00.000-04:00

Playing the Middle Stages of a Sit-N-Go Poker Tournament

Anyone who plays sit-n-go poker tournaments
has probably read a zillion sit-n-go strategy articles. They typically tell you to play tight early and go pushbot late in the sit-n-go. Playing tight early is pretty self-explanatory. Pushbotting is also self-explanatory, although more complicated than most people believe. However, it’s the middle stages of a sit-n-go poker tournament where people seem to find the most ambiguity.

In this article I’m going to cover one aspect of playing the middle stages of a sit-n-go poker tournament: Playing Your Stack.

Getting to the late stages is all about recognizing the size of your stack relative to the blinds and understanding the things that stack size allows you to do. This basically has to do with fold equity, which simply refers to the value that your hand has simply by betting or raising such that all opposing hands fold. The more streets you can play with fold equity with your stack size, the better off you are. That is to say, the better your chance of getting to the late stages.

At the bottom are the very small stacks. These are anything smaller than 10bb. They’re already in pushbot mode so there’s not much to say about them. If you find a hand to play, you push. The reason is simple. If you decide not to push, say you open for 3.5bb, what do you do on the flop? You’ve bet 35% of your stack in already. If you have one caller, you’ve got 6.5bb left to bet into a 8.5bb pot so you can’t even make a full bet on the flop. You’re better off just putting it all in preflop where you still have some fold equity.

The next stage is a stack size that can still have fold equity in the turn. If you open for a standard 3.5bb raise, for example, you’ll need a stack of 12bb assuming one caller. This is because the pot size will be about 8.5bb after the flop (bb + sb + your 3.5bb + caller’s 3.5bb). So to make a pot-sized bet on the flop, you’d need to have started with 12bb.

Likewise, assuming you’re called, to make a pot-sized bet on the turn you’d need 25.5bb. By that point, a significantly smaller bet will probably still have some fold equity but you get the point. The possibility you can make another big bet on the next street is a large part of what gives you fold equity on early streets. The same logic applies to being able to effectively bet the river.

Now I’m not saying you should try to play to the river each hand, or advocating you should always bet the pot. I’m just using this as a yardstick for the amount of flexibility in your play that you’ll have for a given stack size.

Now that we’ve talked about this concept, consider that what will allow you to make it into the money is to not slip downward in terms of the number of streets where you have fold equity. You want to maintain fold equity over as many streets as possible. So before you start to make a bet, consider what happens if you lose the hand or are forced to fold the hand. Does making that bet mean that in the next hand you play you’ll be forced to push? Does it mean you’ll only be able to play one street?

Now I’m not advocating you play super tight, and never make a bet without the nuts. I’m just saying this should be your primary consideration. Before you make a bet, think about your stack and what the bet means to future hands.

This doesn’t just apply to making bets. It also applies to calling them. If you’re faced with a preflop raise, will you have fold equity on the flop? If you make the call and fold to a bet on the flop, what impact did the loss of those 3.5bb have on your stack for the next hand? This should be your biggest consideration when making loose calls.

Now if you have a very large stack, you can probably make a few loose preflop calls like this without an impact. If you’ve got a middle sized stack, you probably can’t. However, if you’ve got the big stack it’s easy to let this loosey goosey attitude carry over to the flop, and suddenly you’re calling a much bigger bet that WILL impact you.

In summary, it’s my belief that the fold equity and flexibility in your play that your stack size allows you is probably the most important consideration during the middle stages of a sit-n-go poker tournament when deciding to make or call a bet.

Sit-N-Go Poker Videos???

2006-09-12T09:05:00.000-04:00

I had an idea to post free sit-n-go videos like this one on my poker blog. Potentially, they'd have some commentary with them. Each video would be about 10 minutes and probably go through all the interesting hands of a single sit-n-go or maybe a montage of interesting hands from various sit-n-gos. They would mostly be my own play, but probably occasionally I'd get hand histories from some better known "guest players". What does anyone think of this idea? Would you be interested in seeing something like this?

Note: This video isn't me. This is just a random video I used as a sample. I'd expect much better picture quality.

On another matter, the U.S. Senate is Seeking to Ban Online Poker
PPA Phone March on Capitol Hill Scheduled for Sept. 12 (Today!)

Dear PPA Member:

Your urgent action is needed! On September 12th the Poker Players Alliance with the support of leading poker blogs and forums, PocketFives.com, Wicked Chops Poker and others are organizing a "Phone March" on Capitol Hill. From 9:00 AM Eastern Time, until 5:30 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, September 12th, we are asking all PPA members and anyone interested in defending poker to call this toll free number, 800-289-1136 and be patched through to one of your two U.S. Senators in Washington D.C. When you call the 800 number you will hear a recording from fellow PPA member Greg "Fossilman" Raymer and then you will be prompted to enter your five digit zip code so you can be directed, free of charge, to your Senators office.

Note: The 800 number will only be active between 9:00 AM EST and 5:30 PM EST on Tuesday September 12.

Key points you should make:

I am voter in your state.
I strongly oppose any legislation that would prohibit online poker, and urge the Senator to vote against such legislation.
Poker is a skill game enjoyed by 70 Million Americans.
The Senator should seek to regulate online poker much like the government regulates other forms of gaming, like lotteries.
Prohibitions dont work. Any legislation that tries to ban online poker will only drive those players underground.
Again, I urge the Senator to oppose any attempts to prohibit me from playing the great American game of poker on the Internet.

The threat to poker is real. Please forward this information to everyone you know who cares about poker and an Americans freedom to use the Internet. We need everyone possible to make their voice heard on September 12th!

Sincerely,

Michael Bolcerek
President
Poker Players Alliance

Is PokerStars the new PartyPoker?

2006-09-06T08:47:00.000-04:00

Is PokerStars the new PartyPoker?

I was really blown away by my experience at PokerStars last night.

When I started playing online poker, I played PokerStars. At that time it was the biggest and best known. Then about a year and a half ago I started playing PartyPoker pretty much exclusively. At that time I still preferred PokerStars software, and cashouts are always very fast. Also, at that time I was playing mostly limit poker, and PartyPoker had rebuy bonuses and the games were definitely fishier.

Recently I withdrew a bunch of cash from PartyPoker, as my bankroll there had gotten bigger than I like to keep in one place (shameless brag). So last night I’m fooling around with Neteller, and on a whim decided to deposit a little money at PokerStars. I only played four little $11 Sit-N-Gos, but I was blown away. First, the play was absolutely atrocious compared to what I’ve seen recently at PartyPoker. In two of my games we were down to six players in the first round. People were pushing half their stacks in to steal $20 blinds, and no one had any clue about bet sizing. There was also a tendency to severely overvalue hands with people calling all-ins early with things like KJo. I ended up with two wins and a third out of four games.

That was the good news. The bad news was that PokerStars formerly great software was horrendous. It seemed really unstable and I lost connection a couple of times. These were problems I used to have with PartyPoker but that they seem to have mostly fixed.

As I said, this was the first time I’ve played PokerStars in quite awhile so I’m not sure if my experience last night was normal or not with regard to either the software or fishy play, but if you’ve been playing sit-n-gos at PartyPoker awhile, you might give PokerStars a shot.

The 3 most important things to remember in Sit-N-Gos

2006-09-01T11:09:00.000-04:00

Today’s post is about something we all know. But it probably costs more sit-n-go players more money than anything else. The three most important things in profiting from small buy-in sit-n-gos are patience, patience, patience. I really believe any mediocre player can profit up to the $11s (heck, maybe even $22s) if he just remembers that early in the sit-n-go tight is right. Most of the time I remember, but occasionally I have a bad night and the importance of sit-n-go patience gets pounded back into my head to the tune of four or five straight wasted buy-ins like it did last night.

I’m not sure why but occasionally I boot up my computer to play and there I am:

Remember the Quik Rabbit? At the start of every commercial he’d say something like, “Patience is a virtue.” Then he’d put that straw in his mouth and, before he could help himself, he’d slurp down all that sludgy chocolaty goodness and be left with nothing. I’m not sure what turns me into the rabbit. Maybe it’s like Wallace & Grommet -- It’s the Curse of the Wererabbit! But I digress.

Chinese Proverb: One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life. This is definitely true in sit-n-gos. Equally wise is Benjamin Franklin’s quote -- "He that can have patience can have what he will." Maybe old Ben played sit-n-gos when he wasn’t chasing women or flying kites.

One final cliché and I’ll finish this rant. I forget who said it first but, “A tournament is never won in the first round, but it sure can be lost.” This is even more important in sit-n-gos where half the table are usually gambooling donks eager to beat each other’s brains in while you sit back and wait.

So here’s my new wallpaper. Think it'll help?

My Poker Stats (So Far So Good) & Some Really Great Poker Articles.

2006-08-25T15:31:00.001-04:00

If you read the four articles I've linked this week, I can almost guarantee you'll learn something that will make you a more profitable player.

I’ve been playing four Party Poker $11 SNGs a night, two-tabling them, and starting two more when both are completed. On the weekends, I’m playing quite a few more. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve played about 150 with my in the money (ITM) at 45% and return on investment (ROI) at around 19%. I’ve kind of decided, I’m playing too tight when it gets close to the bubble, which is why I think my ROI isn’t higher at that ITM%. Not that I’m at all complaining about those stats, realizing of course that it’s far too small a sample size to be at all significant.

At any rate, here are a few really, really good articles of interest I’ve run across over the past week:

A great article on c-betting by Curtains, one of the best SNG players around.

Avoiding Trouble with AK, another excellent article by Curtains.

A very good, very simple lesson in heads-up play by Raptor.

Theorem of Blind Stealing – A classic by MJ. It had been awhile so I decided it was time for a reread.

Building a Better Sit-N-Go Poker Pushbot

2006-08-18T11:21:00.000-04:00

Building a Better Sit-N-Go Poker Pushbot

I’ll probably be berated by some people for making this post. They’ll view it as “tapping the tank” so to speak – educating the fish. However, I think poker players who worry about these things are generally being silly. Most of the fish I know have already read any number of poker books. Many of them also frequent online poker forums. But for some reason it just doesn’t sink in, or they don’t take the time to really study and apply what they read anyway.

In my last article I mentioned pushbotting near the end of a sit-n-go poker tournament. Many hold’em players, both good and bad, follow this approach. Most of them don’t have much rhyme or reason as to how they go about it. They push based on reads. They push based on their gut. Or they use some set of formulas like always push with any two on the button in an unraised pot. So should pushbotting be based on? The answer lies in something called the Independent Chip Model (ICM). The purpose of this article is to simply lay out my plan for learning to be a better pushbot.

First, what is ICM? I’m not a math geek so I won’t go into the mathematical formulas. Essentially ICM uses equity to assign a value to chips in order to determine optimal poker play. However, a number of smarter poker players than I have already described ICM better than I could, so I’ll simply include a few links at the bottom of this page for further reading. If you feel so inclined feel free to read through those links to satisfy yourself that ICM is indeed a valid basis for pushbotting. Personally I don’t need to do that. All the evidence I need is the knowledge that most of the very best sit-n-go players use it.

So how does one learn to be an ICM pushbot? Well, here’s my plan, using some software tools available for purchase on the Internet. By the way, I am not connected with any of them and in absolutely no way compensated for recommending any of these.

The tools are:

- Sit n Go Power Tools (SNGPT)
- Bubble Trainer (BT)
- SitNGo Wizard (SNGWIZ)

SNGPT is a software package that determines the correct play according to ICM, it can be used to analyze actual hands you’ve played in tournaments or to make up hands to analyze. You can change a range of variables such as stack sizes, position, opponent hand ranges, etc to see how they impact your decision to push, call a push, or fold. The software’s author is recognized as an authority on ICM and his reputation for excellent service and updating of the software is excellent.

Once you’ve played with SNGPT awhile, analyzing hands, you can test yourself using Bubble Trainer, which is web-based. Bubble Trainer essentially places you at a short-handed hold’em table and places you in a variety of situations that call for using your ICM skills. It then tells you whether you acted correctly or incorrectly. Again, you can review the hands that you missed in SNGPT, change variables and figure out why the move was incorrect. Read here for exactly how to use SNGPT.

Since the math behind ICM is fairly complex, it isn’t really practical to be doing it at the table. Therefore the goal is for proper pushbot play to become intuitive. This is where using BT comes in. Through pure repetition and analyzing mistakes, you hone your pushbotting until it’s second nature.

The third tool, SNGWIZ, is fairly new. It essentially provides the analytical tools of SNGPT and the ability to quiz yourself like BT in a single package. It has a nicer interface and offers some features that SNGPT does not. For instance, it handles opened pots with multiple limpers or raisers and overcalls or three-way showdowns, which SNGPT does not.

Price comparison: SNGPT is $79 to buy the software. Bubble Trainer is $24.99 PER MONTH. SNGWIZ is $99 to buy the software. Yes, they’re expensive and only useful to someone who will take the time to learn them and use them.

So SNGWIZ really looks like a much better deal. The biggest knock on SNGWIZ is that it’s untested. It was only released last month and early versions were buggy. It may or may not be fixed. Also, the author of SNGPT is well-known and well-respected, and has built up a very loyal following, whereas the SNGWIZ author is simply not well-known yet. I’ll let you make your own decision as to which makes more sense for you. I’ve bought SNGPT and SNGWIZ, and used BT’s trial but I don’t have a clear preference yet myself.

So those are the tools available. Now on to the plan!

First, this is how SNGPT’s author recommends using his tool. This is essentially how I intend to go about using either SNGPT or SNGWIZ. He also has some very well-written tutorials included with the SNGPT software that you don’t get with SNGWIZ, as well as future tutorials he’s already promised.

So my plan for using these tools is very simple.

Step 1 – Spend a few days replaying old tournament histories in either SNGPT or SNGWIZ to get a feel for places I’ve been pushbotting poorly (I’ve done this step).

Step 2 – Spend a few days playing with SNGWIZ’s quiz function or BT, applying what I’m hopefully learning. Then replaying the missed hands in SNGPT or SNGWIZ.

Step 3 – Prior to each session, I’ll spend 30 minutes with either Bubble Trainer or SNGWIZ’s quiz function to warm up my skills.

Step 4 – Following each session, I’ll replay key hands in SNGPT or SNGWIZ to compare my actions to optimal ones.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat steps 3 & 4. There. That’s the easy part!

There’s one crucial skill that I haven’t touched on, which is easily the most difficult to master. A key variable when using ICM to determine the optimal play is the range of hands that your opponent will push with or call with. In order to get a sense for this, you have to pay attention throughout the tournament. Taking player notes is also helpful. You’ll have to get a sense for what kind of player he is. Is he a loose caller? Is he hyper aggro? Will he raise with any two cards? Will he call and all-in with only the top 5% of hands? In order to use pushbotting effectively it is crucial that you get a sense of this and effectively assign ranges of hands.

Now there are a couple of tools that can help you with it during a game. I’d note that they may be of very limited use, and should certainly not be relied on exclusively. They are:

- Pokertracker (PT)
- PokerAces Heads Up Display (PAHUD)

PT is a software tool that records data from the games you play or observe using hand histories that your poker room places on your hard drive. PokerAces HUD is a PokerTracker add-on that displays statistics that you choose on your table display to help you see what kind of player you’re up against. What you want to do is configure your PokerTracker software to continually import data and update the stats displayed by PokerAces HUD.

A caveat. First, if you’re playing according to the strategy in my last article, your style of play will change throughout the tournament. It’s very possible your opponents’ will as well. So stats recorded early in the tournament may be useless later in the tournament. You can set filters in PokerAces HUD to only use data recorded when a certain range of players is at the table, which can be useful but limits the amount of data being used. The amount of data recorded from a single SNG may not be very useful. If you play against the same opponents frequently, PokerTracker will record more and more data on your opponents, which hopefully makes PokerAces HUD more useful in assigning a range of hands. The statistics I have PokerAces HUD set to display are: Voluntarily put money in pot, Preflop raise %, Attempted to steal %, Called preflop raise %, Folded small blind to steal %, Folded big blind to steal %, and Aggro Factor.

Other than PokerTracker & PokerAces HUD and using player notes, I don’t know of any tools to help with this. Since it’s a crucial factor in pushbotting decisions, it’s imperative that you practice, practice, practice this skill. Don’t just keep playing and expect it to come. Consciously practice the skill. When it’s late in a tournament continually be thinking, what kind of player is he? What will he push/call with?

Collected ICM Articles:
What is ICM?
What is ICM (#2)?
Links to more basic ICM articles.

Building a Poker Bankroll with Sit-N-Go Tournaments

2006-08-16T09:22:00.000-04:00

Building a Poker Bankroll with Sit-N-Go Tournaments

It’s been awhile since I’ve played any sit-n-go poker tournaments, but I had cashed out most of my bankroll and I really do believe SNGs or STTs (Single-Table Tournaments) are one of the easiest ways to build a poker bankroll quickly. Poker players in this forum post think the same thing. So while I’m rebuilding my bankroll, I’ll be playing a lot of these during the week, and playing the multi-table poker tournaments on weekends. This is also partly because SNGs take about an hour to finish. MTTs take several hours making for very late evenings when I get deep in one, which has a serious impact on productivity at my day job.

As I said, it’s been awhile since I’ve played them but I’ve been playing quite a few lately, the Party Poker $11s in particular, and they’re fairly easy for any reasonably disciplined and patient poker player to beat. The strategy is simple:

Early in the tournament, say rounds 1-3, tight is right. Just play ubertight, and by that I mean play nothing out of position except AA, KK, QQ or AK. In late position, play other pocket pairs for set value only if you can limp in. If the flop misses you, fold. Forget suited connectors. Why? Because you don’t want to chase your ships away at this stage, and doubling up with a big hand doesn’t mean much anyway.

In the middle rounds loosen up slightly, but never put your stack in jeopardy without a very good hand. By very good I mean at least two pair.

In the late rounds go pushbot. Anytime your stack falls below 10bb, if you’re going to bet, you should push all-in. By this time the blinds will be significantly higher so unless you’ve gotten lucky and now have a very big stack, you’ll probably be pushing a lot, often with junk. Blind stealing is very important at this stage. Try to do it in position. Pay attention to which stacks you’re pushing against. Big stacks may not mind calling you if they can afford to lose to bust you, and small stacks frequently feel they have nothing to lose by calling with mediocre hands.

Once you’re in the money, play very aggressively. Forget about second place. Play for first and settle for third.

The reason this strategy works are simple. Most of the donks playing SNGs play all wrong. They play way too many hands, trying to double up early. Just stay out of the way. You don't have to double up early, and chances are over half of them will knock each other out trying. Then the survivors suddenly see themselves getting closer to the money and they tighten up. That's when you take advantage.

I’ll probably write up a more complete strategy guide sometime in the future, but this is really all you need to know to be profitable at the Party Poker $11 level. There are some more advanced concepts that will take your pushbot game further, and some tools available to teach yourself those concepts. I’ll probably discuss them in more detail at a later date. However, they’re really not necessary at this level.

There are a lot of good poker players making a lot of money playing these small tournaments exclusively. A good player typically finishes in the money better than 40% of the time in these $11 tournaments and has a return on investment of around 25-30%.

As I said, to win at these takes two things -- discipline and patience. Playing such a small range of hands early in the tourney gets boring. It can be easy to justify playing a suited two-gapper from the small blind when limpers are giving you odds. Don’t do it. Just sit on your chips. It’s easy to chase a draw for one more ½ pot bet. Don’t do it. Pay attention and stay out of trouble (this is a reminder to myself after blowing two SNGs out my a** last night).

For those who haven’t played these before, one thing I’d clarify is that SNGs tend to play unlike any other game. They’re not at all like cash games and they don’t really play like a multi-table poker tournament either. Some people have tried to imply they’re a good way to practice MTT final table skills. They’re not. They don’t play at all like a MTT final table. The reason is simple. When you get to a final table in a multi, you’re usually already in the money, whereas SNGs typically pay only three places.

Poker Tournament Strategy and Just Paying Attention

2006-08-07T10:27:00.000-04:00

Tournament Strategy and Just Paying Attention

I played a few poker tournaments over the weekend, and in evaluating my play post-session, I realized something. I’m convinced that some problems that I’ve blamed on a failure to “shift gears” during a poker tournament are actually a deeper problem.

After one hand that I played particularly poorly, I realized that I simply hadn’t planned the hand well. I’ve caught myself doing this at other times, and usually berated myself sufficiently. Then I started thinking about it with respect to poker tournaments I’ve blown in the past that I had blamed on not “shifting gears” as the tournament progressed. In fact, it has nothing to do with tournament strategy or a failure to shift gears. It has to do with a failure to play the individual hands properly.

For instance, one particular thing I’ve had a tendency to do is see a lot of flops early in poker tournaments. I like to look for opportunities to double up early by playing a lot of suited connectors up to two-gappers, unsuited connectors, baby pairs, etc. I’ll even play them out of position frequently. When I have a $2,000 stack and it cost $30, or even $90 to play, why not?

But frequently I get myself in trouble when I haven’t doubled up. Instead my stack has slowly dwindled to $1,500 or so and the blinds have gotten up to $100. The next thing I know, I’ve called one big blind or even one raise too many and I’m short stacked. The problem isn’t that I don’t slow down. The problem is that I shouldn’t have to.

Here’s what I mean. There is NO SUCH THING as “early tournament strategy”. What many players call “strategy” is just laziness. I should be evaluating the playability of each hand individually. It happens that if you do play them individually, then I should probably play most of the hands I’m already playing early, and not play the ones I’m playing when I get into trouble. But if I weren’t taking the lazy approach and viewing it in generalizations like “early tournament strategy” instead of taking the hands individually, I wouldn’t fail to recognize that I shouldn’t be playing them.

In other words, when you play deep stack no-limit hold’em, whether it be early in a poker tournament or in a cash game, you tend to want to see a lot of flops. You have to see flops to make big hands, and you’re usually looking to play big pot hands such as connectors. When you’re short stacked, whether it be in a poker tournament or a side game, you don’t need to play big pot hands. You don’t have enough behind to stack anyone anyway. You look for hands you can take to a showdown. That usually means big cards.

Interestingly, I don’t seem to have this problem when a tournament gets into middle stages. If I’m still around, by the middle stages I’ve generally started paying attention and am playing poker the way I should (although, by then a whole new set of problems crop up). I guess the fix for this is easy enough; just smack myself in the back of the head a few times prior to starting the tournament to make sure I’m awake and paying attention.

I noticed another funny thing while reading a couple of truly bad articles on tournament strategy online this weekend. Both had somewhat lengthy discussions of “gap theory” as discussed in David Sklansky's classic Tournament Poker for Advanced Players. Gap theory simply says you need a better hand to call a raise than you need to make the same raise yourself. Although Sklansky first wrote about this idea in a tournament book, it is by no stretch purely a tournament phenomenon. The funny thing was that both of these horrible articles discussed it as a phenomenon that makes tournament poker different from cash games. Ugh.

A little more work on my Poker Plan w/ some good tournament strategy links.

2006-08-03T10:45:00.000-04:00

I outlined my reading plan in a recent post. Here are some players’ thoughts with regard to the order in which to read the books I recommended.

I got a little busy at work last week and was putting in some long hours so I opted not to play much in my exhausted state, but I have been doing a lot of reading. I’m still working my way through Sklansky & Miller's No Limit Hold'em Theory & Practice. And I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading in 2+2’s Multi-Table Tournament Forum and Small-Stakes No-Limit Forum.

I’ve also been working on fleshing out my plan for my poker education a bit more. Although I’ve played some larger buy-in online tournaments including $200+15s and $600+15s, it has been awhile since I played tournaments either seriously or consistently. Therefore, in the near term, I’ll be focusing on playing smaller stakes tournaments like the $3-$11 buy-in tournaments at Pokerstars and Party Poker. My immediate goal is to be playing at least one tournament five days a week. Here's a discussion of which online tourneys are best for small stakes players looking to build their bankroll.

I’ve also decided in the near term to focus most of my online reading to MTT strategy posts at the 2+2 Multi-Table Tournament Forum and similar other forums rather than on things like how to play Kjo out of position. My reason for this is that in evaluating my play, I feel like tournament strategy is a big weakness for me. When I don’t get deep in tournaments it tends to be because of something like playing too aggressively at a period of the tournament when I should be playing tighter or vice versa. I’m not getting the inflection points right – not changing gears. That’s just an example, and I’ll still work on the play of individual hands. I’m certainly not saying I’m an expert, but I’m going to try to focus on what I see as my bigger weakness first.

I’ve also been finding myself short-stacked too early in tournaments. This tells me a couple of things I’m probably doing wrong. First, I don’t think I’m playing enough pots early on. When I do play them, I may not be getting out of them quickly enough when I’m on the losing end. I’m also probably calling more often than I should when I’m not committed to the pot. Here are a few good posts on building a stack early in tournaments that I’ve been reading this week.

Survival is not the goal.

Survivors vs. Accumulators.

How chip values change during a tournament.

Small Stakes Hold'em by Ed Miller: the book every limit player should read

2006-07-30T13:19:00.000-04:00

Last week I gave a short review and recommendation for Getting Started in Hold'em by Ed Miller. If you’ve read it, you’re on your way to becoming a winning player. Assuming you’ve decided that limit hold’em is your game, there’s one more book every beginning player should read. Assuming you didn’t ride the short bus to grade school, if you read this book, and make some attempt to apply the principles laid out by the author, you WILL become a winning player. The book is Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play by Ed Miller.

If you’re a relatively new limit player looking at all the poker books out there and trying to decide, which book do I read first, look no further. There is absolutely no question that Small Stakes Hold 'em is the one correct answer.

Theory of Poker by David Sklansky is the single most important book ever written on poker. It is a seminal work in the field of poker literature. Every serious poker player should read it. But it is a book on theory, and where it leaves off, Small Stakes Hold 'em, picks up. Small Stakes Hold 'em essentially takes Sklansky’s book and puts it into practice for the small stakes hold’em player, in an easy, step-by-step manner.

Essentially, Ed assumes that small stakes players are mostly very loose, that is that play too many pots with sub-par hands. Ed uses the principles laid out in Sklansky’s book and uses them to extract as much money as possible from those players, and he does it in a way that is extremely readable and understandable for the average beginning player.

Because the book assumes loose play, its primary goal is to teach you to give yourself the best possible chance to win big pots, while generally avoiding throwing money away to stay in small pots. One difference between Small Stakes Hold 'em and most other beginner books is that while they seek to teach a beginning player to tighten up his game, Small Stakes Hold 'em instead teaches them to tighten up somewhat pre-flop, but use focused aggression post-flop.

While I’m calling this a beginner’s book, Ed points out that it is not really. The book is for small stakes players that know how to play the game, but don’t necessarily understand what it takes to consistently beat the game. If you’ve digested Getting Started in Hold'em and are looking for a next book, Small Stakes Hold 'em is perfect for you. If you’ve been playing awhile, understand the rules but aren’t winning consistently, Small Stakes Hold 'em is perfect for you. The reason I refer to it as a beginners book is not because it teaches beginner concepts. Small Stakes Hold 'em takes advanced concepts and makes them accessible to the novice player. However, if you’re a somewhat accomplished player, this is still a great book and one that will earn you money if you can apply its principles. Although the book teaches a way to apply the principles to a small stakes game, the concepts of implied and pot odds, pot equity, position, evaluating the board, etc. are equally important in higher games.

As I stated in a previous blog entry, my progression as a player during my first couple of years ran from tournaments to no-limit cash games to limit games. The adjustment from no-limit to limit was difficult for me. First I played too loose. I tightened up, and made money, but not much. This was the book that really made me a winning limit player. It can do the same for you.

If you’re a limit hold’em player and looking for something to take your game to the next level, Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play by Ed Miller is the one book you have to read.

My Poker Quest: Goals and a Plan

2006-07-21T14:53:00.000-04:00

As I stated in my welcome post, I’ve been playing for awhile but just recently decided to significantly intensify my efforts toward becoming a really good poker player. I think the best way to go about this is with a disciplined and systematic effort. What I mean by this is that like any journey, it’s tough to get someplace if you don’t know where you’re going.

So I think identifying goals is important. I’m primarily going to be playing single-table sit-n-go tournaments. I'll also play multi-table holdem tournaments, so I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to be doing a ton of reading about small-stakes limit games (although there is one book in this area that is truly outstanding and I intend to write a review in the next few days). I’m developing a plan to get where I want to go.

My primary goal is to achieve a 40% ITM rate and 16% ROI at the $33 level sit-n-gos. My secondary goal is a significant cash in one multi-table no-limit tournament. Let’s define “significant” as, say, a $10,000 cash.

In addition to playing, I think the best ways to improve my play is a thorough reading of applicable poker literature, reading through relevant articles online, and through reading and discussing the game with accomplished players such as those posting at 2+2.

There aren't really any sit-n-go books out so I'll read through everything I can find online, as well as the STT forum on 2+2.

I’ll also work on my MTT tournament book list. I’ve divided it into two areas -- no-limit play and tournament strategy. There are also quite a few books that cover both areas. After a through perusal of available literature, as well as consulting with a number of accomplished players, the following are the books I’ve identified as the very best to help me reach my goal. Some of these I’ve read, but it’s been quite awhile and they definitely deserve a re-read.

- No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice by David Sklansky and Ed Miller -- I’m currently reading this book. When I’ve completed, I’ll get a review out.

- Tournament Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky -- This book is acknowledged as the gold standard on its subject by most skilled tournament players that I’ve talked to, as one would expect given its author is poker's foremost theorist.

- Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments: Strategic Play (Vol. 1) -- I’ve read this one once, but it’s definitely great and worth a re-read. Author Dan Harrington won the world championship at the 1995 World Series of Poker, but his back-to-back final tables at the 2003 and 2004 WSOP main events is arguably he greatest accomplishment in poker history given the size of those fields. He's also a skilled author, writing in a style that is both entertaining and understandable.

- Harrington on Hold'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments: Endgame (Volume 2) -- I bought this one awhile back when I was playing a lot of tournaments, and never got around to reading it.

- Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategies for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. III--The Workbook

Word on the street is there is also a new small-stakes no-limit book coming out from Ed Miller and some very good co-authors. I’ll also be giving that a read when it comes available given Ed’s previous work. And World Champion Greg “Fossilman” Raymer is expected to have a book coming out. Given the Fossilman’s great posts on the 2+2 forum, he’s got an amazing ability to identify the important skills and teach them in a way that’s even understandable for a donk like me.

I think this reading list is more than enough for me to start with, but if you have other suggestions for me, I’d love to have them. Please feel free to leave them in a comment.

The 2+2 Forums: Your Free Poker Tutor

2006-07-20T12:57:00.000-04:00

If you read my blog on a regular basis, you'll probably notice that quite a few of my posts relate to the 2+2 Poker Forums. The reason is simple. Although I do read elsewhere, I'm convinced the 2+2 Poker Forums contain the highest concentration of poker brainpower on the Internet by far.

Names you may have heard of include regular 2+2 posters such as David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth, Ed Miller, Ray Zee, World Champion Greg "Fossilman" Raymer and others. In addition to household poker names, there are hundreds of posters there that play poker for a living and are willing to answer your questions. Think about that. Almost any serious poker question will be answered there by someone that probably makes a six-figure income playing for a living.

Why not piggyback on the knowledge that they've acquired through thousands of hands over thousands of hours, particularly since they're more than willing to share it with people who want to learn?

Here's an example of a few great posts there that I've been reading through this week:

Don't slowplay your big hands

Putting opponents on a range of hands

Small edges early in a tournament

Review: Getting Started in Hold 'Em by Ed Miller

2006-07-19T09:35:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are new players and happened to stumble across my little place on the Internet, your first question is probably where to start? The obvious answer is Getting Started in Hold 'Em by Ed Miller, who is definitely one of the best poker authors around right now.

The book gives a thorough overview of hold ‘em poker. GSIH takes a shotgun approach, aiming for breadth rather than depth. It doesn’t try to focus on limit, no-limit, tournament or cash games, but covers the basics of each. This is perfect for beginners who may not have decided on what kind of games they want to play yet, or who have been dabbling in all of them.

By explaining the most critical concepts, the book does a good job of giving a novice the basic tools he needs to go from “fish” to winner in small-stakes games. And despite its broad approach and beginner audience, the book does highlight some more advanced concepts such as Ed’s no-limit small-stack theory. Ed has a great talent for explaining difficult concepts so that anyone can understand and apply them. Not only that, he makes them interesting.

If there is a negative to this book, it’s simply that Ed tried to go too broad. There are better limit books, better no-limit books, better tournament books, but no better novice text covering them all. For that reason, I think it’s the perfect starter book to provide a sound foundation for future learning.

One note on poker books in general: My opinion is that there are a few good ones and a lot of bad ones. But I tend to take the view that if I learn one thing from them that helps me win one pot (assuming their teachings don't also help me lose pots) then they've probably paid for themselves.

For those of you who say poker books are expensive, I'm going to tell you a story. I had an acquaintance not too long ago. I'll call him "Rick". Rick, like many players, started watching World Poker Tour (WPT) or the World Series of Poker (WSOP) on television and started playing. He started making weekly trips to the local casino. I'd usually run into Rick at the bar where he'd invariably piss and moan about losing $50 or $70. Rick couldn't really afford to keep losing that kind of money. I recommended a couple of books for him, and he said he'd take a look at the local bookstore. Next time I saw him, he'd just lost another $70 and told me the books were just too expensive. He couldn't afford them. Well, you can see where this is going. "But, Rick," I said, "You just blew $70 because you don't know how to play. Why not just buy the $20 book? If it helps you break even next trip, it's already made you money because at least you didn't lose it all!" As far as I know, Rick still hasn't bought any of the books I've recommended. Hopefully you will, and with a little luck, you'll run into Rick next time you're at the casino.

Welcome to The Bake Poker!

2006-07-18T13:02:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Bake Poker!

If you’re reading this, you’re probably aware of the explosion in poker, both online and live, over the last few years. You’re probably also interested in becoming a better player. You may have played some home games or small-stakes games poker online, and now you’re hooked. You’ve read about players in their teens making six-figure incomes without ever leaving their bedrooms. You’ve heard about middle-aged players that have retired from their corporate or blue-collar jobs and replaced their income and more. There are genius academics having trouble maintaining their focus because they’re thinking about poker all day. They’re hooked. So am I. If you’re still reading, I’m guessing you are too.

So what is The Bake Poker? Why do we another poker blog?

The Bake Poker is my odyssey to become a better poker player. I hope you’ll come with me on the journey and that my musings and rantings will help you become a better player too.

I’ve been playing for a few years now, and I’m a winning hold 'em player. But, I’m not a good player – at least not nearly as good as I’d like to be. I was lucky enough to stumble across some good books and websites that helped me to become a winning player very quickly. However, I never put in the time or effort to become as good as I’d like. After a few months hiatus from the game, I’m jumpstarting my poker education. I started playing mostly small-stakes no-limit multi-table tournaments. Then I played Sit-n-Gos for a few months. Then NL cash games, and finally I moved to limit before my hiatus. But I think I enjoyed the no-limit MTTs the most, so that's where I'll be spending my time and tend to focus with this blog.

In doing so, I’ll be making a disciplined and systematic effort to learn the game. I hope my process will not only make me better, but serve as a blueprint for others to follow. There are much better players blogging and I hope you’ll be reading their blogs as well as mine. I know I will, and one of the things I’ll be doing with my blog is posting a weekly digest of good articles, blog posts, forum posts, etc. that I’ve found useful and hope you will too. I also intend to post some reviews of books I’ve read or will read. If I convince you to read them, I hope you’ll buy them through my links.

What I won’t do is go through discussions of hands I play. I’ll leave that to better players in other places. I’ll try not to post brags or bad beat stories. We’ve all got them and they’re a waste of everyone’s time. I also won't spend much time on "who's who" or gossiping about your favorite poker TV stars.

So this is it…post #1. I hope you’re here to learn and you’ll come back for #2 soon!