Take this example, you are chip leader in a $10.00 SNG, why would you call a raise with A, 9 ? The simple answer to this is ” because I am chip leader ” in fact this is not the reason, the reason is you have not yet learned to sit back and wait for a better hand or a better position. You in fact think you own the table because you have the most chips. By sitting back you can reach the cash payouts with little effort.

There are times in tournaments as it gets to the cash stages where you should fold bigger hands. Prime example would be if you holf AJ suited and get an all in bet of $3k do you call because you can afford it or do you fiold to reach the cash places. Its simple guys its an instant fold, you do not need to chase and double up the small stacks, you just need to sit back and wait.

If the urge to get aggresive is still with you, then at least wait until you have made the cash, there is really no point in playing an MTT to go out on the bubble simple because you could not lay down a hand. Leave the fight to those on the bubble or close to it, you have no reason to be in the fight. Pump up the aggression as soon as you reach the cash payouts but always remember position, even with just 9 players left the difference between 9th & 8th could well be a few bucks.

Look a t this for example, we have a final table with ten players and 10th pays $22.00 but 9th pays $29.00 and you get dealt 66 and your in the small blinds with a raise of four times the big blind lets say $2000 do you call when it gets to you with all other having folded. I grant you this earlier in the game its a call to say the least but at this stage my friends its a FOLD. You have no reason to get involved, you do not need to fight for position, you need to be sitting watching others fight for their lives.

It also surprises me how many people out there playing poker have no idea what position really means. Remembers guys your main aim here is to make the cash payouts, once you have done that then change gears. I am sure we have enough players in the forum who will share their views on this topic.

Last week I played a $5.00 Rebuy + Addon over at PKR I never got involved with the rebuys or addons but managed to reach the final table and walk away in 4th place with $86.00 plus change. Although this was a good result for me I was dissapointed as I felf I should have won the game with $65,000 in chips at the final table.

Rants:

I am seeing more and more rants in the forum about bad runs and bad cards, listen guys if you play the one site often enough the law of averages will tell you, you will hit a bad run more than those who do not play as much. We all rant from time to time and to be honest we all have a good reason to do so, but with online poker it will continue to happen. I have seen far to many quads coming out at PKR over the past 2 weeks its a joke, compare this to land based you just dont see it. Now there is a simple reason for this, and its to keep you playing at the tables and to generate as much rake for the site as possible.

Away From Poker:

I myslef have not really had the time to entertain poker due to personal reasons and I have to concentrate on those reasons to start to move forward in my life. Poker at some point has to take a back seat from time to time. I am due to move into my new offices on the 1st February and work is starting to pick up, along with getting things set up and of course working at the same time really does not allow me to much time to play.

I am also glad to see fellow forum members starting blogs as it gives me stuff to read and to see how they are doing. On the flip side i am a lillte pissed off with other forum members for not putting in an apearence from time to time.

For the first hour of the game same old story dead hands with plenty of all in donk calls ( some French at my table ) and players started the rubuy rather quickly. I played two hand in the first hour total and won them both taking me to around 4K in chips.

After the break first hand I hit AA in the BB and I get two callers and one all in for $3K plus. Everyone folds after I make the call and for this guy to turn over 35 offsuit was a joke. Now normally PKR will reward this type of play but not this time. I am now sitting on a pretty good stack and in 6th place. I make my mind up to sit back and wait for premium hands to the point I waited for 20 mins  to be rewarded with AA again. Suffice to say I raise and get no callers. I wouldnt mind but it was the minimum raise.

Now as we enter the third hour I an still in good position with just 17 left and top 8 get paid out. I know I can afford to sit for a while but not for to long. I make the final table which was my main aim but I am second low stack. We lose another player and we are down to 9 left with me sitting on $5650 chips.

I have got to wait for a good enough hand and then chuck it all in but the hands did not come quick enough and I end up going all in with QQ for just over 5K to be called by a guy who was at all my table right throughout the tournament. My pocket QQ was up against hiss AA suffice to say I went out and on the buble as well.

Now I hate that but cant complain as I played well, but the guy I had at my table all the way through had pocket AA no less than 6 times. Pocket KK 4 times and numerous pocket pairs all the way through.  I still stick to what I have always said and when the game gets to the final table you see hands like AA v AA and AA v KK to often and I think its to get the game over as quick as possible and get another one started.

In hindsight I should stick to my SNG game as I just cant seem to lose at those tables.

Avoiding them is the key to beating them, this has been said before but how many of you reading this actually take player notes on these people? If you are beaten by a donk you take their name and a few notes not to go looking for them for revenge but to avoid them in the first place. The favourite place to find a donk will be in the MTT game simply because the buy in is small enough for them. The further you move up the less donks you will run into, as I said you won’t avoid them but you can cut back on the chance of running into them.

If you are getting into an MTT and it is a deepstack then you should take some advice that was given out at a SNG table by Supermario ( Forum Member ) the other night. For the first hour of the game sit back and don’t get involved in hands unless you are 100% sure that hand is yours. Don’t play marginal hands like suited connectors to early into a deepstack MTT.

Now if you are at a SNG and you get a donk at the table and to be honest they not hard to spot then leave and find another table. Please don’t get it into your head ” well I was hear and he won’t drive me away with his / her pathetic calls ” just move on and find yourself a safer table.

Most of us make money from the fish at the tables, don’t confuse a donk with a fish. A donk will always hit hands simply because they know no better, a fish is someone learning the game and think they know how to play.  Remember if you can’t spot the donk at the table then you are the donk and Mumbo if your reading not all donks are french…..

Whether it’s a high stakes game in a casino or a competitive battle in an online room, as a poker player, the bankroll is your life support. Without it, you can’t compete for the big pot. Regardless of the facts, many players have yet to recognize the importance of bankroll management.

I tried to argue my case but alas they will not change there mind. I can handle the loss of the chat but could handle it even better if I was guilty of what I am being accused of.

The problem with the PKR forum is it is being run by a couple of power crazed morons. Who claim they work for PKR, I really hope they do work for them as by putting comments in like ( Quote: The next person to post a link in our forum will be knee-caped and yes we do know where you live: end Quote. This should be dealt with by the proper PKR people and not the idiots they have running the forum.

To be able to declare we know where you live and personally hand a threat in a public forum is was beyond PKRs own terms of service. But they will allow this junk to be posted but ban someone’s chat with no proof. I myself and a few others have kept the post on file for future reference. Those of you reading this who are thinking of going to their forum be warned, you will not be welcomed but you will be abused and threatened.

On The Poker Front:

I am coming up to my 12^th game of my SNG run of 15 games and will post an updated topic after the full 15 games have been completed. I will say I have been doing well at PKR simply because most of the players there think they can play but are just not good enough. I have come across a few good players and they have since joined our forum, you know the one, that would be the one where you are welcomed and not abused by the staff.

Until Next time.

The top ten forums who finish in this event win a minimum $100 private free-roll and the way things are going it could be close. The same can be said for the Cake Poker buy in games, we only set these up to try and help our USA members who cant play in the PKR league games due to PKR not allowing USA players.

To say I am disappointed is an under statement, sometimes you have to wonder why we keep trying. I for one am happy just playing in games at the SNG tables as most will tell you. One thing I do know is if the forum does win a private $100 Free-Roll every forum member will want to play. As most will know we will only allow those who represented us in the challenge play the game.
So come on people get involved for crying out loud, its a $5000 free-roll event it will cost nothing to enter.

Game 1:

I dropped to a $3.00 SNG with six players and to be honest it was a pretty easy game. I had a player to my left who just kept betting and raising when he had no right to, I singled him out as the aggressive player right from the start. He was a player that would never last the game and had no chance of making the cash payouts. I waited until I had a hand and slow played it knowing full well this guy would raise me, I had read it well as this is what he did. I put in the re-raise with pocket Queens hoping he had not hit a hand. On the flop i hit and that was him gone. I won’t drag this out but I did go on to win this game. A $3.00 buy in returned $12.60.

Game 2:

This was an interesting game when we got down to the last three as Mumbolungo another forum member was in the game. Before we reached that stage though we did have a guy that thought he knew what he was doing, and I had to mark him down as a fish, simply because he was a real bad player. Will be looking out for him on the cash tables if he ever learns how to play them.

Anyway as we reached the final three and the bubble it got a little slower, this had to do with the quality of the players left at the table. The other guy left apart from myself and Mumbo was a player who would not take risks, he slow played every hand, and would not call a raise. This type of player is very hard to beat when you have three players left. With that in mind I had to turn my attention to my fellow forum player and try to remove him from the game. I was sure I could take this other player out heads up but was not so sure about taking Mumbo out heads up. Mumbo has recalled the hand that took him out on his blog so you can read that there.

Heads up was interesting to say the least the final hand was bad play from my opposite players point of view.
He had Q8 and flopped Q8 but slow played it only for me to catch my straight on the river, I checked to see him go all in and that was it another $12.60 in my account.

Game 3:

I changed my stake in this game and moved up to $5.00 sit and go, I got to admit this game was like watching paint dry apart from one guy, yes I know there is always one. He did nothing but keep pushing the pot and trying to bluff his way through right from the very first hand. He did manage to build a stack but it was never going to last. I won’t go on to much about this game simply because it was pretty standard. Suffice to say I took this one as well and that made it three from three and another $21.60 in my account.

From then on it went a little pear shaped as I entered game 4, this was after I had played a fricken lottery game I was talked into by Mumbo. You could see right from the start who was going to be heads up and yes it turned out as I suspected. And trust me people no one could have won this game as the player who did go on to win it was catching every hand he could. I took second place in this one for a $9.00 prize pool.

Game five was a silly game and to be honest I was getting a little peeved of with playing. It gets annoying to see a player just sit there and not play a hand just to reach the cash, suffice to say my pocket tens could not hold up against pocket kings. A third place finish and that was it for me tonight.
It is not really a bad run three 1st places / One 2nd place & One third place.

Multi table tournaments are full of players who think they can play, after reading a few books or watching a DVD they think they own the table and play that way. It makes no difference what level you play at you will still come up against these people.

If your going to play then play the higher buy in SNGs, if you really think your game is on a high and are being beaten by donks in other games then the SNG is the place to play.
In our forum we have some very solid poker players but I still see them playing in multi table games where they have to fight through all the donks and to be honest it makes no sense.

I am confident that many forum members can make a profit at the SNG tables, okay it’s not the profit margin they want or are looking for but it’s a profit people. I think most only play these games due to their bankroll in the first place, a small buy in to win a big payout? Yeah that’s okay if you have the odd three or four hours to sit there and play. In that time you could have played in a minimum of two SNGs and made a bigger profit.

I am a firm believer in the SNG and will keep pushing it at least until players understand they will build that bankroll faster. Some years ago I made friends with a guy called Techman, you will see some of his posts in the forum, trust me people he made his bankroll playing in SNGs to start with then moved on to cash tournaments. Try it out, play a month of SNGs and see where your bankroll stands after that, I am sure it will be on the plus side.

Well for those reading this topic and who play at PKR may be interested to know that Pokerchipsquad.com are now running a league there with a trophy awarded to the winner of season one.

We have run leagues before in the forum but decided to close them due to the low turnout. We are in the early stages of the PKR league as it kicks of on the 8^th November but it remains to be seen if people are interested in playing.

PKR is without doubt the best online poker site for graphics and the feel of real poker excitement, but it is not to everyone’s taste. Apart from the fact that PKR is not open to USA players it has a large client base.

So if you are interested in playing in the PKR league with all the guys from Pokerchipsquad.com then click the links in this post.