The Stop and Go Play

The Stop and Go is best applied in late stages of a tournament when hands such as AK and medium pockets cannot be folded preflop. However, the blind structure makes you almost pot committed at this stage.



Say for instance you are dealt 77 out of position. You raise it up 3x the blind which represent one third of your stack and you have no more than 2 callers. The flop comes Q95 rainbow. You missed the flop. The maths on the other hand tells you that the villain probably missed it as well. One does only pair up at the flop 1 out of 5 times.

It's time to act.

The Stop and Go play is to be the aggressor before anyone else are to act. If you push you then leave the decision up to the villain. Mr. Brunson states that the key of winning NLHE is to be the guy that puts the other opponent up to make a decision for all his chips. If you merely wait for AA or KK to be dealt to you, you will lose in the long run.

So straight up, here's what could happen. When your opponent hits his hand, say top pair or a better PP, he will most likely call and you will bust out. Tuff luck!

More likely though is that your opponent is the one sitting as underdog with AK or less. He might even be sitting as overdog with 88 but will still be forced to drop the hand. It's better to be the first to act as the one with strength as this manuever gives you the best chance to win with a mediocre hand.

Also note, if an ace were to come upon the flop you should not fire the trigger. Check it down and let go if you sense strength.

The Stop and Go is a great way to win chips when needed during the later rounds of a tournament. It's an alternative to an all in shove that many players make at this stage. The play does not work every time but it sure will increase your odds of taking a hand down over the all in shove preflop.

Good luck at the tables!

Poker Bankroll Management

There are a lot of players that would do good in applying some plain and simple bankroll management techniques. For starters never buy into a cash game or Sit'n'Go with more than 5 percent of your bankroll. Don't buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of your bankroll. If it at any point occurs that you are sitting down with more than 10 percent of your bankroll, you must leave the table once the blinds reach you!



If you manage to keep these guide lines it reassures that you are able to stay alive as long as possible. You will play in games that you can afford. You will never play in games that are above your head because when you're losing, you'll have no choice but to drop down to a smaller game. You are able to sharpen up your game at the lower limits until your bankroll allows you to move up and take another shot. Whilst following these rules you also prevent being completely decimated by a bad run of cards.

If you lose you need to go down in limits in order to not risk losing a massive amount of your bankroll, or even your whole bankroll. If this would occur you will need to fight a even greater fight on your way back. Keep this in mind as motivation. Keep the discipline and you will be successful.

Good luck at the tables!

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Tilt is bad

At the start of my career the biggest problem for me was my temper. As you probably already know with a temper; tilting will most likely come as a bonus.

You can, with pretty simple means, counteract this evil phenomenon. One short but effective advice would be to do something else as soon as you feel that your game is affected in a negative way. However I want to point out that it might be - pretty simple means - but you have to be consistent and it might take some time to erase those bad habits.

You can read more on this topic below.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/Avoiding-Tilt.html

http://www.tightpoker.com/articles/stay_off_tilt.html

http://www.pokerjesusonline.com/tilt.htm

Choose your poker opponents

The importance of choosing your poker tables wisely is crucial when you playing to win in the long run. You need to be able to spot the fish. Some easy targets to look for when choosing tables would be high percentage of players seeing the flop and also high avarage pot.

Good luck at the tables!

Have a goal in mind when playing poker

One big mistake that I did when I first started playing poker was not to have a goal in mind. I can see now that if I would have placed a cake in the horizon I would have had far greater success in the early stages of my poker career.

The chapter Building Your Bankroll in the book High Stakes Poker: The Sky is the limit by Doug Youngs covers the whole idea. The goal of this is to get your focus on the main part of poker - the long run is what counts.

A great way to is to take 10% of all your winnings and place it on a seperate bank account. You can see those 10% as an insurance fund wich you will only use in case of emergency. You will then notice how your bankroll will grow even though you have bad sessions for days, weeks or even months!

Introduction - Always improve your Poker Game

I'm a big fan of Online Gaming. I've been a poker player for about 8 years now. Not that long fore some, a very long time for others. However, during these years I've found that the most useful tool for me has been reading. Reading makes you think. Thinking improves your abilities and skills at the poker tables. Therefore, never stop reading!

Willy.