Your Guide to Making Online Poker Profitable

Sit and Go Tournament Games - Page 2

Setting Traps

Setting traps is how I make most of my chips.  What I mean by setting a trap is that I try to make someone else think they have the best hand when I know I have the best hand.  And my cautious play early on helps in setting traps.  People see how they can bet small bets against me and I fold nearly every time, so they will get greedy, and when the blinds and the bets are higher, they think they can make me fold even when they have a marginal hand.  The aggressive players are the ones I most like to trap, because they often learned to play by watching TV poker, and so you can figure out what they are doing pretty easily (I would recommend watching TV poker tournaments, not just for learning how to play and for some strategies, but also so you can spot a player who plays like they do on TV).  They will often throw out huge bets to scare you away, and if you know you have the best hand you can take a lot of chips from them.

The ability to set traps goes up as the game goes on, for four reasons: 1) players tend to get more aggressive as the game goes on, and they will often let their emotions or greed take over, 2) some players get crazy aggressive when their chip stack gets low, and they will go all in with only decent hands (this is why not letting your chip stack get low is vital, so you can call their all-in without risking most of your chips), 3) you have played so cautiously early, that people will think you will just fold at any big bet, and 4) as the game goes on, the hands that will win are not as strong, so knowing you have the best hand is easier.  And in the later stages of the game, if someone has a great starting hand, they will bet big before the flop, so you’ll know to avoid them.

There are two kinds of players to trap, the ones with small stacks, and the ones who think you are a wimp and will try to bully you with big bets.  The ones with small stacks are usually an easy decision – they will often go all in before the flop with hardly anything.  So if you have plenty of chips to cover their all-in, and have a good hand, especially a high pair, you should call.  Be careful, though, if others also call him.  Remember, there can be more betting by the others that called, so you could be risking many more chips after the flop.  I can usually take out one or two players every game who have small stacks and go all-in like this.  If it is just you and him, then there is no risk of losing any more chips than what he has gone all-in with, so if you lose, you are still alive, and if you win, one more player is gone, and your stack is much bigger.  These are great situations, but don’t call an all-in with a marginal hand like QJ, but if you have a pair, especially a high pair, or AK, go for it!

Trapping guys who are trying to bully you is different.  You want to wait until you have a great hand, like aces or kings or AK.  But the trap really gets good if you hit the nuts on the flop.  You will see guys get more and more aggressive as the game goes on, and they will start betting bigger amounts when they think they have the best hand.  So I want to let them think they have the best hand.  I will check to them and just call them before and after the flop, sometimes after thinking about it for a while, just to make them think my hand is marginal.  After the turn, I will often check if I am first, just to see what kind of bet they make.  If they make a big bet, I will probably just call, so I can take a whole lot of their chips after the river.  If their bet after the turn isn’t very big, I might double their bet with a raise just to try to get the pot bigger, and to scare him off if he is on a draw (being “on a draw” means that the player is hoping for certain cards to fall in order for him to have a great hand, usually a flush or straight).  After the river, you need to know absolutely for sure you have the best hand.  If you are not sure, then you shouldn’t be in this spot in the first place.  If he has been somewhat timid in this hand, and you are first, then go ahead and bet an amount small enough that you think he will call, or better yet, a bet he might raise.  If he has been aggressive, then check-raise him and take down a huge pot!

Selective Aggression

As I have said earlier, I play very tight early on.  I do it not only to hang on to my chips as long as possible, but also to avoid the traps players set for themselves when they are too aggressive.  If you are the last person to have raised a pot, then you are what I term “taking the lead.”  This means that once you have announced to the table that you have the best hand, then you have to continue to announce that you have the best hand by raising in each round of betting.  If you raise on one card, then check or bet less on the next, you will show weakness, so people will be less likely to fold, and more likely to raise you if they have a good hand.  So this is why early on I rarely “take the lead” except when I have a really great hand or when I think I can scare people out with only a few chips.  I don’t want to waste my chips being the one who has to decide how much is bet too often.  For example, if I have KQ, which is a pretty good hand, and I raise a decent amount only to be re-raised, then I will probably fold at that point, which means I just threw away chips.  So I recommend not taking the lead too often, not only to preserve chips, but also to set yourself up later for traps by seeming to be a weak player.

Selective aggression is just like it sounds, being selective about when to be aggressive, whether you have a great hand or are bluffing.  You will have to bluff in the later stages just to keep from being blinded to death.  In the early stages, you can be selectively aggressive and win some pots on bluffs.  If you have been very tight, then anytime you bet people will automatically think your hand is good.  When you bluff, the circumstances of the hand are what is most important.  If all the other players are playing tight, and an ace comes up on the board, and everybody checks and you are last, bet.  Don’t bet a lot, but bet more than the minimum.  Make sure it is an amount that will force the other players to think about it.  I have seen people bluff going all-in, which is crazy.  You will probably win 9 times out of 10, but it’s that 10^th time that sends you out of the game.  I can usually win at least 2 or 3 hands bluffing with small bets in the early stages - I don’t win a lot of money with them, but it helps keep your stack from going down as fast.  If someone re-raises you, just fold.  Bluffing like this, with small bets, can be more effective than you might think.  Often I find that the speed of your bet, thus demonstrating confidence in your hand, is more important than the amount when you are bluffing.

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