Single Table Tournament Poker Strategy
Free tournaments are a type of poker tournament that’s free to enter. But, get this, these tournaments still give out real money and/or other prizes (i.e. Tournament tickets) to the top-place finishers. This makes them a great way to start a bankroll online, without having to risk one penny!
Some people like to play the cash games at Bodog Poker. Others prefer tournaments. You can’t go wrong either way, but you can get the best of both worlds by playing single-table tournaments (STTs). These tourneys are a specific kind of Sit and Go, where the game begins as soon as the table fills up. It could be a full-ring STT with nine players, a short-handed table with six players, or heads-up with just you and one opponent.
With STTs, you get to enjoy the fun of playing a tournament, and you also have a prime opportunity to build a bankroll – you can play up to 20 tournament tables at once when you play poker at Bodog. Fitting these STTs into your schedule is easier, too; a full-ring STT will be over in about 30-60 minutes, or even more quickly when you play a Turbo STT. Here are five tips to help you get the most out of this exciting and flexible format:
1. Tight Is Right in the Early Stages
As with any other tournament, when the blinds are low and there aren’t any antes on the table, you don’t have a lot of incentive to go chasing those chips. Open a tight range of hands, and don’t risk too much of your stack trying to complete your draws.
- Is your single-table poker tournament strategy a bit, rusty? Well, right off the bat I have to admit: single table tournaments (often referred to as Sit n’ Go tournaments) are my favorite poker games. They are a great mix of strategy that demands a degree of caution as do the larger multi table tournament games, but with the added.
- The Objective of Poker The main objective is to produce a stronger hand than your opponents and win the money. In poker’s case, that money is known as the “pot”, which is the money in the middle of the table that is accumulated via the wagers made by all the participants of that hand.
2. No Slowplaying Early
Since you’re opening with a strong range during the early orbits, you’ll usually be better off pounding that hand for value with bets and raises, instead of playing a trapping style with checks and calls. Unless you have the almighty nuts, getting your opponent to fold is more important than trying to take all their chips.
3. Get Aggressive in the Middle
Once the first few players have been eliminated, it’s time to take advantage of the other tight stacks at the table. Having the ability to change gears like this will put you one step ahead of your opponents – and help you avoid getting short-stacked.
4. Target the Right Players
When you’re close to the money bubble, make sure to target your aggression at the right players. If you’re the big stack, attack the middle stacks and leave the shorties alone. If you’re one of the middle stacks, stay away from the players who have you covered. And if you’ve got the short-stack, don’t be picky, just get those chips in the middle as soon as there’s an opening.
5. Know When to Push
At some point, you’ll probably be the short stack at the table. Treat this situation like any other poker tournament, and either go all-in or fold once you get down to around 10 big blinds. If you double-up, brilliant; if you bust, shake it off and immediately turn your attention to the next STT. Remember, no matter how good you are at poker, you can’t win ‘em all.
As we speak then STT’s or single table tournaments are played by millions of people in online poker every single day. The opportunity to play a fast action final table of a poker tournament is one that is alluring for many. To play STT’s for fun is cool and easy to do but playing them for profit is also fun as well. In fact if many more poker players simply treated poker as more of a recreational activity than a serious one then they may be more in tune with being able to accept the variance.
A standard single table tournament event has around ten players in it and typically awards prize money to the remaining three players with 50% of the prize pool going to the winner, 30% to second and 20% to third. The blinds go up very rapidly but that is their appeal because it means that people can play poker who don’t have loads of time to spare. A typical STT is often over within 30-45 minutes and in fact players have the option to play in as many as they can handle.
Unlike large field poker tournaments, STT’s reward survival more than it usually does. You only have to survive longer than seven other players in order to get to the money. This makes tight play during the early stages a very good strategy. If your starting stack is say 1500 in chips and the blinds are 10-20 then you can coast through the early levels without much erosion to your stack.
The fact of the matter is that you are not going to be able to get to the final three seats simply by folding so get rid of that notion right here and now. Many novices have tried that tactic and it simply doesn’t work. So you are going to have to change gears and become more aggressive but in an intelligent way. When your stack shrinks to say less than 10bb then you are looking for situations to get all in pre-flop.
Do not under any circumstances look to steal blinds and then fold to an all-in. Raising to say 3bb with 8c-6c from the button and folding to a big blind that shoves all-in for 12bb when you only have 10bb as a starting stack is terrible play. That is simply tossing away 30% of your stack without even fighting for it.
The biggest difference between big winners in STT’s and mediocre winners is in the frequency of wins that they get. This all comes down to aggression levels and the best players become aggressive at just the right times but which times are they? The best time to become aggressive is when your opponents fear elimination and this is when they are only one or two places away from the money.
Poker Tournaments Online
Nobody wants to have sat in an single table tournament for say 30 minutes only to then bust out in fourth or fifth place. That represents a huge waste of time and not to mention the lost potential of the cash out. So the best STT players become aggressive and take extra risks to attain the extra chips necessary to take them beyond third place and into the winners? enclosure.