Poker

While no limit texas holdem may dominate in the coverage of the poker world today, thanks to the televised World Series of Poker, there are a lot of different poker games you can play. In fact, there are a lot of different versions of texas holdem poker, including sit n go poker. So what is sit n go poker? And how does play differ from “regular” texas holdem? And most importantly, how do you play sit n go so you can make more cash?

No limit texas holdem tournamnet play and no limit texas holdem sit n go are both no limit texas holdem poker games. But NL Holdem tournaments and NL Holdem Sit n Go games are two entirely different animals. And this means your poker game plan has to be different in sit n go if you want to be successful and cash.

No limit sit n go’s are very different from cash games and a much shorter verion of multi-table no limit tourneys. The blinds shoot up fast (every 10 to 20 hands or so) and before you know it make up a big part of your stack. To stay in a sit n go game, you have to get more aggressive as the blinds increase.

Of course, a key to winning texas holdem sit n go games is to be more aggressive as the blinds go up, NOT to be more reckless as the blinds increase. Having a plan is the difference between aggressive and reckless and most likely will be the difference between cashing and not cashing.

In sit n go games, you don’t want to be aggressive initially. Only play premium hands for the first few blind increases. This will keep you from losing chips you’ll neeed later when the blinds go up. You don’t want to find yourself short stacked early or you might as well call it a night.

Playing only premium hands initially may also have an added benefit. Later in the sit n go game, when you’re being more aggressive, your opponents may be more likely to fold against you because they’ll think you have a top hand.

When’s a good time to kick it up in your texas holdem sit n go game? If you’re in late position and it’s folded around to you and the blinds and antes will increase your stack by more than 20%, go all-in. Most times you won’t get called.

Eventually, as the blind increase, it will become a stealing war as everyone has to get aggressive because the blinds are so big relative to their stacks. This is where you need to pick your spots and become aggressive. You’ll find yourself taking bad beats a lot but that’s the nature of sit in go no limit texas holdem. When people get more aggressive with wacky hands, the cards won’t always fall your way.

Remember, keeping your chips early will allow you to be more selective in being aggressive later, giving you better odds of coming out on top in no limit texas holdem sit n go play.

Position in poker is a matter of the number of players who can still act after you. Playing position is a matter of taking into consideration what those players may do, before you decide what to do yourself.

Position is a mystery to most poker players. But next to the relative value of your hand it is the most important thing for a poker player to think about in the game.

In a poker game you will have bad hands, fair hands, and good hands. The bad hands you will throw away. The very good hands will win for you, but you will not hold them often. The winnings on them will be of great importance only in certain rare cases in which you will be lucky enough to hold a very good hand against a hand that is almost as good, such as four of a kind against a high full house, and remember that such a case can go against you as easily as for you. The fair hands represent the bulk of your winnings and losses, and your success in playing the fair hands will depend very largely on your under¬standing of position.

Cases constantly arise when you consider your position as well as your hand, but at all times there are two main positional objects: First, you want to be last to act if possible. Second, you don’t want to get caught between two players who may have betting or raising hands. In a close case, you play along when your position is good and you drop when your position is bad.

Take a case in draw poker in which there will be at most three active players, whom we will call A, B, and C. A has opened and B has raised. C should either reraise or drop. If C simply calls, his position is bad. The normal process will be for A to check after the draw, and for B to bet. Now if C calls, even though he may think he has B beaten, he risks the danger that A can beat him and may even raise back. However, if C reraises before the draw, he makes his position good because normally A and B will check to him after the draw and he can have a free checkout if he has not improved.

In a similar game, A opens, B and C call, and D raises. It is probable that there will be no players after D, in which case he will have the advantage of being the last to speak.

Because it is an advantage to be last, in draw poker one tries to avoid opening (betting first) if he can get anyone else to do it for him. The closer the opener is to his left, the better his posit tion will be after the draw. The closer the opener or the last raiser is to his right, the worse is his position after the draw because the more likely he is to find himself between a betting hand on his right and a doubtful quantity on his left.

In stud poker, the player who takes the lead sacrifices a posi¬tional advantage. The exception is when all the active players speak before him. For example, A has the high hand showing and it seems likely that he will continue to have. B and C are in the pot. D is the last of the active players. He sacrifices no position when he bets or raises, because the tendency thereafter will be for the other players to check to him and he will have full freedom of action.

Remember that position, important as it is, should affect your play only on hands that are already questionable. When you have the best hand in either draw or stud, you usually have to bet it regardless of your position.

Here are some everyday examples of position play. In most draw poker games a player in an early position should seldom open unless he is so strong that he wants to invite a raise so that he can reraise, and even then he is usually better off to pass in a “pass and back in” game. When the opener is at your right, you ordinarily simply play along on a very strong hand, such as a pat straight, because you do not want to drive out other players, yet if you were one of the last men to speak you would raise; in either case, you are playing position. The converse case is the one in which you hold two fair pairs next to the opener and raise to drive out other players, on the grounds that a two-pair hand is usually the best before the draw but is hard to improve and suffers a sharp diminution of its winning chances every time another player comes in; on this hand you would not necessarily raise if you were in a late position, so again you are playing position. Exactly the same, in stud poker, when you are next to the high hand snowing you will simply call or check and if you are far from the high hand you will raise; again you are playing position.

A good bluff depends more on position than on any other factor. Strangely enough, it is not the usual “good” position that you want for a successful bluff; more often you want what would ordinarily be bad position. For example, when there are four players in the pot the last player is in good position for playing a fair hand but in bad position for bluffing. Those other three players, who checked to him, all have a right to call and because they all checked none of them is afraid of any of the others.

The most successful bluff is one that makes the most danger¬ous opponent think he is “in the middle.” He may then drop the only hand that is good enough to call, for fear one of the players after him will be able to beat him. For example:
Draw poker, seven players, pass and out. A and B drop. C opens, D drops, E stays, F raises, G and C stay. E now raises and after the draw he stands pat and bets. F is likely to drop a fair hand because he cannot tell what G and C will do. G and C are likely to drop against a pat hand anyway.

Texas Hold’em is the latest craze to hit the Internet poker public. A lot of Internet sites host online poker tournaments or let you download games for you to practice you skills. Below are some of these websites where you can download games for free.

You can download Texas Hold’em game software at Soft32.com. The software features a unique video format displayed in an 800 x 600 16 bit color screen. If you want a game that specifically designed for single players, then this is the one. This game is licensed by Freeware. To download it from this site, you need at least a Windows OS 95 and 1.95 MB of free disk space.

This is one of the game server sites that let their users download Texas Hold’em games to start playing. The site will ask you to open a free account with them when you decide to get the game from them. After you download Texas Hold’em, you can then enter the different game rooms and start playing either for real money or completely for free, using paper money. If you want to learn how to play poker, then play against skillful opponents from all over the world.

Another site where you can download for free is at UltimateBet. This site is one of the best places where you can play or download games for a great learning experience. Before you can play at this site, you need to open an account with them. Setting up your account is easy and free so you don’t need to worry about money when you play at UltimateBet.

If you want a great interactive online play, then try out EmpirePoker. It is only at this site where you can play three hold’em poker tables all at the same time.

Download.com is a premier site where you can download Texas Hold’em games and other software programs for free. At Download.com, you can download games that are published by Silver Table Gaming. With this software, you have the option to play ring games or tournaments. And if you download software at this site, you get to practice your poker skills even when you’re not connected to the Internet.