Full Tilt Poker Report: Sit and Go Tournament Strategy - Single and Multitable Play

Sit and go tournaments (STT’s) are the best way to learn poker, advance your game, and build a bankroll online. At Full Tilt Poker however, this is even more applicable because of the blind and prize structures. If you are playing in a certain circuit as well, Full Tilt offers some of the best note taking features on your opponents, whereby this extra information will allow you to make a move with weak hole cards on occasion.

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When I first sat at a Full Tilt sit and go table, I was shocked to find the blind levels raise every 5 minutes! I actually thought I had sat a turbo table in error, but when I investigated further I pleasantly discovered that the actual blinds raise in very small increments. I was used to the Party Poker scenario where blinds virtually doubled every time, putting all kinds of pressure to make a move with sub-par hole cards. Full Tilt increments go in very small raises whereby after a full hour of play the blinds are still a reasonable 150/300. With accelerated online play, that means you could have seen up to 100 hands in that hour, which is plenty of time to watch the loose players kill themselves off while you push your solid hands and remain a competitive chip stack by staying out of the action and multi-way pots. Read more...

Full Tilt Poker Report: Moving Up a Level

Moving up a level at Full Tilt Poker can be an exciting proposition but not one without peril. It may have taken you weeks, or even months of extreme patience and dedication to achieve a level of security in your bankroll that allows you to move up a level, but there are certain things you should do before making the jump. You can save a lot of painful money losing sessions by actually watching the games before playing on them, where too, you can start your note taking on some of the players as they have probably not been in your circuit and there will be a lot of blanks to fill in. As well, this will give you an accurate handle on your bankroll and the true pressure it’s going to be under.

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It doesn’t matter if you’re moving from 5 buck STT’s to 10 buck STT’s or 10/20 hold’em to 20/40 hold’em, you will need advance scouting, and that demands you simply watch the tables you are going to be playing on. Watching involves thinking, analyzing, and guessing at each pot. Your job here is to develop your hand reading skills while being able to decipher who really holds a strong hand, or who is simply making a position play. When I watch games, I try to put the players on hands and see how many or how close I can come. The more you can do this, the more you save on calling poor bets. Money saved in poker, is money earned. After awhile, you will be proud at how many times you can be dead-on when someone turns over their hand. This is so powerful because when you actually do sit at the table, you will not be in awe, or be too sheepish to play your strong hands, and other players will know in short order they can’t run you over.

Full Tilt Poker Report : Games Available

Hold'em

Limit or No limit, like any other poker room, this is the game of choice by all amateurs and professionals. But there are plenty of reasons to learn other games. Most pros know at least one other game besides hold'em. When game selection is more profitable in one game than the other, they will sit at the profitable table, not choose by game. As well, when in the WSOP, there are many other tournaments with smaller buy-ins that can be very profitable to seasoned pros.

Omaha

A flop game like Hold'em as well, except more cards (4) and thus, more drawing opportunities. You'll know when you are up against a rookie in this game because most hands in Omaha look good, but they truly are not, and getting trapped with the second best hand is very common. The hardest adjustment players have to make here is remembering they have to use 2 cards from their 4 - no more, no less, and combine them with 3, and only 3 community cards.

Omaha H/L (or Omaha 8)

This game is growing quickly in popularity and should be your first choice in learning a new game, because there is enough interest in it across many sites and live poker rooms to rake in profits. It is a tricky drawing game that takes quite a bit of patience, but once understood you could be well ahead of your opponents who think they can come into such a game and bulldoze it like hold'em. Not going to happen. By and large a quality card game, with very little bluffing. There is a high hand like as in Omaha, but the tricky part comes if there is a qualifying low hand as well. This often results split pot, between multiple players.

Stud

Seven card stud doesn't have any community cards like hold'em and omaha, but a series of 3 hole cards and 4 up cards to each player. Starting hands should be really strong here, and so should your observation skills becuase your outs in this game are often part of a hand that one of your opponents already folded! So multi-tabling is not reccomended. Stud is a popular game amonsgt the poker purists, and was the game of choice before hold'em started taking over after the WSOP adopted it as the game to decide a champion in the early 70's. The betting rounds are more numerous and complicated, so your attention to detail is paramount in this game. You will find the likes of Lederer, ferguson, Bloch, and Ivey at these tables.

Stud H/L (or Stud 8)

Talk about possible outs! With a high and low hand on vertually pot, you not only have to watch for staright and flush draws, but also 2s, 3s and 4s, for low hand draws. Wild game with lots of multi-player pots, and infinite outs.

Razz

Razz is seven card stud played for low -- in other words, instead of the highest hand winning, the lowest hand wins the pot. The lowest hand in Razz is A-2-3-4-5, because straights and flushes don't count against a hand being low, and aces are counted as low. The ace to five straight is also called "the bike" or "the wheel." 

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H.O.R.S.E.

HORSE is a mixed game, which is played as a fixed-limit game on Full Tilt. Each letter stands for a different game, and the game changes every time the level changes in a tournament.

The five games are:
H = Hold'em
O = Omaha High Low (8 or better)
R = Razz
S = Seven Stud High
E = Seven Stud High Low (8 or better)

Full Tilt Poker doesn't currently offer HORSE as a side game, because it would be too easy for players to sit out during their weaker games, and only play their stronger games.

Full Tilt Poker doesn't currently offer HORSE as a Sit & Go, because there is not enough time between levels, so you might only play a few hands of a certain game before the game changes.

I have seen Andy Bloch in HORSE tourneys on Full Tilt Poker, and apparently he made the final table at the WSOP HORSE $50,000 buy-in. Nice. You might want to approach learning this game, one game at a time. Being fairly new on the poker scene, you will be up against some inexperienced players just like yourself, so tight is right until you get the intricacies down right.