Playing with Poker Tools | The Definitive Step To Online Poker Domination
Poker a game of cards or a game of people?
Whether you play poker online or at a live table, you always hear some players complain that they have bad luck, that cards are running against them or that poker is a rigged game. Of course, Poker is partly a card game and therefore sometimes the cards will be good for you and sometimes not. However, you must understand that Poker is mainly a ‘Peoples game’. Playing your opponents at the table is much more effective than just playing the cards. If you know your opponents, you will be able to read them, put them on hands and outplay them, whatever they are holding. To know your opponents you need to make use of the most revolutionary Poker Tools .
A simple example
Player 1 is playing poker as if it were primarily a card game. He holds QQ in middle position and is facing a small raise from under the gun and a fairly large reraise from the player in front of him. He’s thinking: I have pocket Queens , shall I call here or push all in? After he looks at his queens again he decides to push all in. The player who initially raised under the gun goes all in too, as does the initial reraiser. Player utg has AK, the reraising player turns over AA.
Player 2 is in the same situation as Player 1, and also holds QQ. But Player 2 has just opened Poker Software that gives him about 100 stats on each opponent. He sees that the raiser under the gun is slightly loose and calls a lot. He figures he might lay ahead with his QQ but it could also be a 50/50 deal. If he would have been heads up he might just call here and see a flop. But because there is a reraise he now looks at the statistics of the reraiser. Sure enough, he checks the preflop raise percentage of this guy which turns out to be only 2%! Player 2 is now sure he must discontinue playing QQ in this pot as he puts the reraiser on either KK or AA. After he folds he smiles at the sight of Aces winning against the AK with board 410552.
Why a Player who Plays with tools and thus plays the peoples game will win
Online Poker is one of the biggest gaming industries out there. Millions of players play on hundreds of thousands of tables. This being said, it’s true that reading players becomes almost useless as players change tables often and you can’t remember all the names and historic plays. This is why you need Poker Software . Not just random tracking poker software that tracks all the players you play against but tries to track all players online and stores all data in a central online database so that you only need to open the Poker Tool and immediately receive statistics on all tables and players at hand. These kind of Poker Programs are also called Poker Stalking Tools.
Imagine having over 100 stats on each opponent and knowing exactly where the fish are sitting and bad players before you seat at a table.
These kind of Poker Tools form the definitive step to online poker domination as you know who you are playing against, regardless of how many times new players join your table, regardless of how many times you change from a table. And by this, you will know what to do in any hand. Tough decisions instantly become easy ones.
Visit dominateonlinepoker.com now for a Free Poker E-Book and learn to play with the most advanced poker tools existing in the modern era!
By Joris Dekkers | Joris Dekkers is the head of DominateOnlinePoker.com, author of the Free Dominate Online Poker E-Book and an Online NL Tournament Poker Coach.
Online No Limit Holdem Tournaments are becoming more and more popular every day. The live coverage of big events like the WSOP, EPT and WPT really puts people in a tournament mindset. After watching the pro’s at the final table on TV, tens of thousands of people from all around the world immediately seek a seat behind their own computer, login to their favourite poker room and start playing some sit and go’s and multi table tournaments themselves. What is it that is so attractive about these tournaments online? What sort of tournaments are out there? And what’s the basic strategy to apply in all these different forms of tournaments? In other words: how do I make it to the final table every time to get some big money?
The Attraction of Online Poker Tournaments
There are a few factors that explain the popularity of online poker tournaments:
- Everyone is equal at the start: players get the same amount of chips for the same buy-in amount. This is for example not the case in cash-games where players with a bigger bankroll have an advantage.
- Skills matter a little less when compared to cash games. In Tournaments, with a nice streak you can end in the money without being an outstanding player. Overall there is slightly more luck involved in tournaments than in cash games where you play so many hands that after time skill overshadows luck.
- There’s some big money to earn. This is probably the biggest reason why so many people play online poker tournaments. With little buy-ins you can win big amounts. There are tournaments in which you can buy in for as little as 10 dollar and win thousands of dollars at the final table. The dream of winning big while playing in the comfort of your home behind your laptop or pc matters the most.
- The survivor mentality: every human being is a survivor by nature. In tournaments, it is all about survival and this makes them so fun to play. When you put someone all in it’s not like in a cash game: a bad call doesn’t really have a big consequence since you can re-buy. In tournaments, when you make a mistake, you’re out. This rule is favourable for the experts although it is at the same time the ultimate weapon for the beginner against the pro. All this explains the ‘all in moment’ being so famous.
The Different Forms of Online Poker Tournaments
Online Poker Tournaments are being played in all sorts of forms. The most known form is the freezeout: multi table tournaments with one buy in with fields from 50 to sometimes over 5000 players. The second most known form are sit and go’s: single table tournaments with 1 buy in. Then there are re-buy tournaments where you have the option of buying extra chips when you are (almost) dead and purchase add-ons at the end of the re-buy period. Of course we have the most renown ‘freerolls’: mostly large tournaments where there is no buy-in but money to be picked up for free. Lot ’s of tournaments take some ingredients of all these tournament forms and mix it up (like a multi-table sit and go or a re-buy satellite tournament) but we will focus ourselves on the known types.
The strategies outlined in this article are both short and basic: for more detailed strategies get the Dominate Online Poker Free Poker E-Book or get your hands on some of these great Poker Courses.
Basic Strategy for Multi Table Tournaments: Freezeouts
Multi Table Tournament Freezeouts are roughly divided in to three stages: the first phase, the middle phase and end phase. You should apply strategies accordingly to these stages.
The first stage: In this stage the fishes are still in the touraments, everyone is excited to begin. Your first option is to go for a very tight aggressive strategy: all you do is sit and wait for top hands so you don’t risk elimination and with a little luck you’ll even double up. Meantime, you just focus yourself on the table and the other players. This is a simple to apply strategy and it’s what I advice to beginners and players who play big tournaments but aren’t experienced in doing that. The second option is to be loose passive/aggressive. With loose I mean you enter lot’s of pots, with passive/aggressive I mean you limp with lot’s of suited connectors, pocket pairs and Ax suited cards and when you hit a nice flop you bet hard. With this strategy you increase your risk of going out but you also have more chance to eat the chips of the bad players and build a stack. This strategy should be applied by good players only as you have to play lot’s of hands and this requires skill. I think for the first stage, this is the overall better strategy.
The middle stage: In this stage you should tighten up a bit. The worst players have gone out of the tournament. You must pick your spots here: if you have acquired a nice stack than go ahead and bully short stacks: steal blinds, put people all in. If you don’t have a great stack, try to double up: don’t play against big stacks and try to stay on average chips stack. Around the bubble (ending in the money or not) you should be hyper aggressive as most players are scared to play.
The end stage : If you are nearing the final table you should be more aggressive and play more hands. Lot ’s of players don’t play much anymore, just sit and wait till players are eliminated. At the final table I would suggest to have a look at the table for a couple of rounds: are players going crazy because they are already in the money or is everybody scared to play again? Always play the opposite style of the table. Good luck!
Basic strategy for Sit and Go’s
In Sit and Go’s (10 player tables) only 3 people finish in the money. Your goal is to reach that money 6 to 7 out of 10 times. Favourably you finish at 1 st and 3 rd place most and almost never at second place, as you’ll get 50% of the prize money when you win a sit and go whilst the difference between ending 2 nd and 3 rd is only 10%.
You can roughly apply the freezout strategies as you can find the same stages in sit and go’s. The bubble phase is the most important phase in sit and go’s and you should play hyper aggressive here. Stealing blinds is even more important than in multi-table tournaments, certainly when you play turbo sit and go’s. Any Queen, King or 9-10 is good enough to put someone all in when the blinds are high.
Basic strategy for Re-buy Tournaments
Re-buy tournaments are different from freezeouts only in the first hour. This is the general time length of the so called ‘re-buy period’. In the first hour of the tournament, after paying a normal buy-in you may re-buy the same amount of chips when you lost your stack. Mostly this is for the same price as the initial buy-in. At the end of the re-buy period, players can also purchase an add-on: mostly the same amount of chips for the same price which you can add to your stack. After the re-buy period the tournament becomes a freezeout.
The best general strategy for re-buy periods is to play extremely tight and wait for hands like AA, KK, AK, QQ, JJ and smaller pocket pairs to limp in. Most players go crazy, go all in with all sorts of hands to build a stack and re-buy like maniacs. Just find a good hand and have a easy double up. It is important to enter as much big pots as you can though: this is where the most chips are being taken and you surely should get your share.
Basic strategy for Freerolls
I generally never advice people to enter big freerolls as there is hardly any learning experience whilst spoiling time. Of course, private freerolls can be entered, but don’t enter 1000 man freerolls when there is only 50 or 100 dollar to win. In these kind of freerolls one will see the craziest things happen and the game of poker is long gone. If you enter one anyhow, please by all means, play as tight as you can and when you play, go for it.
Joris Dekkers now provides all visitors of dominateonlinepoker.com with a free poker e-book on online poker, great in-depth poker articles and offers online tournament poker training for both sit and go’s and multi table tournaments.
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