Learn how to play poker

What to do when you are running bad

Hello-

Haven’t posted in a while.  Haven’t had much reason to.  And it seems like I’m not alone.  Was reading posts on PokerXFactor about some instructors having bad runs of their own where nothing you can do goes right.  Get your money in good and still lose over and over again.

Your overpair gets beat by the donkey’s underpair.

Your 9-1 favorite KK gets beat by K9.

The list goes on and on.

I don’t like talking about bad beats.  We all have them and we all give them.

I get mad sometimes when I take one but then also laugh when I give one.

I especially like it when I crack big hands like aces or kings when they limp or minimum raise and you stack them.  Those beats are really fun.

But when you are running bad you need to step back, take some time off, talk to your poker buddies and see what it is you are doing.  They can help you find out if you are making bad decisions or just getting unlucky.

One common problem that occurs when you are running bad is you begin to play bad as well and it compounds the hits to your bankroll.

If you have access to hand replayers, I would make good use of them.  Watch how you play hands and see if you can make some changes that will lead to better decisions.

If you are playing a lot of SNGs, I would recommend checking your pushes and folds using an ICM calculator.

You can also try another game to try a change of pace.  I’ve actually been playing more 6 max pot limit omaha.  Fun game.  Not for the faint of heart though.  The swings are crazy.

Or just take a week or two off.

I actually did one of those self exclusion things on Full Tilt the other day because I was not doing well.  But by doing that instead of letting my emotions take control of my bankroll I prevented myself from playing and allowed me some time to cool off and come back another day in a better state of mind.

There are many things you can do to get through a bad run.

You could also read other player’s bad beat stories or bad run stories and they may be so large that yours pale in comparison.

All part of the game we love that is poker.

Good luck at the tables!

-Adam

Try SNG Wizard free for 30 days

Hello-

Click here to try SNG Wizard free for 30 days.

Of the popular SNG software tools, SNG Wizard offers the most features and a 30 day free trial.  There are no restrictions on the 30 day trial.  You can use the software and learn how to become a better SNG player free for 30 days.

Then, once you’ve increased your winning percentage and made more money using it, you can decide if you want to buy it or not.

SNG Wiz also has an extra feature of what to do when someone has limped or raised the pot in front of you whereas the other SNG tools only tell you when to push or fold.  In the low stakes games limping is very common and you have to make a tough decision of what to do when you are short on chips and need to make a move.

I read one user’s review from the popular FlopTurnRiver forum:

“I downloaded SNG Wizard and after a day or two of trying to understand how all this works, I LOVE IT. After a toruney is finished I go threw the entire SNG and see where I make my mistakes and what I could have done differently.”

If you want to correct your mistakes while playing SNGs, SNG Wizard is the tool to try.  Plus, it’s free for 30 days.  Click here to try it now and start winning more SNGs.

Good luck at the tables,

Adam

How to get better at playing SNGs

Hello-

I mainly play SNGs nowadays as I’ve found MTTs too rough for my emotional well being.  Playing thousands of SNGs is what many of the online pros have done for years and built up there bankrolls and then moved on to MTTs and cash games.

The key to winning SNGs is tight is right and tighter is righter.

There was a SNG I played last night where I won one of the first 36 hands and was just sticking around until the blinds got higher and higher and it was just push fold mode.

The one hand I won was my QQ versus an A9o shove and an AJ overcall.

Then I made a call with A5o in the BB versus an UTG shover who was short, he had K3s and I held and we were down to 3.  My A7o held versus K6o and we were down to HU.

I won a race with 66 versus A4o and took it down.

I played very few hands and still managed to win the turbo SNG.

I’ve found a few tools that are helpful to winning SNGs.  One of them is a free ICM calculator

Using this has shown me what hands I should be pushing with and what hands I should be folding when we get into the late stages of the game.

Lately, I’ve gone bust from a few SNGs with Q8o on the button, I’ve been pushing with about 4 or 5 blinds thinking it’s a good push but I ran it on the ICM calculator and it turns out that it’s not a good push.  I need to be pushing there with QTo or better.

So I could have folded the button there and waited for a better hand to push with before the blinds got to me again and took a big chunk of my stack taking away my fold equity.

There’s also other tools to help you get better at SNGs.  One is called SNG Wizard.  It calculates your equity at every stage of the game.  It will basically help you make the most profitable play mathematically.  It comes with a 30 day free trial so you can use it before you have to buy it.

SNG Wizard and the free ICM calculator will help you with the tough decisions you face in the end game.

Use them and start winning more SNGs.

Good luck at the tables.

-Adam

Cake Poker does not allow tracking software

Hello-

One of the main reasons that all the grinders play on Full Tilt and PokerStars is because they have the most software tracking tools available to improve their games.

When you play on Cake Poker, there is no tracking software allowed.

You cannot use your tools like PokerTracker or Holdem Manager or Poker Office.

Here’s what Cake says about these tools:

Cake Poker does not support the use of tracking software (software used by players to track the play of others). We are proud to lead the way in preventing the effectiveness of software that unfairly gives players an advantage over others at the table.

How does this help you?

Because Stars and Full Tilt allow tracking software, that is where the best players will be trying to get an advantage on the other players.

What Cake does is makes their games more of a level playing field.

Cake also allows you to change your nickname every 7 days.

How can you keep track of the bad players if they change their names every week?

The only way to do that is to take notes on the players.

How does all this benefit you?

If you take notes on the bad players, you will have an advantage over them when you see them again even if they change their names.

More than likely, they will not take notes on you because they don’t think on that level and only care about their own cards.

It also benefits you because most of the harder competition will stay away from a site like Cake because of the lack of tracking.

Click here to play on Cake Poker

Good luck at the tables!

-Adam