Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Multi-tabling Sit n Go Tournaments - How many is too many?
How many SNG’s is too many to play at one time? First, let’s squash the notion that playing 1 SNG at a time is even feasible. If you’ve never played more than one table at a time, you might be worried about what happens to your abilities when adding additional tables. Well, first, start by adding just one more table. Playing 2 tables at a time should really have minimal or no negative impact to your play, and by playing 2 at once, you are basically doubling your $/hr even if you don’t get any better over time as a player.
Also, what you’ll find is that if you’re playing more than 1 table, you will actually concentrate more on your play than if you’re playing just one. What I find is that when I’m playing only one table, I am also watching TV, talking to my wife, chatting on some instant messenger software, and probably chatting it up on my favorite poker related forum. When I run 4 or 5 tables at a time, I actually spend much less time on those other things, and I find myself spending more quality time on the SNG’s themselves.
So, playing more than 1 at a time is obviously a good thing, but, how many tables is too many tables? Ask any player the question of how many tables at a time, and you will get probably get a different answer from each player. Everyone has their own optimum number of tables. Remember the important thing with SNG’s is volume. The more volume you have, the better your hourly rate. It’s all about your hourly rate. So, some people say 4 tables is their optimum, and others may say that 10 or 12 is their optimum. Well, how do you find your optimum? It takes time, but it can easily be found by simple trial and error.
The important thing to remember is that your ROI will probably drop as you add more tables, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that your hourly rate will go down. Actually, your hourly rate should continue to go up. And once you do hit the point that your hourly rate goes down, take away one table from the number, and you have found your optimum number of tables to play at one time.
Now, before we start discussing the method for putting the above into practice, I need to spend a little time talking about how to accurately determine your ROI. I would say that a minimum of 1000 SNG’s should be played before you start to have a true understanding of what your ROI is at any game. After you’ve played 1000 $6.50 9 man SNGs, if your ROI is around 28%, you can rest assured that you have played enough games to get a good feel for how well you’re doing. Understand that we’re not as worried about your exact ROI as we are your comfort level with your play when it comes to how many table to play. We aren’t going to wait until 1000 SNGs to see how we’re doing. We’re going to take a look after just 200. While that’s nto a perfect way to determine ROI, it’s close enough.
It’s more important to determine how comfortable you are with the number of tables, and how different feels to you as a player.
What I’ve put together is a decent plan that, I feel, maximizes your games played, the time it takes, and your comfort level with any number of tables at a time. Let’s say that your game is $6.50 9 man SNG’s (since that is the example we used above). If you’ve been single tabling these SNG’s and you are sitting at about a 30% ROI, you’re doing well, but you could be doing better. To make the math simpler, we’re going to assume that it takes 1 hour to play a $6.50 9 man SNG. So, if you’re single tabling these games, and you’re maintaining a 30% ROI, then you’re making about $1.95/hr playing these.
Now, the first step is to add one more table. So, begin playing two $6.50 9 man SNG’s at one time. Now, how long do you stay 2 tabling? Well, I am going to recommend that you play a minimum of 200 games while two tabling. After 200 games, let’s take a look at your ROI. I realize there’s variance and that it could fluctuate and that 200 games isn’t enough to feel completely comfortable with the ROI, but it’s an easy number of games to play, and it will at least ensure that you’re completely comfortable playing 2 tables at one time. Like I said above, your ROI really shouldn’t change any at all moving from 1 table at a time to 2. So, let’s say that you do maintain the 30% ROI while two tabling. Well, guess what, you just doubled your hourly rate. That $1.95 has now become $3.90/hr.
All right, great, you’re now completely comfortable 2 tabling. Now what do we do? Well, we add another table, and we do it all over again. So, keep good records and run 200 SNG’s while 3 tabling. After 200 games, determine your ROI, and you’ll see that it might drop just slightly. Also, you’ll notice that after the first 50 games or so, you’ll begin to wonder why you haven’t been playing 3 at a time all along. You will be as comfortable playing 3 games at one time as you used to be playing 2 tables at a time. Let’s say your ROI dropped though to something like 25% while 3 tabling. Well, let’s do some math. Remember we’re saying that these SNG’s take 1 hour to simplify the math. So, if you’re 3 tabling at 25% ROI, your hourly rate is, $6.50*3*25% works out to about $4.88/hr.
Let’s try one more example, and let’s move up to playing 4 tables at a time. Again, play 200 SNG’s while 4 tabling and keep good records. Then, determine you ROI, and let’s say that your ROI drops to 20% while 4 tabling. Well, remember, volume is the key, and let’s see what that does to you hourly rate. $6.50*4*20% works out to about $5.20/hr.
So, what have we learned so far? Even though our ROI has gone down, the amount of money that we are making is still going up. Also, one other thing to keep in mind is that if you’re now 4 tabling, your making 4 times the FPP’s you were making while single tabling in the same amount of time. Okay, but when do we stop? Excellent question, and keep adding 1 additional table at a time and running 200 games and then determine your hourly rate. At some point, you will hit a point where your hourly rate is lower than it was at the last level. So, let’s say at 7 tabling, your hourly rate was about $6.80/hr after 200 games. Then you move up to 8 tables, and when you complete the 200 games, you find that your hourly rate has dropped to $6.30/hr. Well, you just learned that 7 tables is your optimum number of tables to play at one time.
In conclusion, let’s talk about all of the other benefits of multi-tabling. The first benefit, is that unlike moving up in buy in amounts, your bankroll required doesn’t really change all that much at all as you add additional tables. I would recommend 80 or 100 buyins in your bankroll whether you’re playing 1 at a time or 10 to 15 at a time. The other benefit of multi-tabling is how much faster you can earn player points from the sites themselves. Let’s say you earn 3 player points for each $6.50 played.
Well, when you were single tabling you were earning about 3 player points per hour, and if you get up to 7 tabling, you are now earning player points at a rate of about 21 per hour. Those player points can be used for any number of things. They can be used for buyin’s, free gifts, etc. By doing this it also increases your chances of becoming a VIP player on the sites you play. That could mean private poker freerolls (again free money). The last real benefit to multi-tabling is that it forces you to spend more of your concentration on the games you’re playing. This will also help you to become a better player and increase your skill level.
So, again, it’s not whether to multi-table or not. It’s all about how many tables is too many tables at one time. And, if you follow the plan, it should allow you to easily increase the number of tables your playing, and it will also allow you to become comfortable with the number of tables your playing. And, remember, it’s all about making more money. Good luck at the tables, and I hope to see some of you 8 to 10 tabling $27 SNG’s some day with a nice ROI for a pretty hefty hourly rate.
Also, what you’ll find is that if you’re playing more than 1 table, you will actually concentrate more on your play than if you’re playing just one. What I find is that when I’m playing only one table, I am also watching TV, talking to my wife, chatting on some instant messenger software, and probably chatting it up on my favorite poker related forum. When I run 4 or 5 tables at a time, I actually spend much less time on those other things, and I find myself spending more quality time on the SNG’s themselves.
So, playing more than 1 at a time is obviously a good thing, but, how many tables is too many tables? Ask any player the question of how many tables at a time, and you will get probably get a different answer from each player. Everyone has their own optimum number of tables. Remember the important thing with SNG’s is volume. The more volume you have, the better your hourly rate. It’s all about your hourly rate. So, some people say 4 tables is their optimum, and others may say that 10 or 12 is their optimum. Well, how do you find your optimum? It takes time, but it can easily be found by simple trial and error.
The important thing to remember is that your ROI will probably drop as you add more tables, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that your hourly rate will go down. Actually, your hourly rate should continue to go up. And once you do hit the point that your hourly rate goes down, take away one table from the number, and you have found your optimum number of tables to play at one time.
Now, before we start discussing the method for putting the above into practice, I need to spend a little time talking about how to accurately determine your ROI. I would say that a minimum of 1000 SNG’s should be played before you start to have a true understanding of what your ROI is at any game. After you’ve played 1000 $6.50 9 man SNGs, if your ROI is around 28%, you can rest assured that you have played enough games to get a good feel for how well you’re doing. Understand that we’re not as worried about your exact ROI as we are your comfort level with your play when it comes to how many table to play. We aren’t going to wait until 1000 SNGs to see how we’re doing. We’re going to take a look after just 200. While that’s nto a perfect way to determine ROI, it’s close enough.
It’s more important to determine how comfortable you are with the number of tables, and how different feels to you as a player.
What I’ve put together is a decent plan that, I feel, maximizes your games played, the time it takes, and your comfort level with any number of tables at a time. Let’s say that your game is $6.50 9 man SNG’s (since that is the example we used above). If you’ve been single tabling these SNG’s and you are sitting at about a 30% ROI, you’re doing well, but you could be doing better. To make the math simpler, we’re going to assume that it takes 1 hour to play a $6.50 9 man SNG. So, if you’re single tabling these games, and you’re maintaining a 30% ROI, then you’re making about $1.95/hr playing these.
Now, the first step is to add one more table. So, begin playing two $6.50 9 man SNG’s at one time. Now, how long do you stay 2 tabling? Well, I am going to recommend that you play a minimum of 200 games while two tabling. After 200 games, let’s take a look at your ROI. I realize there’s variance and that it could fluctuate and that 200 games isn’t enough to feel completely comfortable with the ROI, but it’s an easy number of games to play, and it will at least ensure that you’re completely comfortable playing 2 tables at one time. Like I said above, your ROI really shouldn’t change any at all moving from 1 table at a time to 2. So, let’s say that you do maintain the 30% ROI while two tabling. Well, guess what, you just doubled your hourly rate. That $1.95 has now become $3.90/hr.
All right, great, you’re now completely comfortable 2 tabling. Now what do we do? Well, we add another table, and we do it all over again. So, keep good records and run 200 SNG’s while 3 tabling. After 200 games, determine your ROI, and you’ll see that it might drop just slightly. Also, you’ll notice that after the first 50 games or so, you’ll begin to wonder why you haven’t been playing 3 at a time all along. You will be as comfortable playing 3 games at one time as you used to be playing 2 tables at a time. Let’s say your ROI dropped though to something like 25% while 3 tabling. Well, let’s do some math. Remember we’re saying that these SNG’s take 1 hour to simplify the math. So, if you’re 3 tabling at 25% ROI, your hourly rate is, $6.50*3*25% works out to about $4.88/hr.
Let’s try one more example, and let’s move up to playing 4 tables at a time. Again, play 200 SNG’s while 4 tabling and keep good records. Then, determine you ROI, and let’s say that your ROI drops to 20% while 4 tabling. Well, remember, volume is the key, and let’s see what that does to you hourly rate. $6.50*4*20% works out to about $5.20/hr.
So, what have we learned so far? Even though our ROI has gone down, the amount of money that we are making is still going up. Also, one other thing to keep in mind is that if you’re now 4 tabling, your making 4 times the FPP’s you were making while single tabling in the same amount of time. Okay, but when do we stop? Excellent question, and keep adding 1 additional table at a time and running 200 games and then determine your hourly rate. At some point, you will hit a point where your hourly rate is lower than it was at the last level. So, let’s say at 7 tabling, your hourly rate was about $6.80/hr after 200 games. Then you move up to 8 tables, and when you complete the 200 games, you find that your hourly rate has dropped to $6.30/hr. Well, you just learned that 7 tables is your optimum number of tables to play at one time.
In conclusion, let’s talk about all of the other benefits of multi-tabling. The first benefit, is that unlike moving up in buy in amounts, your bankroll required doesn’t really change all that much at all as you add additional tables. I would recommend 80 or 100 buyins in your bankroll whether you’re playing 1 at a time or 10 to 15 at a time. The other benefit of multi-tabling is how much faster you can earn player points from the sites themselves. Let’s say you earn 3 player points for each $6.50 played.
Well, when you were single tabling you were earning about 3 player points per hour, and if you get up to 7 tabling, you are now earning player points at a rate of about 21 per hour. Those player points can be used for any number of things. They can be used for buyin’s, free gifts, etc. By doing this it also increases your chances of becoming a VIP player on the sites you play. That could mean private poker freerolls (again free money). The last real benefit to multi-tabling is that it forces you to spend more of your concentration on the games you’re playing. This will also help you to become a better player and increase your skill level.
So, again, it’s not whether to multi-table or not. It’s all about how many tables is too many tables at one time. And, if you follow the plan, it should allow you to easily increase the number of tables your playing, and it will also allow you to become comfortable with the number of tables your playing. And, remember, it’s all about making more money. Good luck at the tables, and I hope to see some of you 8 to 10 tabling $27 SNG’s some day with a nice ROI for a pretty hefty hourly rate.
Friday, June 12, 2009
SMALL SUITED CONNECTORS
This article is in a series of articles that will look at various starting hands you can get in hold’em and what to do with them. It will focus mainly on preflop play, and will cover a normal 9 handed No limit game were you have an average chip size and a reasonable read on other players. While these articles do focus on no limit play, the principles can be applied to limit and pot limit games.
Before we discuss the strategies for playing suited connectors, this article will discuss what suited connectors are. Suited connectors are basically any 2 cards that are suited and are close enough to each other that they can form a straight on the flop. So for example 7, 8 of clubs is a suited connector because it can form a flush and can form a straight on the flop. A hand like K, 3 of hearts is not considered a suited connector because although it is suited, the cards together do not help form a straight together.
This article will discuss the strategies with playing suited connectors but first will describe what suited connectors are best to play. The suited connectors that should be played are the ones with no or 1 gap in them. For example 7, 8 has no gaps in it and should be played, 6, 8 has a gap in and can also be played. Even 2 gapers such 8, J can be played but 3 gapers should be avoided. They should be avoided because a 3 gaper such as 7, J can get you into real trouble when a flop such as 8, 9, 10 flops. You will like that flop as you have a straight but you will be losing to J, Q. For that reason I recommend you stick to playing no and 1 gapers. The other advantage of playing the connectors with less gaps in them is that they have more combinations and hence ways of making a straight on the flop. This means you are more likely to hit a straight and so their value increases over other cards.
You should aim to play middle or high suited connectors. So for example hands such as 2, 3 and 4, 5 should be played less aggressively then hands such as 7, 8 and 10, J.
the best suited connectors are probably the middle ones because they have more combinations of straights to hit but also have more of a surprise value.
We will look at what you should do with these hands in the following 3 positions early, which is 1st or 2nd person to act, late position on the button or 1 off it, or in middle position.
Early Position:
To play suited connectors well you need other players already in the pot to give you better odds at drawing to your straight or flush. Therefore from an early position I will usually fold the suited connectors unless I am very confident people will limp behind me. I would never raise with them here as they are a drawing hand and are a horrible hand to play heads up.
Middle Position:
If there are 1 or more raises in front of me I will generally fold these cards unless a few people have called the raise and I am confident of a reraise not coming from behind. If I do flat call here I hope to hit on the flop otherwise I will fold unless I have a really good draw like a flush and straight draw. If people have limped in front of me I will generally just limp with them. If no one has entered the pot I might limp in here if I am confident of others limping behind me otherwise I will fold. I would not raise here as once again getting heads up suited connectors is a weak play.
Late Position:
This position plays the same as the middle position except I would never limp from this position if no one had already entered the pot. If I wanted to play I would raise to put pressure on the blinds and to make them think I had a big hand. If I did not want to raise I would just fold.
Than You. May the flop be with you.
Before we discuss the strategies for playing suited connectors, this article will discuss what suited connectors are. Suited connectors are basically any 2 cards that are suited and are close enough to each other that they can form a straight on the flop. So for example 7, 8 of clubs is a suited connector because it can form a flush and can form a straight on the flop. A hand like K, 3 of hearts is not considered a suited connector because although it is suited, the cards together do not help form a straight together.
This article will discuss the strategies with playing suited connectors but first will describe what suited connectors are best to play. The suited connectors that should be played are the ones with no or 1 gap in them. For example 7, 8 has no gaps in it and should be played, 6, 8 has a gap in and can also be played. Even 2 gapers such 8, J can be played but 3 gapers should be avoided. They should be avoided because a 3 gaper such as 7, J can get you into real trouble when a flop such as 8, 9, 10 flops. You will like that flop as you have a straight but you will be losing to J, Q. For that reason I recommend you stick to playing no and 1 gapers. The other advantage of playing the connectors with less gaps in them is that they have more combinations and hence ways of making a straight on the flop. This means you are more likely to hit a straight and so their value increases over other cards.
You should aim to play middle or high suited connectors. So for example hands such as 2, 3 and 4, 5 should be played less aggressively then hands such as 7, 8 and 10, J.
the best suited connectors are probably the middle ones because they have more combinations of straights to hit but also have more of a surprise value.
We will look at what you should do with these hands in the following 3 positions early, which is 1st or 2nd person to act, late position on the button or 1 off it, or in middle position.
Early Position:
To play suited connectors well you need other players already in the pot to give you better odds at drawing to your straight or flush. Therefore from an early position I will usually fold the suited connectors unless I am very confident people will limp behind me. I would never raise with them here as they are a drawing hand and are a horrible hand to play heads up.
Middle Position:
If there are 1 or more raises in front of me I will generally fold these cards unless a few people have called the raise and I am confident of a reraise not coming from behind. If I do flat call here I hope to hit on the flop otherwise I will fold unless I have a really good draw like a flush and straight draw. If people have limped in front of me I will generally just limp with them. If no one has entered the pot I might limp in here if I am confident of others limping behind me otherwise I will fold. I would not raise here as once again getting heads up suited connectors is a weak play.
Late Position:
This position plays the same as the middle position except I would never limp from this position if no one had already entered the pot. If I wanted to play I would raise to put pressure on the blinds and to make them think I had a big hand. If I did not want to raise I would just fold.
Than You. May the flop be with you.
Annette Obrestad Interview.
Already an online legend and former world number one ranked player as annette_15, this 20 year old broke almost every record when she won the 2007 WSOP Europe man event in London ( on the day before her 19th birthday), and the $1 million first prize - the biggest cash for a female in any game or sport. She showed that result was no fluke with a second-place finish in the EPT Dublin main event for $297,800.
Rainns : Welcome to Melbourne Australia.
Annette: Thankyou, its nice to be back.
Rainns: How are you going in the main event ?.
Annette : I'm just sitting above average, on day 3.
Rainns : How did the nick name of "anneta 15" come about ?.
Annette : The reason why people started calling me "aneeta_15" is because I started playing poker at 15 yrs old.
Rainns: So when you won the WSOP, how old were you then?.
Annette : I was 19 yrs old.
Rainns: Did you ever feel like the underdog, considering no one knew you especially on the final table?
Annette:It does not matter who your up againts. In time your style of play will work for you.
Annette:It does not matter who your up againts. In time your style of play will work for you.
Rainns : There probably were a few players thinking that, Can you ellaborate more on this?.
Annette: What I mean by this is, its good to read a lot of books, you never can stop learning. But what is more important is to be yourself, have fun playing, that is very important, and not copy some pro player.
Rainns : Do you think a lot of players when they start out try and copy some pro player, say like Gus Hansen etc?.
Annette : OH yes. That was until Gus said you need to find your own style. Once you find your own style you should never change it.
Rainns: Well it worked, you won the world series. !! Well thank you for taking time out to speak with me.Much appreciated. All the very best in the Main Event.Annette : Thank you. I hope I can take it out. lol.
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