26
Mar
2010

A Straightforward guide to playing ‘Sit N Go’ Free Online Poker games

March 26th, 2010 at 08:43 pm by FreshAire in General Fishing Clubs

Single Table Tournaments, or SNG as they are called, can be serious Bankroll boosters with a little forethought prior to play. I currently play a lot of free online poker sites as well as $5.00 and $10.00 SNG’s at several poker sites with a fair amount of success. This is a simple version of how I play them.

Solid and Tight early on.
By playing this way you must play a decent hand near the start of the tournament. Your place at the table is critical- Paris from twenty two through ninety nine, I call and then up to three times the big blind. A bigger raise and I fold them.

Big pairs such as 10/10, Jack/Jack, Queen/Queen, King/King & Ace/Ace I will always call for a raise on a short table.

Be prepared to call an all in with any of those. Hands like QJ, QK, KJ, and A 10 I play like small pairs and fold to raises larger than 3 times the Big Blind.

Now the hands that can get you into trouble.
AJ, AQ, and AK….you got to know when to fold them!! They are great hands when down to 3 or maybe 4 players left, but early on they are dead to any pair.

Learn to lay them down in the early part of a free poker tourney. One of the things I also do until the last 3 and in the money is show my winners. The table see’s Those KK and trip 7’s and so on. And I haven’t bluffed on a single hand…Yet. That comes when only 3 left. No more show and tell.

This sets up some great steals. All they have seen is winners from you…they have no reason to believe you don’t have them now.

By only playing premium hands in the early stages you allow the “Bingo” players to play themselves out. Chances are by playing Solid and Tight you will have the opportunity to take one or two out yourselves.

The bottom line is- you’re playing to win- and by winning you hope to make some money, and making money on the sit and go games takes a lot less effort. The majority of the time the top three will get some money and by coming third you normally break even. Therefore making the cash is crucial to doing well in sit and go poker games.

One major part of any game is determined by how close you watch the play. You wouldn’t believe the amount of games I have been involved with where a knuckle-head keeps picking up the chips due to the opponents being away with the fairies.

These are just a few common sense factors that I employ when playing for cash. I am well over 50 and have played poker in many forms and fashions for a lot of years, but I do have to agree with Doyle Brunson..”No Limit Holdem can be learned in an hour but takes a lifetime to master.” You go Doyle. Hope some of this helps someone improve their game.

To this I’d add, when you start or if you’re already familiar with poker but struggling – go and practice on micro/low stakes or free online poker site tournaments. There are some great ones out there and you can play loads with little or nothing at risk and in doing so really build your confidence and skills before starting to risk it bigger.

FreshAire