Play Aggressively

Quite often, many players who are new to the six max Sit-n-Go tables utilize the same strategies that they would in any other standard poker game, often playing a combination of both tight and aggressive that generally backfires in the smaller, faster settings of six max Sit-n-Go. This is generally due to the fact that the blinds generally increase quickly with faster rotations around the table as well, causing more traditional tight players to quickly bleed chips with little to no gain, hitting blinds nearly twice as often as you would in a standard table size.

Playing aggressively doesn’t mean playing every hand, however. Strategically deciding your course of action and picking your targets is the key to success in six max, with position playing less of a factor in a full ring of six max than it is in a full table. Get to know your opponents and actively steal blinds and push strong hands to their fullest as often as possible to put yourself in the lead and keep yourself there.

Buy the Button

Even though position amounts for less in six max Sit-n-Go games than it does in standard sized games one useful tactic that can still aid you each round is to “buy the button.” This is done when you act immediately after the big blind and are therefore the first player to wager first. By making a raise large enough to knock out the other players but small enough to keep either one or both of the blinds interested, you can then change your position from first to last on the table and work to steal higher blinds that would otherwise be minimal gains. Nevertheless, be careful when using this tactic as betting too much could easily scare away all competition while too little could leave too many people in and therefore not give you the advantage you would have otherwise.

Be the Bully

When on the edge of the “bubble”, or the final two playing slots, play as aggressively as possible to push your opponents to the fullest. Once the two individuals reach their payment thresholds they will generally become much tighter and will sacrifice many more losses to blinds if they feel that their cards are too weak. Use this to your advantage by stealing as many blinds as possible and slowing build up your own chip stack to challenge either the first or second position.

Should you find yourself in the midst of other players trying to do this to you remember to not let yourself be bullied either. Instead, take the fight to them and pressure them with moderate to strong hands as often as possible to keep your position safe and prevent others from knocking you down as well so that they could take your place in the paying bubble. Just be careful to not be too aggressive and make stupid moves against opponents that are likely to call your bluff if you have weak cards as this could easily knock you permanently out of the bubble and make all of your hard work be for naught.

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With this in mind, your goal should be to push for higher ranks and push hard. Taking small gains over time by targeting lower-ranked individuals may be fairly safe; though at the same time, this will not give you the ladder climbing power necessary to truly get to the top. Relying purely on your cards at this stage may not be the strongest move either given the level of the blinds that you will face, therefore you will need to adjust your play style in a number of different ways depending on your particular stack size at the time to truly make the final cut.

Very Short Stack

Going into the final round with a very short stack compared to your opponents leaves you very few options: fold, or go all-in. This is especially true given the level of blinds at this point as simply playing passively and waiting for just the right hand will bleed you dry. Any time you are dealt even a decent hand (high face or good pair) and no other player has gone all-in before you then push as hard and as fast as you can in order to leverage yourself into a higher position before the final rounds get far beyond what you can handle.

Short Stack

With a short (but not TOO short) stack at your command. you are afforded a bit more flexibility in terms of when and how you will choose your plays, though at the same time bear in mind that any major move upwards in the ladder will require you to go all-in and try to gain a significant enough boost to make your standings stronger. Avoid limping into pots unless you’re particularly confident in your hand and stick with raising earlier on each round than later – especially if you have developed a reputation at this point of playing tight and can use intimidation to your advantage. At the same time, however, taking too large of a risk could easily work against you as you are already at a disadvantage in terms of your available chips, so choose your actions wisely.

Medium Stack

Coming into the final stages with a medium stack puts you in the strong position of being able to have flexibility with your choices. Being able to either play tight to slowly progress or go wild for a big move, your chips place you in an ideal position for many. At the same time, however, you can also expect to be the target of larger stacked individuals as you will generally be more easy to predict than shorter stacked players who will be making wild calls and may get lucky. Keep yourself flexible and don’t stick to one particular play style in order to avoid getting yourself trapped in a position that will hurt you more than help you in both the short and long run.

Large Stack

Coming into the final rounds with a large stack allows you one of the greatest tools in poker: leverage. Use the fact that shorter stacks will be making wild calls to your advantage and get them to wager more money than they may be normally comfortable with or even go all-in, especially if they limp into a flop and show weakness. Set the pace for each round to dominate the hands and constantly work on your overall stack towards the first place win.

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Once reaching this level, many players with larger stacks will continue to play highly aggressive and make dangerous calls that they might not make otherwise in standard games, whereas mid to small stack holders will typically play tighter in order to defend their positions and try to leverage higher gains. In addition, those who have been in the tournament a considerable amount of time will generally play tighter as well as they do not wish to make their investment of hours of their time be for nothing; therefore, this can create tighter players even with considerable chip stacks at times if they are being overly cautious.

Bearing this in mind, your own plays need to be adjusted accordingly in order to compensate for whatever alterations in plays over earlier rounds may come your way. To this end, you need to begin classifying payers as one of two types: those looking for any prize they can claim and those looking to take home the big win at the end.

Those who are looking for any prize they can take home (generally small cash awards) tend to play tighter, only raising or re-raising when they have a particularly strong hand. This is done to prevent them from ever leaving the paying “bubble” while at the same time helping them to edge their way up the rankings. Those who want to go for the big win, however, will play unpredictably – sometimes looser and sometimes tighter depending on the particular situation at the time. If you are having difficulties remembering which player is which type throughout the game, don’t worry about taking any small notes on the subject as this is one of the many tools at your disposal during online games.

For your own plays at this point, you may want to consider becoming somewhat more aggressive yourself. This means playing strong hands (post-flop if possible) while avoiding needless risks such as bluffing or blind steals, with trying to leverage as many check-raise opportunities as possible to give yourself maximum gains with limited overall risks. Given that this is still a freeroll and somewhat earlier on in the tournament, unnecessary risks can easily be called and luck may play against you just as much as it plays for you from time to time, so unless you’re willing to risk knocking yourself out wait for the right plays and follow-through accordingly.

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With this in mind there are generally three primary approaches to playing in a freeroll tournament, with the first two being used the majority of the time. Whatever strategy you choose will generally depend upon the particular situation and your own personal play preferences, so feel free to adjust and change as you see fit throughout a tournament.

Approach #1: The Load-Up

The object of this strategy is to get all of your chips into the pot early in order to try and establish yourself in a stronger position on the table. The reason for this is that, simply put, the majority of other people are and missing out on a prime opportunity early on could cost you significantly later on down the road. While waiting for the perfect hand to appear may be good in some instances playing tight in a freeroll will put you at a disadvantage as you may end up losing substantial ground in the meantime and simply be unable to compete against players with five to ten times your chip stack against you.

The strategy is fairly straightforward as well and simply means pushing forward with most of your stack early on in order to try and come out on top. In the best-case scenario you will put yourself in a significantly strong position for plays later on, while in the worst-case scenario you will simply lose all of your chips – at which point you can rejoin later on for free (it IS a freeroll, after all).

The pros: Fast and simple, the Load-Up can be your key to success in many instances

The cons: Not suitable for many tournaments with large prizes or restricting your ability to rejoin after you are eliminated as you cannot fully leverage its advantages.

Approach #2: The Lucky Draw

The basic idea behind this approach is to see as many flops as you can in order to try and make the best hand possible at all times. This generally means avoiding play in the earliest rounds of the tournament where people tend to go wilder and begin calling every hand you are dealt later on when the plays have died down.

The premise behind this strategy is to try and become lucky with as many flops as possible, somewhat akin to the initial “Load-Up” strategy though looking at targeting plays later on to avoid needless risks.

The pros: Able to get a better idea of what lies ahead, the Lucky Draw can usually lead to better results in many cases.

The cons: If you have a bad luck streak for even a short while or are raised by someone who secured a large stack pre-flop then this may easily knock you out just as quickly as following through with the Load-Up will.

Approach #3: Patience

This strategy’s name says it all: patience. Rather than following a more hasty course of action earlier on to try and come out on top this strategy calls for a more subtle approach, sitting out on a number of plays and waiting for a stronger hand to come your way. Then, once the hand comes, playing aggressively against those with larger stacks as they are more likely to call you on your plays.

This strategy tends to work best when plays are kept up in post-flop rather than pre-flop as statistics are against you going up against someone with a large chip stack pre-flop and any major bet is a large risk. At the same time, however, if played correctly this can be a much safer way to let more aggressive players eliminate each other and make your way in at a later time to clean up whatever is left – particularly useful in the latter stages of many games.

The pros: Simple and calm, Patience can often lead to a great many rewards if you can control yourself in the earlier parts of the game.

The cons: This can easily put you at a major disadvantage in many games and may not be suitable for some instances. Use with caution.

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Freeroll tournaments are generally considered to be one of the best way to begin both a beginner bankroll as well as basic online poker skills for new online poker player as they allow exposure to countless numbers of people with a wide range of play tactics and can help you hone your own abilities without taking any risks with your own money.

This series of articles will look at now only why you should get involved in freeroll tournaments but also help provide pointers on how you should adjust your plays through various stages of the tournaments, including both early and mid games as well as the final end games should you make it that far.

Freeroll Tournaments – Why get involved?

Many people tend to avoid freeroll tournaments due to the fact that they can usually have a large number of players ranging in skill levels up and down the board, while the payoff for your overall effort is generally limited at best and restricted to minor prizes or other awards. At the same time, however, freerolls have one major advantage over any other tournaments or games available: they are free to play.

Players can utilize freeroll tournaments to either win small cash prizes (via “cash prize freerolls”) or even win your way into larger tournaments (via “satellite freerolls”), though most often beginning players tend to utilize cash prize freerolls in order to develop their own poker bankroll without needing any investment. This can be done even if you create an account for free with no initial deposit and can be a great way to develop your standings on various sites to try out their systems before you take the leap, though at the same time it may not be for everyone and it should be noted that bankroll building via freeroll tournaments may be somewhat time consuming as prizes are generally relatively small.

In the freeroll game sector, satellite tournaments are just as common as cash prize tournaments; however, these are generally not recommended for many people starting off in online gambling. This is due to the fact that satellite tournaments typically have a lower payout chance than cash prize tournaments as there are fewer overall paying seats available and a player must win consecutively not only in the qualifying satellite tournament but the following cash prize tournament. Still, the overall benefits of making it to the end are generally worth it as these tournaments typically have larger prizes up for grabs than standard cash prize tournaments.

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PokerStars has remained the top attraction for visitors by far in recent months, maintaining an average of 27,000 cash game players involved in online activities at any given time with an overall peak of 46,091. This is partly seen to be due to the fact that it is currently running one of its largest attractions, the World Championship of Online Poker (commonly known as the WCOOP). This has guaranteed a total of over $50,000,000 in prize money being distributed throughout the tournament events, with a grand prize of $10,000,000 up for grabs in the main event. Full Tilt and Party Poker along with iPoker followed PokerStars to round off the top four ranked websites in their respective order, making it the 11th consecutive week that that all four have remained in the same slots without changing top positions. All websites saw a boost in overall players for the week, with the second-ranked Full Tilt showing a weekly average of 17,400 and a total peak of 28,000 players.

In fact, across the board for all of the top 10 poker sites operated worldwide a net increase was seen, with some contenders for the top site title such as the Cereus Network fluctuating greatly from day to day between 6th and 8th place in the rankings scale. Particular interest has also been paid recently to the French market, with PokerScout moving a portion of its tracking to monitor operations in the newly developing French sector as more and more casinos expand online into the virtual environment. Winamax.fr, for instance, has recently moved up to the 12th rank worldwide in terms of regular players, seeing an average of 1,380 throughout the day and a peak of 3,254. PokerStars.fr, however, still leads the French market and ranks 10th overall in the world with an average of 1,520 players a day.

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The four men worked together to take the quarter million dollars.  Two of the masked men held hostages and kept watch while one held an open bag for money to be dropped into while the fourth man demanded the money from employees.  Then, there was also a fifth person waiting outside the casino in a getaway car ready for the four other masked men inside to come out.

The managing director of the broken into resort, Gran Melia Golf Resort, which is in Rio Grande, released all of this information on Tuesday regarding the robbery.  The robbery apparently happened sometime around 11 p.m. on Monday night so there weren’t a lot of people playing between the slot machines and blackjack tables.

It is something that doesn’t happy very often but definitely left people nervous and frightened.  Cameras did catch sight of the masked robbers and an investigation is underway but at this time no has been arrested.

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How do you get in Sunday Millions Event powered by PokerStars?

The first thing that you will need to do is to create an account and make a deposit; however, you have to download PokerStars first and you’ll need to do it through PokerNews to prove eligibility for the freeroll event.  The next thing on your list of to-do’s is to earn 250 VVP’s during the entire month of July and voila! You are qualified.

When does the Sunday Million Freeroll Event take place?

The freeroll tournament takes place at 14:35 EDT on August 8.

How do I register?

Anyone that wants to participate in the freeroll tournament August 8 will need to manually register after July 29.

Don’t worry that it is close to the end of the month.  Download PokerStars via PokerNews and get started earning your VVP’s to become eligible.  Hurry and good luck!

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The online poker room site claims that they have bonuses, promotions, and rewards for the beginner and VIP alike.  They welcome pretty much any player from any country to come play at their online poker room.

One of the best things about Cake Power Network that online poker players like, which is relevant with their entire network as well as UnleashedPoker.com, online poker players can change their screen name sporadically – in fact, every week – every seven days.  This allows players creating rivals in their opponents can keep their identity hidden rather than one another lurking after the other to try to beat them at another game of poker whenever possible.

Get your hands on the bonus that UnleashedPoker.com is offering right now – 100% sign-up bonus for up to $600.

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Online invitations to May’s extravaganza have been posting on sites such as TwoPlusTwo and invite players to “Compete in this prestigious event.” The man, after whom the event is named, Phil Ivey, is himself a celebrated seven-time bracelet winner and he also reached the final table of last year’s World Series of Poker Main Event. His excellence and tenacity in all types of contests, from cash games to tournaments, and stretching through almost every type and hybrid of the wonderful game that is poker have all contributed to making Ivey among the most dominant and respected players currently playing.

Friday May 21st will see a cocktail reception that will mark the tournament’s registration, and both of these events will take place at Aria’s Deuce Lounge. On May 22nd the $1 million event itself will take place and will conclude with the tournament winner playing against Ivey himself heads-up for a mouth-watering $250,000. The tournament runner-up will win an enticing $70,000 in cash, third place will net $40,000, fourth position $35,000, fifth place will take home $25,000, sixth place will net $15,000, with the seventh and eighth-placed players boosting their bank balances by $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.

The big clash between Ivey and the winner of the tournament for the quarter of a million dollar prize will happen in the Ivey room immediately after play is concluded. In order to knock out Ivey the player will be required to oust the player that many believe is currently poker’s finest all-round performer, holder of seven WSOP bracelets and poker’s all-time highest money winner.

The Aria itself is owned by MGM mirage and MGM also own many other casinos both in Las Vegas and around the world. The venue often plays host to a clutch of top poker pros and also boasts ‘Bobby’s Room”, which demands a minimum $20,000 buy-in and features two tables.

Aria itself also has a 24-table poker room and plays host to a full range of poker and poker hybrid games. The Aria Casino poker room opened in December 2009 to great acclaim and there is absolutely no question that May’s events should be among the most exciting in the world of poker for some time.

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